N.C. Alcoholic Beverage Commission Chairman Doug Fox is out of a job today after two newspapers provided Gov. Beverly Perdue’s office with a copy of a racist photo illustration sent from Fox’s email address following last November’s election.
The email showed an altered photo of the White House with a large watermelon patch on the South Lawn. Printed above the image was the phrase: “There goes the neighborhood…”
In February, the mayor of Los Alamitos, Calif., resigned amid criticism after sending the same watermelon patch photo.
After the Charlotte Observer and the News & Observer of Raleigh contacted Gov. Perdue’s office about the email on Tuesday, the governor asked for – and received – Fox’s resignation.
According to the Observer, the email was sent from Fox’s law firm address on Nov. 14, ten days after Barack Obama was elected president. The message had been forwarded multiple times by others before reaching Fox, the Observer reported. It contained no text other than a subject line: “how true.”
Fox made no mention of the e-mail in his resignation letter, the Observer said. He was paid $110,000 last year and offered to stay on until his successor settled in. Perdue declined.
“Emails and images of this nature are offensive and unacceptable,” the governor said in a statement.
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