Alabama mayor quits over disparaging comments on Alabama’s Black Lives Matter video

Published 7:50 am Monday, June 29, 2020

A controversial Alabama mayor has resigned after posting disparaging comments about the University of Alabama football team voicing its support for the Black Lives Matter movement.

Carbon Hill Mayor Mark Chambers submitted his resignation letter to the city clerk on Saturday, news outlets reported. The council in the city of about 2,000 people outside Birmingham hasn’t approved it yet, but an emergency meeting will be held Wednesday.

A Facebook post from Chambers Saturday, said he was selling his photos of the Alabama football team and head coach Nick Saban because of their “sorry” political views. He said “the Tide is done in my opinion.”

In a video shared by Alabama football, Saban and players read an essay by Crimson Tide offensive lineman Alex Leatherwood, who wrote, “All lives can’t matter until Black lives matter.”

The small-town mayor previously faced scrutiny last year for complaining on social media about “baby killers” and “socialists,” saying “homosexuals lecture us on morals” and “transvestites lecture us on human biology.”

Chambers wrote: “The only way to change it would be to kill the problem out.”

Chambers initially denied the comment but later apologized. Two town council members later resigned, reportedly because they didn’t want to be associated with his comments.