@GaryChambers/Twitter
A Louisiana city official who resisted taking Robert E. Lee out of a school’s name got taken to task by a black activist, who forced her to leave a meeting in utter shame.
This epic take-down of words went down Thursday during a Baton Rouge School Board meeting, where District 8 member Connie Bernard was publicly called out by Gary Chambers Jr., who stepped to the mic and unloaded on what he described as her inherent racism.
A bit of context … part of the purpose for Thursday’s meeting was to circle back to an issue that’d been discussed recently in the community — namely, taking the “Lee” out of Lee High School, which was already a stripped-down version of Robert E. Lee High School.
Several members of the community have been calling for a full-blown name change of late, and School Board Member Bernard said last week folks offended by REL needed to brush up on their history. Welp, Mr. Chambers Jr. here had some things to say about that.
For starters, he addressed the fact that it appeared Ms. Bernard was captured on camera online shopping from her laptop during the meeting, while members of the public were airing out their grievances on the topic.
Chambers Jr. said her behavior and comments proved she was racist, and he demanded that she resign immediately. Ms. Bernard then got up and walked out of the room. She later apologized for her comments about Lee, and insisted she wasn’t online shopping … but simply came across a pop-up ad, which she wasn’t able to close fast enough.