By Terrica Hendrix
News-Leader staff
Blevins School Board member Ted Bonner publicly apologized Monday evening for his Halloween costume.
The public apology was presented as an idea to Bonner during the January meeting Blevins School Board by fellow board member, Carl McGill, and Bonner agreed.
The public apology was made in the Blevins school gymnasium and Bonner stood at center court with a microphone in hand. There was some audio issues at the beginning of Bonner’s one-minute speech. He told the crowd of at least 35 people that he was sorry “if he offended anyone” with the blackface costume he wore at a Halloween party last October. He added that he has sought forgiveness from God and has been forgiven by Him and that if anyone cannot forgive Bonner, then it’s between them and God.
“I haven’t heard his apology and its not relevant to our efforts,” Rizelle Aaron, president of the Arkansas State Conference of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), said Monday evening. Aaron, who did not attend the event, was asked if Bonner’s apology would stop the organization’s efforts for seeking his resignation from the school board.
“The only way we will back off is if asked by the people in the Blevins community that asked for our assistance,” confirmed Aaron.
Bonner has been at the center of controversy since several pictures of him in “blackface” at a Halloween party last year went viral and drew national media attention. In the pictures from the party, Bonner is seen wearing overall, a straw hat and holding a sign that read, “Blak (sic) Lives Matters.”
