Former SC school board member apologizes for racist emails

The member of the Florence District 1 school board who resigned after it was revealed he had sent racist emails has reportedly apologized.

Former board member Glenn Odom, who resigned on Oct. 2, called African-American members of the board “Darkies” in emails sent to a district office employee.

Odom apologized during a prayer gathering Friday, according to scnow.com. In that report, Odom said he was brought up to respect all people.

Odom sent the emails to Kim Hoffman on Aug. 29, and she reported them to superintendent Randy Bridges, according to online reports.

In Odom’s first email to Hoffman, he was looking for a ride to a board meeting. He asked Hoffman to email the request to the rest of the board members, before saying, “Just don’t send it to the darkies,” according to wbtw.com.

About 30 minutes later, Odom sent another message to Hoffman.

“That was in jest about the darkies, just don’t send it to HD Pipkins,” according to wbtw.com.

The “HD” designation was also a racial slur, according to Alexis Pipkins, another board member. He said it stands for “head darky,” according to wbtw.com.

“My name is Alexis D. Pipkins but H is not my first initial,” Pipkins said in wbtw.com report. “There is no interpretation that the H was implying AD. It means Head Darky.”

In spite of the apology, Pipkins remains upset. He said the apology isn’t enough and wants a state and federal investigation into possible discrimination, according to The Associated Press.

This story was originally published October 14, 2017 at 4:14 PM with the headline "Former SC school board member apologizes for racist emails."