Alabama City Leader Tommy Bryant won’t apologize after using the n-word at a board meeting

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Tarrant, Ala. – A white city leader who was videotaped using racial slurs toward blacks said during a council meeting that he would not apologize, and might run for mayor. Others are calling for his resignation.

Tarrant City Council member Tommy Bryant told the media that his use of the word on Monday night reflected something the city’s black mayor, Wayman Newton, had said during a previous private meeting.

During a public hearing, Bryant used slander to refer to a black council member, Veronica Freeman. Before the explosion broke out, Bryant was asked by neighbors about controversial social media posts his wife allegedly made about race, CBS affiliate WIAT-TV reports.

After being questioned, Bryant stood up and could be heard saying, “n word. n word. Let’s get to n word. Hello. Do we have house n ***** here?? Hey. Would you please stand up?” Bryant said.

Some in the audience gasped for his use of the slander, which was broadcast on Facebook Live, left Freeman in tears, but Bryant did not apologize.

“I did what needed to be done,” Bryant told WIAT-TV. “It had to shine a light on what kind of person the mayor is.”

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The mayor said the video speaks for itself, and in an interview with al.com, he denied using the same insults that Bryant had said during the meeting.

When asked if he was a racist, Bryant objected.

He told WVTM, “According to your definition of the word racist. What a lot of the public’s definition is, I might be a racist. But by the true definition of a racist, it’s not at all like that.”

The NAACP in Alabama called for Bryant’s resignation, saying he had “disgraced himself and tarnished the position he held.”

“We’re asking Governor Ivey to do this immediately so this doesn’t become who Alabama is…The world looks at what this racist said, and now that’s the face of the state of Alabama,” said Benard, president of the Alabama NAACP. Similton. https://t.co/4zJHn5BTof

– CBS 42 (@CBS_42) July 21, 2021

While the city’s elections are nonpartisan in Alabama, the state’s Democratic Party issued a statement calling for Bryant’s resignation, and the Alabama Republican Party noted Mayor Newton as a Republican and said Bryant’s statement was “completely unacceptable.”

WIAT-TV reached out to Newton, but declined to be interviewed and said the video of Monday’s meeting “speaks for itself.”

Tarrant, which borders Birmingham, has a population of about 6,100 and about 53% black, according to census statistics.

Wynette Bonham, who is black and also identified as a member of the LGBTQ+ community, said WIAT Bryant should resign.

“I was like this guy who’s supposed to serve our communities? Like, is that supposed to be our representation, has his own territory at Tarrant? No,” Bonham said.

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