LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) -- Kosair Charities board member Jerry Ward retired from the position on Friday, Kosair Charities President Keith Inman told WDRB News.
Ward's retirement comes less than a week after he posted a comment that said "Move to Africa" during Mayor Greg Fischer’s COVID-19 Facebook livestream on Saturday, Aug. 1. Ward's comment was directly below a post from someone calling for Fischer to resign.
Ward quickly deleted his comment, which he said stemmed from "purely being frustrated with Fischer’s lack of performance."
"I made a comment — people are telling him to quit and leave town and stuff and I just made a comment, you know, move to Africa," Ward told WDRB News on Sunday, Aug. 2.
"Somebody said, 'Why did you say that?' And I said 'Well, I’ve been to Africa and it was the furthest place I could think of, to be honest with you,'" Ward added. "(I) had no idea — there wasn’t any racist comment about it."
The comment on Fischer's livestream was not Ward's first brush with social media controversy. He stepped down as chairman of Kosair Charities in 2018 after he shared a meme on social media that compared protesting students to Hitler Youth regarding a Parkland, Florida, school shooting survivor.
Regarding his comment on Fischer's livestream, Ward stood by his First Amendment right to express unhappiness with a politician’s performance.
"I made a simple comment about somebody in a political office," he told WDRB News on Aug. 2. "I thought in America we had a right to do that."
Inman told WDRB News on Sunday that the board was going to meet to discuss Ward's comment and that board members would work together to find a solution.
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- Kosair Charities chairman resigns over posts linking teen protesters with Hitler Youth
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