GRADY COUNTY, Ga. (WTXL) - The chairman of the board of directors for an electric company in Cairo has come under fire after some members say he made racial statements at a special mediation meeting earlier this month.
On August 10th, during a buyout agreement meeting of Grady Electric Membership Corporation's General Manager, Chairman Earl Stuckey allegedly made a racial comment about an African-American woman.
According to Grady EMC members who emailed WTXL, Stuckey said something along the lines of, "She was so black, that when she got in the car, she would make the change oil light come on."
WTXL spoke to other directors on the board who were at the meeting about Stuckey's comment.
"He’s the president of the board. That shouldn't come out of anybody’s mouth. Not the Board of Directors or any manager or anything having to do with EMC," said Hestell Donaldson, the director of Grady EMC's District 3. "Nobody should get away with that. You know it’s just something you don’t say. You don’t say that."
Gordon Clyatt, another director on the board, says Stuckey's comment does not reflect the feelings of the rest of the board.
"And I just could not believe what I had just heard at a Grady EMC meeting... I was just… blown back," said Clyatt. "We have black employees. We have many hundreds, if not thousands, of black members that own the company that Earl Stuckey works for."
WTXL reached out to Stuckey who declined to comment.
