An officer from Florida’s only predominantly black borough resigned after a photo emerged of him wearing a Ku Klux Klan outfit to a Halloween party.
Jeffery Moore, a former Treasury Department employee who was recruited by Gov. Ron DeSantis to join the Gadsden County Commissioners in July, abruptly resigned last week after the photo circulated around the county, the Tallahassee Democrat reports.
The shocking photo shows Moore partying in a KKK robe and hood at an undated Halloween party while other guests dance around him.
Local religious leaders are now asking Moore and DeSantis to explain the image’s origins and to officially confirm or deny that it is Moore in the costume.
Jeffery Moore, a former Gadsden County Commissioner, resigned last week after photos circulated of him wearing a KKK outfit to an undated Halloween party
Moore (centre) was sworn in just two months ago (pictured) and is yet to speak out about the photo, which caused an uproar in his community
Moore was appointed to the position by Gov. Ron DeSantis (above). This is the second such incident after photos of DeSantis’ secretary of state with a black face surfaced
Moore submitted his letter of resignation to the governor’s office last week without issuing a statement or mentioning the photo that has been circulating around his county.
“Please accept this notice of my resignation effective September 23, 2022 from the Gadsden County Board of County Commissioners,” Moore wrote. ‘Thank you for the opportunity to take on this position, but for personal reasons I can no longer continue.’
Moore, the only Republican on the five-member commissioner board, also withdrew his campaign for the District 2 race this November.
Moore has not spoken publicly about his resignation or the photo, and both he and the DeSantis office did not immediately respond to ‘s request for comment.
Both offices noted that they were busy dealing with Hurricane Ian, which slammed into Florida with winds up to 155 miles per hour.
Local residents serving the predominantly black county have called out Moore after being made aware of the photos’ existence.
Gadsden County Commissioner Brenda Holt, who worked with Moore, said she received several calls from outraged residents before someone texted her a photo of it.
“I really have this gut feeling,” Holt told the Tallahassee Democrat, noting that even college students had reached out to her. “It’s just total disrespect.”
“People are upset,” she added. “I don’t know the story of this photo, but I do know that people depend on us in politics to do better.”
Local pastor Tracy Stallworth, who is seeking answers about Moore’s resignation, told the local outlet that she was shocked to see the photo.
“It’s a very sad day in our history and a sad time for this county … the blackest county in the state,” he said. ‘It’s not OK.’
Stallworth said she wanted to give Moore a chance to explain himself and confirm if it’s really him in the photo.
NAACP Tallahassee Chapter resident Mutaqee Akbar slammed DeSantis for Moore’s appointment.
“I’m not surprised that Governor DeSantis would appoint someone with that ideology,” Akbar told Politico. “Even if they didn’t know about the picture, I imagine that’s the kind of person he chooses.”
Florida Secretary of State Michael Ertel resigned in 2019 after photos surfaced showing him black-faced at a 2005 Halloween party (Ertel above in Tallahassee Democrat story).
This is not the first such incident in the Sunshine State.
In 2019, then-Florida Secretary of State Michael Ertel, another DeSantis appointee, resigned after photos of the black-faced politician surfaced at a 2005 Halloween party.
In the pictures, Ertel, 52, is dressed like the highly lewd Mammie character with a black face, red lipstick and a New Orleans Saints headscarf.
The Republican politician then ended it with fakes and a shirt that read “Katrina Victims,” which was clearly meant to mock the victims of the disaster just two months after the storm devastated the Louisiana coast.
Like Moore, Ertel’s new position was short-lived, serving just a few weeks after being appointed by DeSantis.