N.C. official quits over racist e-mail

RALEIGH, N.C., May 6 (UPI) -- The head of the North Carolina Alcoholic Beverage Commission has resigned in the wake of revelations he forwarded a racist e-mail.

Doug Fox sent Gov. Sonny Perdue a letter Tuesday that said it was "time to surrender the helm to someone new," The Charlotte Observer reported. He did not mention the e-mail that he received and passed on to a liquor industry lobbyist 10 days after Barack Obama won the presidential election.

The e-mail showed the White House with the South Lawn converted into a large watermelon patch and the headline "There goes the neighborhood …" printed above. The subject line was "How true."

A Perdue spokesman said the resignation was effective immediately, with the governor turning down Fox's offer to stay on to help his successor during the transition.

"E-mails and images of this nature are offensive and unacceptable," the governor said in a statement.

At least one other public official has lost his job because of the e-mail. The mayor of Los Alamitos, Calif., quit in February.