The Boston Police Department is apologizing Monday morning after it faced scathing backlash for honoring Red Auerbach, a white man, in a Black History Month tweet Sunday night.
The tweet posted to the Boston Police Department's account began by saying, “In honor of #BlackHistoryMonth,” but goes on to celebrate the accomplishments of Auerbach, who was white.
"We pay tribute to @celtics legend #RedAuerbach for being the 1st @NBA coach to draft a black player in 1950, field an all African-American starting five in 1964 and hire the league's 1st African-American head coach (Bill Russell) in 1966," the tweet read.
The tweet was deleted about an after it was posted after the backlash.
"Only in #Boston do the @bostonpolice honor Red Auerbach for #blackhistorymonth. So we already have the shortest month and now this," Boston City Councilor Tito Jackson tweeted Sunday night. "Please file this under Hell Nah aka Not Having it aka Not Ok. #bospoli #Boston #mapoli."
Boston police later tweeted out an acknowledgement of Bill Russell, then apologized for the Auerbach tweet just after midnight Monday.
"BPD realizes that an earlier tweet may have offended some and we apologize for that," the tweet read. "Our intentions were never to offend. It has been taken down."
– WFXT has reached out to the Boston Police Department for comment but has not yet head back.
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