Papa John's founder John H. Schnatter said his resignation as chairman "was a mistake," according to a letter to the company's board reviewed by The Wall Street Journal.
Mr. Schnatter resigned as chairman of the board after he apologized for using a racial epithet earlier this year, the company said in a July 11 statement. The resignation came hours after Mr. Schnatter apologized for using the racial slur in a comment about black people during a May conference call, according to The New York Times.
In his letter to the board, Mr. Schnatter questioned how the leaders handled their investigation into his use of the racial slur. He accused the board of requesting his resignation "without apparently doing any investigation" into the incident, according to WSJ's reading of the memo.
Mr. Schnatter stepped down as Papa John's CEO in December 2017 after he blamed the National Football League, with which his company had a sponsorship deal, for slow sales due to the league's handling of players kneeling during the national anthem, according to the NYT.
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