CASPER, Wyo. (AP) — The longtime president of the NAACP chapter in Casper has announced he is resigning after recent years of conflict.

Jimmy Simmons received national attention in 2013 after he hosted a meeting with a Ku Klux Klan representative after a string of hate crimes in Wyoming despite objections from senior NAACP officials. Simmons helped build the Casper chapter and served as its president since 2001.

Simmons says he started to become unpopular and some members did not shy away from letting him know that they no longer wanted him in office. According to Simmons, the message was clear to him when he saw an election scheduled in the organization's calendar after returning from a trip to Senegal.

Simmons says despite the controversy it caused, he does not regret meeting the KKK recruiter.

More From KGAB