Rick Perry Hunting Ranch Name Was 'Vile,' 'Insensitive'

Rick Perry's latest controversy is actually decades old, but the name of his family's hunting ranch is sparking fury among voters and fellow politicians.

The Texas governor's 1,070-acre camp in West Texas reportedly had the name N-----head painted in large letters on a rock at its entrance for many years, according to The Washington Post, and Perry used to take visitors to the ranch for years before painting over the slur.

The ranch was first leased by Perry's father in the early 1980s, and Perry added his own name to the lease twice, once in 1997 and again in 2004.

Racially charged names were not uncommon after the pioneering of the remote areas of Far West Texas, and the state had to make a law in 1991 to rename places with offensive monikers.

Fellow presidential candidate Herman Cain, the only African American running for the Republican nomination, was outraged by the news.

My reaction is that is very insensitive, GOP contender Herman Cain said on ABC's This Week.

Since Gov. Perry has been going there for years to hunt, I think that it shows a lack of sensitivity for a long time of not taking that word off that rock and renaming the place. It's just basically a case of insensitivity.

[There] isn't a more vile, negative word than the N-word, and for him to leave it there as long as he did, until before, I hear, they finally painted over it, is just plain insensitive to a lot of black people in this country, Cain added on Fox News Sunday.

While no one has denied that the word was, at one point, on prominent display in front of the house, some have questioned the accuracy of the Washington Post story.

A number of claims made in the story are incorrect, inconsistent and anonymous, including the implication that Rick Perry brought groups to the lease when the word on the rock was still visible, Ray Sullivan, Perry's communications director, said in a statement. The one consistent fact in the story is that the word on the rock was painted over and obscured many years ago.

Perry also commented on the racial slur allegations himself, claiming that he convinced his parents to paint over the racial slur on the rock sometime in the mid-1980s.

My mother and father went to the lease and painted the rock in either 1983 or 1984, Perry wrote to The Post. This occurred after I paid a visit to the property with a friend and saw the rock with the offensive word. After my visit I called my folks and mentioned it to them, and they painted it over during their next visit.

Ever since, any time I ever saw the rock it was painted over, Perry added.

Additionally, Perry told POLITICO that he lasted visited the ranch in 2006. He also asserted online that the Perry family never actually owned or managed the property, but simply leased it.

The property is reportedly owned by the Hendricks Home for Children, a 70-year-old charity and boarding house.

The Washington Post, and in the first years of his political career, Perry used to take visitors

Follow presidential candidate Herman Cain, the only African American in the race for the Republican nomination, wasn't pleased about

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