Republican U.S. Senate candidate Rand Paul refuted recent reports that he advocated for the repeal of the 1964 Civil Rights Act.

“It’s never been my position, and is not my position,” Paul said at a Bowling Green Noon Lions Club luncheon Tuesday.

Paul’s comments Tuesday came after post-election interviews on National Public Radio and MSNBC in which Paul insinuated that the federal government shouldn’t have the authority to enforce desegregation at privately owned businesses.

What followed was a torrent of news stories, opinion columns and political cartoons about Paul and his statements.

“I think those of you in my hometown hopefully know me better than what’s been said about me, and I will go to great lengths to prove to people that I’m not whatever I’m being depicted in cartoons and thousands and thousands of stories across the country,” said Paul, a local eye surgeon.

Paul said he’s planning a campaign staff shake-up after the interviews that dismayed many fellow Republicans.

Campaign manager David Adams, who had been a Republican blogger in Nicholasville before joining up, will remain – though perhaps in a different role, Paul said.

Paul, who declined to provide more details, won the GOP nomination last week with a campaign staff largely comprised of political novices and volunteers.

Adams would only say, “I don’t have any comment about that yet.”

A former aide to Paul’s father, Texas congressman and former Republican presidential candidate Ron Paul, has become increasingly visible in the Senate campaign. Jesse Benton, who was communications director for Ron Paul’s last presidential bid, has been by the younger Paul’s side at most of his recent campaign events.

Speaking to an audience of about 30 at Cambridge Market and Cafe, Paul said he did 20 interviews the morning after the election.

“I think we did one too many,” Paul said to laughs from the crowd.

Paul said his comments on the Civil Rights Act were distorted. He said Kentucky Attorney General Jack Conway, his Democratic opponent in the Senate race, was responsible for starting the accusations.

“Not only do you have to run and defend your position, you have to run and defend the position they make up for you,” Paul said at his first public appearance since the interviews. “It’s even worse when it’s an emotional issue like race that tends to divide people … and for many of us, hard to imagine what it was like in the 1960s and the 1950s.”

Cardine Harrison doesn’t have to imagine. He was there.

Harrison lived in Birmingham, Ala., during the height of civil unrest over segregation during the 1960s. Despite the presence of a high school a block from his house, Harrison said he had to walk more than mile to go to a segregated school. He was even jailed with noted activist Dick Gregory for protesting against segregation.

Harrison said he doesn’t think Paul is a racist, and supports Paul’s right to free speech, but doesn’t necessarily support his views.

“I support his right to say his feelings and his opinion,” said Harrison, a social worker at The Salvation Army. “I, on the other hand, experienced those things. I know the oppression that we felt in the environment we grew up in.”

Still, Harrison said Paul could make a good senator.

“I feel that if he had the opportunity to change the laws that are unequal, he would probably do the right thing,” Harrison said.

That was a sentiment Paul tried to get across during his speech, even referencing Martin Luther King Jr. several times.

“I was raised in a family that said you judge people the same way Martin Luther King said you judge people, by their character, not by the color of their skin,” Paul said.

The majority of Paul’s remarks focused on the issues that helped him defeat Secretary of State Trey Grayson by 23 percentage points in the May 18 primary. Paul talked about term limits for members of Congress, a waiting period between the time a bill is drafted and the time it could be passed, and a legally mandated balanced budget.

“We face some very sincere problems that have nothing to do with being a Republican or a Democrat,” Paul said.

— The Associated Press contributed to this article