Virginia Governor Apologizes for Racist Yearbook Photo

Virginia Governor Ralph Northam apologized on Friday for a photograph on his 1984 medical school yearbook page showing two people at a party in racist garb, one smiling and in blackface and standing next to someone in a Ku Klux Klan costume.

Northam, a Democrat, in his statement of apology indicated that he was one of the people in the photo, but did not state which one. His spokeswoman did not immediately respond to requests for further comment.

There was swift reaction condemning Northam, with some people calling for him to resign, including two recently announced Democratic candidates for president, Sen. Kamala Harris, former HUD Secreary Julian Castro, Sen. Cory Booker and Sen. Elizabeth Warren.

"I am deeply sorry for the decision I made to appear as I did in this photo and for the hurt that decision caused then and now," Northam said in his statement.

“This behavior is not in keeping with who I am today and the values I have fought for throughout my career in the military, in medicine, and in public service. But I want to be clear, I understand how this decision shakes Virginians’ faith in that commitment."

The Virginia-Pilot on its website said it obtained a copy of the photo from the Eastern Virginia Medical School library.

Northam said it would take time and effort to heal the damage.

"The first step is to offer my sincerest apology and to state my absolute commitment to living up to the expectations Virginians set for me when they elected me to be their Governor.”

As calls for his resignation grew, Northam released a video apology making much the same statement as the earlier apology.

CALLS TO RESIGN

Harris, a first-term senator who is the daughter of a black father from Jamaica and an Indian mother, said on Twitter that Northam should resign. "Leaders are called to a higher standard, and the stain of racism should have no place in the halls of government," she said.

Castro, a former mayor of San Antonio, Texas, and the grandson of a Mexican immigrant, said in a tweet that Northam's "behavior was racist and unconscionable."

Derrick Johnson, chief executive of the NAACP, said on Twitter that "Black face in any manner is always racist and never okay," saying that was why the NAACP was calling on Northam to resign.

Planned Parenthood, one of Northam's key supporters during his political career, also called for his resignation on Friday night, as did The Richmond Times-Dispatch Newspaper in a scathing editorial.

"We all act foolishly in our youth," the newspaper wrote. "But a college graduate, studying to be a physician, in a state with Virginia’s troubled racial history, should know better than to reduce that history to a callous joke. The photograph reveals a lack of adult judgment that is disturbing.

"It does not erase Northam's service in the military or his compassion as a physician. It does, however, strongly suggest that he should, for the good of Virginia, step down from its highest office and allow Lt. Gov. Justin Fairfax to succeed him."

Northam, a pediatric neurologist, graduated from Norfolk medical school in 1984 and did his undergraduate work at Virginia Military Institute.

The statement capped a tough week for the governor after Republicans accused him of advocating infanticide in response to comments Northam made defending a bill that would have lifted restrictions on later-term abortions.

Northam, 59 and an Army veteran, was elected Virginia governor in 2017 after spending the previous decade in Virginia's state legislature as a senator.

The origins of blackface date back to 19th century minstrel shows, when white actors covered themselves in black grease paint that caricatured the singing and dancing of slaves.