Virginia governor's yearbook page includes blackface, KKK costume



NORFOLK, Va. - Virginia Governor Ralph Northam medical school yearbook page includes an image of one person in blackface and another wearing a Ku Klux Klan robe, according to WTKR.

The photo, which appears on his page in an Eastern Virginia Medical School yearbook from 1984, shows two people but it's not clear whether either one is Northam.

An accompanying quote under the photo reads: "There are more old drunks than old doctors in this world so I think I'll have another beer."

A WTKR reporter went to the EVMS library in Norfolk Friday afternoon and found the page on which the photo appears.



WTKR has reached out to the governor's office for comment and has yet to hear back.

House of Delegates Speaker Kirk Cox (R-Colonial Heights), Senate Majority Leader Thomas K. Norment, Jr. (R-James City), House Majority Leader Todd Gilbert (R-Shenandoah), and Senate Rules Committee Chairman Ryan T. McDougle (R-Hanover) today issued the following statement:

"This is a deeply disturbing and offensive photograph in need of an immediate explanation by the Governor."


The latest controversy comes one day after his office addressed backlash for supporting a state measure that would significantly loosen restrictions on late-term abortions in Virginia.