Many continue to call for the resignation of Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam over a recently discovered photograph of him wearing highly racist garb in a 1984 medical school yearbook.
Northam aired a televised apology on Friday that acknowledged that he is one of the two men in the racist yearbook photo — one in blackface and the other in a Ku Klux Klan robe.
But by Saturday afternoon, there were reports that he does not think it was him in the photo.
Northam has already faced calls that he steps down from former vice president Joe Biden, former Virginia Governor, Sen. Kamala Harris, Sen. Cory Booker, Sen. Tim Scott, and Virginia’s two Democratic U.S. senators, Mark Warner, and Tim Kaine among many more.
NAACP President Derrick Johnson said, “Black face in any manner is always racist and never okay.”
“No matter the party affiliation, we can not stand for such behavior,” he tweeted, adding that the organization was calling for Northam’s departure.
A second yearbook photo is from Northam’s time at the Virginia Military Institute, which makes its yearbooks available online. Page 90 of the 1981 edition shows the nicknames “Goose” and “Coonman” underneath Northam’s school photo.
Northam has yet to address the VMI yearbook.
If Northam resigns, this could propel Lt. Gov. Justin Fairfax, a Black Democrat, into the governorship. Fairfax is only the second African-American to win statewide office in Virginia.
Northam beat Republican Ed Gillespie, who was backed by President Donald Trump, for the governorship in 2017.
