Four decades removed from his time as a student at Auburn University, Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee says he now regrets participating in "Old South" parties with his fraternity.

Lee, who attended the public university in Alabama from 1977 until his graduation in 1981, was a member of the Kappa Alpha Order, a fraternity that lists Confederate army commander Robert E. Lee as its "spiritual founder."

At the time Lee was in college, the Kappa Alpha organization at Auburn University and at other schools around the South was known for its embrace of Confederate imagery, including displaying Confederate battle flags and members wearing Confederate army uniforms to its annual Old South formal.

Lee is pictured wearing a Confederate uniform in a 1980 Auburn University yearbook.

"I never intentionally acted in an insensitive way, but with the benefit of hindsight, I can see that participating in that was insensitive and I’ve come to regret it," Lee said in a statement in response to questions about his involvement in the fraternity's events.

Kappa Alpha's Old South parties were also held at Vanderbilt University and the University of Memphis, formerly known as Memphis State University, among other schools.

Kappa Alpha Order's national organization has since banned the display of Confederate flags, and in 2010 prohibited members from wearing Confederate uniforms at events.

Following pushback from the black student union in 1985, Auburn University's president, himself a member of Kappa Alpha, ruled that fraternities and sororities on campus could no longer display oversized Confederate battle flags, instead limiting the size of flags displayed to 5 feet by 7 feet.

GOV. BILL LEE:Tennessee Governor pictured in Auburn yearbook wearing Confederate army uniform

Governor has never worn blackface, spokesperson says

Yearbook photos from the time Lee attended and in the surrounding years show Kappa Alpha fraternity members posing in front of a large Confederate battle flag that hung from the front of the fraternity house.

Lee did not live in the university's Kappa Alpha house while attending Auburn.

While Lee's office initially said he was unaware of any photos picturing the governor in a Confederate uniform, on Thursday press secretary Laine Arnold confirmed the existence of the photo in the 1980 yearbook.

Photos of Kappa Alpha's Old South formal, an event that was well-known and documented outside of the yearbook, were obtained during a USA TODAY NETWORK review of annuals from the 1970s and 1980s at 120 schools in 25 states.

The review comes after the surfacing of a yearbook photo earlier this month that reportedly showed Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam, a Democrat, as one of two people in a photo of a man in blackface and another in a Ku Klux Klan uniform.

The discovery of the photo prompted calls for Northam's resignation from both Republicans and Democrats.

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An Auburn yearbook entry from 1977 describes Kappa Alpha's tradition of giving a call for rebel secession while parading through a street around campus.

A 1978 entry on a Kappa Alpha yearbook page references Convivium, the fraternity's annual celebration of Robert E. Lee's birthday.

While USA TODAY NETWORK reporters uncovered more than 200 examples of insensitive and racist images at schools in every state examined, the photos of students wearing blackface in Auburn University yearbooks involved members of other fraternities and sororities, and not of Kappa Alpha.

Arnold said the governor has never worn blackface or attended parties where others were doing so.

She said Lee has not taken part in other activities or organizations since college that would be considered racially insensitive or offensive.

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Lee now says state should consider adding context to bust of Confederate general

Throughout his campaign for governor, Lee insisted that a bust of Confederate Gen. Nathan Bedford Forrest should not be removed from the state Capitol, a position he says he maintains.

But the governor says he is now open to adding additional historical context.

Speaking to reporters Friday, Lee said he would like to discuss the possibility of a contextual addition next to the bust, which has been on display in the Capitol since 1978 and has been met with resistance from African-Americans since its unveiling.

Forrest, a Tennessee native, was also an early leader in the Ku Klux Klan.

In a statement, Arnold said the governor is open to working with the state's historical commission and other stakeholders on a plan to "increase historical context in our public spaces," including the Capitol.

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Brett Murphy of USA TODAY contributed to this report.

Reach Natalie Allison at nallison@tennessean.com. Follow her on Twitter at @natalie_allison.

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