After a scandal erupted around Gov. Ralph Northam of Virginia this month over a racist photograph in his 1984 medical school yearbook, reporters at USA Today set out on an ambitious review of hundreds of college yearbooks from that time.

That search of yearbooks from 120 colleges in the 1970s and ’80s found that racist imagery like the black-and-white photograph on Mr. Northam’s yearbook page — one student dressed as a Ku Klux Klan member and another in blackface — appeared on full, blatant display in dozens of the glossy publications. White students dressed up like black celebrities, smearing on shoe polish to resemble Michael Jackson, or wore Nazi uniforms to parties. In an article published on Wednesday, USA Today identified at least 200 instances of racist and derogatory images and material in yearbooks across the United States.

One example was in the 1988-89 yearbook at Arizona State University. The yearbook was edited by a 21-year-old named Nicole Carroll, who is now USA Today’s own editor in chief.