1. Virginia’s lieutenant governor, Justin E. Fairfax, above, has refused to resign in the face of sexual assault allegations, giving Democrats an excruciating choice: whether to impeach a black leader at a moment when the state’s two other top leaders, both white, are also resisting calls to quit after admitting to racist behavior.

A second woman said on Friday that Mr. Fairfax had sexually assaulted her, echoing an accusation made earlier in the week. Both accusations came within a few days of Gov. Ralph Northam and Attorney General Mark R. Herring acknowledging that they wore blackface as young men. How Virginia Democrats handle these three state officials — who swept into office in 2017 on the first wave of backlash after President Trump’s election — will reverberate beyond the state’s borders.

We examine how Virginia’s history of race and politics is now under intense scrutiny and give a day-by-day breakdown of the scandals.