Ralph Northam asks for ‘opportunity to earn forgiveness’ but also recalls darkening skin for Michael Jackson costume

This article is more than 1 year old

This article is more than 1 year old

Virginia’s governor, Ralph Northam, denied he was one of the people dressed in a Ku Klux Klan uniform or in blackface in a photo from his medical school yearbook page, amid pressure to resign.



Delivering a statement in Richmond on Saturday afternoon, the Democrat conceded it would be difficult for many people to believe he was not in the photo when just 24 hours earlier he had said he was.

Virginia governor Ralph Northam under pressure to resign over racist photo Read more

Nonetheless, he said: “I am not either of the people in the photo.”

He also admitted to darkening his skin with shoe polish when he was young, to enter a dance contest in San Antonio, Texas, dressed as Michael Jackson.

Northam said he was ignoring the chorus of people calling for his resignation because that would be taking the easy way out.

“I’m asking for the opportunity to earn your forgiveness,” he said.

There was little forgiveness in the air in national and state political circles. Most 2020 Democratic contenders demanded Northam’s resignation and before he spoke Susan Swecker, chair of the Democratic party of Virginia, said: “We made the decision to let Governor Northam do the correct thing and resign this morning – we have gotten word he will not do so. We stand with Democrats across Virginia and the country calling him to immediately resign.”

The photo was included on Northam’s 1984 yearbook page from Eastern Virginia Medical School and was made public on Friday. The Democratic governor then confirmed he was one of the two people in the photo, but did not identify which individual he was.

That certainty had apparently dissolved by Saturday, when Northam was first reported to be making calls to obtain more information about the photo and then said neither of the people in the black-and-white image was actually him.

“My first impression was this couldn’t be me,” Northam told reporters at the Executive Mansion.

Northam claimed he saw the yearbook for the first time on Friday and had not been involved in its production. He said he spoke to classmates from the time to confirm his suspicion he was not in the photo.

“I am not and will not excuse the content of the photo,” Northam said. “It was offensive, racist and despicable.”

Northam said he was certain the photo was not of him because he vividly remembered another damning incident, when he participated in a dance contest in Texas where he performed as Michael Jackson and darkened his skin using shoe polish. He said his memory of that event, which he won, was so vivid he was certain he was not in the yearbook photo because he did not remember the party or dressing in those costumes.

“I didn’t realize at the time it was so offensive, as I have since learned,” Northam said.

He also faced questions about the yearbook listing one of his nicknames as “coonman”, a racial slur. Northam said reporters would have to ask the two people who called him that how they arrived at that nickname and that his more common nickname was “Goose”.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Ralph Northam’s page in his 1984 Eastern Virginia Medical School yearbook. Photograph: AP

Amidst swirling controversy on Saturday, the Virginia state senator Louise Lucas told the Washington Post Northam had called her to say he didn’t think he was either of the people in the photo.

“He should have said that yesterday, then,” she said.

On Friday, Big League Politics, a website founded by former employees of the far-right Breitbart News, released the photo. A whirlwind of condemnations followed. Northam quickly and repeatedly apologized. Then, on Saturday, he changed his story.

Northam was still taking questions from reporters when the Virginia legislative black caucus (VLBC) reaffirmed its call for him to resign, which it first made after meeting with the governor on Friday.

“In light of his public admission and apology for his decision to appear in the photo, he has irrevocably lost the faith and trust of the people he was elected to serve,” the VLBC said. “Changing his public story today now casts further doubt on his ability to regain that trust.”

The Democratic National Committee (DNC) chairman, Tom Perez, said in a statement released during the press conference that he had spoken to Northam in the morning and believed he should step down.

“Virginians and people across the country deserve better from their leaders, and it is clear that Ralph Northam has lost their trust and his ability to govern,” Perez said.

Before the press conference, calls for Northam’s resignation had poured in from Virginia’s top Democrats and Republicans, as well as the Democratic presidential candidates Kamala Harris, Elizabeth Warren, Cory Booker, Kirsten Gillibrand and Julián Castro.

On Saturday morning, while a small group of protesters stood outside the Virginia governor’s mansion, Joe Biden and Bernie Sanders joined the chorus insisting on Northam’s resignation.

“There is no place for racism in America,” former vice-president Biden tweeted.

He then offered support for the lieutenant governor, Justin Fairfax, who is line to take the governorship if Northam resigns. Fairfax, the second black person to be elected to statewide office in Virginia, has not publicly commented on the photograph.

Biden said: “Governor Northam has lost all moral authority and should resign immediately, Justin Fairfax is the leader Virginia needs now.”