Bill Lee, the governor of Tennessee, said this week that he regretted attending “Old South” fraternity parties in college after a photograph surfaced from a 1980 yearbook showing him dressed as a Confederate soldier, The Tennessean reported.

The photo of Mr. Lee, a first-term Republican elected in November, shows him smiling in a Confederate uniform at Auburn University, along with another man in similar uniform and two women also dressed in period attire.

“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,” Mr. Lee said in a statement to The Tennessean, of Nashville, after the photo was discovered.

Mr. Lee, 59, did not respond to phone calls and emails requesting comment on Friday.

The governor’s statement comes as racially insensitive photographs in old yearbooks have increasingly raised demands for accountability and explanation from the prominent individuals associated with them.