Virginia Governor Ralph Northam's shifting story and refusal to call it quits has stunned his fellow Democrats. | Steve Helber/AP Photo Politics Northam refuses to resign but says he once did Michael Jackson blackface The embattled Democratic governor of Virginia said he was not one of the people in a racist photo in his medical school yearbook — but that he did once dress up as the pop star.

Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam wanted to make one thing clear at a Saturday press conference: he wasn’t either of the people depicted in his yearbook page in blackface or dressed in a Ku Klux Klan outfit, despite saying the day before that he was in the photo.

Then it got weirder.


In defiantly refusing a chorus of calls from state and national Democrats to resign, Northam admitted he had donned blackface before, in 1984, when the yearbook in question came out. But it was to look like Michael Jackson at a San Antonio talent show. And he talked about the difficulties of blackening white skin.

“I had the shoes. I had a glove. And I used just a little bit of shoe polish to put on my cheeks and the reason I used a very little bit because – I don’t know if anyone’s ever tried that – you cannot get shoe polish off,” he said. “I had always liked Michael Jackson. I actually won the contest because I had learned to do the moonwalk.”

Northam said he had not realized how offensive it was to darken his face to look like Jackson and distinguished the transgression from the photograph on his medical school yearbook that led to so many calls for his resignation.

“I believe then and now that I am not either of the people in that photo,” Northam said, adding that “I recognize that many people will find this difficult to believe” because the day before he admitted he was in the picture.

He said he initially thought he was neither person in the photo and could not explain why, in both a written statement and a video Friday, he never clearly said it. Northam said that, as he “reflected” with family and former classmates, he came to “vividly” believe he wasn’t in the picture.

He said he never owned the 1984 yearbook or saw it until Friday and surmised someone had made a mistake by putting the picture on the page.

Northam still said he took responsibility for it and regrets that, in another yearbook page for the Virginia Military Institute, one of his nicknames was “Coonman,” a sobriquet that he said two unnamed older classmates gave him without explanation. Northam said that he has changed, as has the culture in the 35 years since the picture was included in the yearbook.

“The person I was is not the man I am today,” Northam said. “I ask for the opportunity to ask for your forgiveness.” He said he was examining the photograph in question and may use facial recognition software to help show he wasn’t in blackface in the yearbook photo. He didn’t explain how the software would eliminate him as a suspect dressed as a Klansman whose face was hooded.

At the same time, Northam left the door open for a future resignation, saying he would “revisit” his decision to stay “if we get to the point where we’re not effective, we’re not efficient.”

Northam said it would be easy for him to resign, but he decided to take the “difficult” course to stay in office, explain what happened and use it to help discuss the toll and history of racism and bigotry in the United States and the commonwealth.

The cries for his resignation continued to pour in, from nearly all the major Democratic presidential hopefuls to the state’s legislative black caucus to national Democratic leaders to African-American activists. All had expected him to hold a press conference Saturday morning to quit. Few expected him to stay on. And no one saw the Jackson story coming.

In a major blow, Democratic Virginia Sens. Mark Warner and Tim Kaine — both former governors — released a joint statement with Rep. Bobby Scott, an African-American and prominent member of the House delegation, calling on Northam to resign, saying "the events of the past 24 hours have inflicted immense pain and irrevocably broken the trust Virginians must have in their leaders."

“He is now and forever more 'Governor Coonman,'” Ben Jealous, past president of the NAACP and former Maryland gubernatorial candidate, told POLITICO. “What’s worse: you putting this racist photograph on your medical school yearbook and not knowing if you were in blackface or dressed as the Klan, or today you wanting us to believe that you were mistaken.

"It’s on his page in his medical school yearbook," Jealous added. "Just putting it there shows he was ok with it. His explanation is not believable.”

Lt. Gov. Justin Fairfax, who would take over for Northam were he to quit, broke his silence after the press conference in a written statement in which he neither called on Northam to stay or go. But Fairfax was critical of the man he described as a “friend to me and [who] has treated my family and me with hospitality and respect.”

“I cannot condone the actions from his past that, at the very least, suggest a comfort with Virginia's darker history of white supremacy, racial stereotyping, and intimidation,” Fairfax, who is African-American, said. “At this critical and defining moment in this history of Virginia and this nation, we need leaders with the ability to unite and help us rise to the better angels of our nature.”

Meanwhile, in a remarkable rebuke, the Virginia Democratic Party issued a public statement criticizing Northam’s decision not to quit immediately.

“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 this morning,” the party said on Twitter.

The nation’s top Democrat in elected office, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, added her voice to the chorus of party leaders telling Northam to go.

“The photo is racist and contrary to fundamental American values,” she said on Twitter. “I join my colleagues in Virginia calling on Governor Northam to do the right thing so that the people of the Commonwealth of Virginia can heal and move forward."

And during Northam's press conference, Democratic National Committee Chairman Tom Perez put out a statement also calling on him to step aside.

Meanwhile, the president of Eastern Virginia Medical School issued a statement Saturday apologizing for the “shocking and abhorrent pictures” that appeared in the yearbook and said he could “I can find no explanation for how such a picture was able to be published in the past. This is a time for self-reflection and humility.”

More surprising to Democrats was word that Northam was changing his story about the racist photograph.

“We’re hearing this is his new story, that it’s not him. It’s crazy. He needs to go,” said one Virginia Democrat who heard second-hand that Northam was now claiming he wasn’t in the picture. “Everyone believes that except for him and the Republicans.”

For Republicans, Northam was receiving his comeuppance for framing his 2017 opponent, Republican Ed Gillespie, as a bigot.

Hours after the photo surfaced Friday, Northam issued a statement apologizing but stating that he planned to remain in the job.

"Earlier today, a website published a photograph of me from my 1984 medical school yearbook in a costume that is clearly racist and offensive," Northam said in a statement. "I am deeply sorry for the decision I made to appear as I did in this photo and for the hurt that decision caused then and now."

That prompted a chorus of calls to step down from Democrats, including virtually all the major candidates already or expected to run for president.

Compounding Northam’s problems: Democrats were already upset with him for the way he embraced a controversial abortion bill that put the party on the defensive. Northam’s response to the racist photo was clumsier still.

After the conservative website Big League Politics unearthed the picture, Northam’s administration said nothing for hours. Then he released a written statement, followed by a Twitter posting that had the look of a hostage video.

Then, as all the major Democratic candidates and hopefuls for president weighed in with resignation calls along with the NAACP, Democrats buzzed with word that he would hold a press conference Saturday morning. But it never happened.

Ben Crump, an African-American activist and prominent civil rights attorney, said he was surprised Northam would decide to stay and hurt his party.

“I don’t care what the governor’s story is now,” Crump said. “He was a grown man when he put this in a yearbook. And if the Democratic Party can’t stand against someone in blackface or dressed like the Klan, what does it stand for?”

Daniel Lippman contributed to this report.