Virginia governor's role in blackface yearbook photo unclear, school says
NORFOLK, Va., May 22 (Reuters) - Virginia Governor Ralph Northam's former medical school was unable to determine his role in a racist photograph that appeared on his 1984 yearbook page, according to a report released on Wednesday following a three-month inquiry.
The photo sparked weeks of political chaos in the state after it was published by a conservative website in February, setting off scandals that embroiled Virginia's three top Democrats. It shows one person in blackface makeup and another in the robes of the white supremacist Ku Klux Klan.
Northam initially admitted to having appeared in the photo and apologized. He later changed his story, saying he did not believe he was pictured, but had performed in blackface to impersonate the singer Michael Jackson at about that time.
That led his alma mater, the Eastern Virginia Medical School, to hire the law firm McGuireWoods to investigate how the photo appeared on Northam's yearbook page.
"No one we interviewed told us the governor was in the photograph, and no one could positively state who was in the photograph," the report said. "We found no information that the Photograph was placed in error, though we acknowledge there is scant information on this subject thirty-five years after the fact."
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/virginia-governors-role-in-blackface-yearbook-photo-unclear-school-says/ar-AABK7Kp?li=BBnb7Kz