The Virginia governor under fire for a racist photograph on his medical school yearbook page said that he was neither the person pictured wearing blackface nor the one wearing Ku Klux Klan robes.
But Democrat Ralph Northam did admit to wearing blackface in 1984.
“That same year, I did participate in a dance contest in San Antonio in which I darkened my face as part of a Michael Jackson costume. I look back now and regret that I did not understand the harmful legacy of an action like that. It is because my memory of that episode is so vivid that I truly did not believe I am in the picture in my yearbook. You remember these things,” he said, reading a prepared statement to reporters in a press conference Saturday.
A photograph surfaced Friday from his page in the 1984 Eastern Virginia Medical School yearbook, showing a man wearing blackface and another dressed as a member of the Ku Klux Klan. Northam said Saturday he had never been in a KKK uniform.
Northam said he saw the photo for the first time Friday and had never owned a copy of the yearbook but that he took responsibility for the photo’s appearance on its page.
“It was my responsibility to recognize and prevent it from being published in the first place; I recognize that many people will find this difficult to believe,” he said.
Northam faced myriad calls for his resignation, including from members of his own party on both the state and national levels.
He said Saturday he would not resign and that he believes the agenda his administration “is pursuing clearly demonstrates the progress both I and our commonwealth have made since the darkest chapters of our history.”
He also apologized to the many people who have been hurt by the incident.
“Right now, I am simply asking for the opportunity to demonstrate beyond a shadow of a doubt that the person I was is not the man I am today. I am asking for the opportunity to earn your forgiveness,” Northam said in a prepared statement.
When asked how long he thought he had to do that, he said he would take things one day at a time.
“Obviously, we’ll have discussions with our caucuses, with the Republican caucuses, with the people of Virginia. As long as I feel that I can lead, I will continue to do that. If I reach a point where I am not comfortable with that, then obviously we will sit down and have that discussion,” he said.
Northam was also pressed about one of the two nicknames that had appeared with his photo in the Virginia Military Institute yearbook.
“My main nickname was ‘Goose,’ because when my voice would change, it would change an octave. There were two individuals, as best I recollect they were a year ahead of me, they called me ‘Coonman.’ I don’t know their motives or intent. I know who they are. That was the extent of it. This ended up in the yearbook and I regret that,” he said.
Calls had mounted for this resignation in the wake of the photo, including from the state Democratic party on Saturday morning.
“We stand with Democrats across Virginia and the country calling him to immediately resign. He no longer has our confidence or our support. Governor Northam must end this chapter immediately, step down, and let Lt. Gov. Justin Fairfax heal Virginia’s wounds and move us forward,” the organization tweeted.
Northam, who previously served as lieutenant governor, was elected in 2017.
