Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey said she doesn’t plan on resigning after news emerged that she wore blackface during a college skit more than 50 years ago.
Ivey, 74, made her first public appearance Tuesday after she issued an apology last week. The Republican governor said that she is a different person than she was when she dawned blackface in 1967.
“Heavens no, I’m not going to resign. It’s something that happened 52 years ago and I’m not that person. My administration stands on being inclusive and helping people,” Ivey said.
The news of the blackface broke when a 1967 college radio interview emerged of her then-fiancé Ben LaRavia describing how she performed a skit at the Baptist Student Union called Cigar Butts. In the interview he described her wearing “black paint all over her face.”
She released a statement that read, “Even after listening to the tape, I sincerely do not recall either the skit, which evidently occurred at a Baptist Student Union party, or the interview itself, both which occurred 52 years ago. Even though Ben is the one on tape remembering the skit — and I still don’t recall ever dressing up in overalls or in blackface‚ I will not deny what is the obvious.”
“I offer my heartfelt apologies for the pain and embarrassment this causes, and I will do all I can – going forward – to help show the nation that the Alabama of today is a far cry from the Alabama of the 1960s,” she added.
Despite the apology, the Alabama NAACP called on her to resign. It also cited some of her action as governor, including legislation to protect Confederate monuments and statues from being removed.
The revelations of blackface come after Virginia’s Democratic Gov. Ralph Northam faced similar allegations and also did not resign. On his yearbook page from Eastern Virginia Medical School there is an image of a man in blackface next to person dressed as a member of the Ku Klux Klan.
Despite denying that it was him, Northam did admit he wore blackface during a 1984 dance competition while pretending to be Michael Jackson.
