Title : Ralph Northam is pictured at his majority-black, desegregated Virginia public high school
link : Ralph Northam is pictured at his majority-black, desegregated Virginia public high school
Ralph Northam is pictured at his majority-black, desegregated Virginia public high school
Disgraced Virginia Governor is pictured at his majority-black, desegregated public high school seven years BEFORE racist photo appeared in his med school yearbook
- Ralph Northam attended a majority-black public school, photos obtained by DailyMail.com reveal
- Photos from his senior yearbook at Onancock High School in Virginia in 1977 show the now-Governor at the desegregated school
- He is facing calls to resign as governor after a photo from his profile page in the 1984 Eastern Virginia Medical School yearbook surfaced on Friday
- The photo featured someone in blackface and someone in KKK robes
- Northam has admitted that he once used shoe polish to put on blackface as part of a Michael Jackson costume for a 1984 dance contest in Texas
- He is refusing to resign despite prominent Democrats calling on him to do so
Ralph Northam attended a majority-black public high school, revealed in yearbook photos from his senior year in 1997 at Onancock High School
Virginia Governor Ralph Northam, who is refusing to resign over his med school yearbook picture of two people in blackface and Ku Klux Klan robes, attended a majority-black, desegregated public school, pictures obtained by DailyMail.com show.
Northam was pictured in his senior year at Onancock High School in Virginia in 1977, where his class was predominantly African-American.
Among the yearbook pictures is Northam posing with three other students with the caption ‘Most Dignified’ and another group shot with the headline ‘We The People’.
He was voted ‘Most Likely to Succeed and was also ‘one of the few white guys on the basketball team’, the Class of 77 president, Carla Y Savage-Wells told the Washington Post for a profile on Northam in 2014.
He also played the French horn in high school band and is pictured with fellow musicians above the caption: ‘Play that funky music white boy’.
Northam is still proudly featured on a website dedicated to the school.
Photos from his senior yearbook show the now-Governor(second from the right) at the desegregated school
The images from Onancock High School show it was heavily desegregated, as Northam (right) is often the minority in the photos
Northam, second from the left, is facing calls to step down as governor after racist photos from his medical school days resurfaced
Photos show that the basketball team Northam (back row, fourth from the right) was on in high school was majority black
During a press conference on Saturday, Northam made it a point to mention that he had attended the public high school during desegregation and had many African-American friends.
A photo on Northam's yearbook page depicts a man in blackface and another in a KKK robe. Northam said he felt sick when he saw the image recently, despite admitting to covering his face in shoe polish to emulate Michael Jackson
He said: ‘I was in public school during desegregation. I have a lot of African-American friends that I went to school with, played ball with. And I suspect I've had as much exposure to people of color as anybody but I have learned a lot, in answer to your question and I will continue to.’
Northam has flip-flopped on the shocking 1984 yearbook photo from Eastern Virginia Medical School, which shows one person in blackface and another person in Ku Klux Klan robes and coned hood.
It was posted under his name and alongside other pictures on his yearbook page seven years after he left high school and was 25 years old.
In an excruciating press conference on Saturday, Northam said he was not either of the people in the photo that was first published on Friday.
However he did admit to using shoe polish to darken his skin in order to impersonate Michael Jackson at a dance contest in San Antonio, Texas, where he did a paediatrics internship, that same year.
On Friday, Northam had admitted that he was in the photo – but changed his position at his Saturday presser at the governor’s mansion, saying that after talking with his family and classmates, he became sure that he was not in the photo.
'It has taken time for me to make sure that it's not me, but I am convinced, I am convinced that I am not in that picture,' he told reporters at the Executive Mansion in Richmond, calling the picture offensive and horrific.
He then went on to explain that he had worn blackface on a different occasion.
Northman admitted to smearing shoe polish on his face to impersonate Michael Jackson for a dance contest which he won after performing the Moonwalk. It was not until later, he said, that he realized it was offensive.
Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam gestures as his wife Pam listens during a news conference in the Governors Mansion at the Capitol in Richmond, Va. on Saturday when he denied being in the racist photo
Northam is pictured in his senior year as the President of Virginia Beta, with his fellow officers
‘I had the shoes, I had a glove, and I used just a little bit of shoe polish to put under my or on my – cheeks. And the reason I used a very little bit is because, I don't know if anybody's ever tried that, but you cannot get shoe polish off,’ he said.
‘I look back now and regret that I did not understand the harmful legacy of an action like that.’
He went on: ‘I have a very close friend who was my assistant during the campaign. He really did a good job of communicating to me why that's so offensive. And it was actually during that conversation, I said, you know, Seth, I put some shoe polish on my face, I competed in a dance contest dressed up as Michael Jackson, and I said, I assume you probably would think that's offensive.
'He said, I would. And I said, you know what, Seth, I appreciate you being open with me, I apologize for what I've done in the past and I can promise you I'll never do that again in the future.’
Northam also addressed the fact that in another yearbook, from the Virginia Military Institute in 1981, his nickname was listed as ‘coonman’.
He said: ‘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 — 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.’
As of Sunday evening he had not resigned.
On Saturday, he said: ‘I intend to continue doing the business of Virginia. I could spare myself from the difficult path that lies ahead. I could avoid an honest conversation about harmful actions from my past. I cannot in good conscience chose the path that would be easier for me in an effort to duck my responsibility to reconcile.’
This comes despite calls for him to resign from prominent Democrats including Hillary Clinton, Joe Biden, nancy Pelosi Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Tim Kaine and Elizabeth Warren.
In a tweet late Saturday, President Donald Trump called Northam's actions related to the photo and abortion debate 'unforgiveable!'
Northam was pushed repeatedly by reporters to explain why he issued an apology if he wasn't in the photograph.
He conceded that people might have difficulty believing his shifting statements.
'My first intention... was to reach out and apologize,' he said, adding that he recognized that people would be offended by the photo.
'But after studying the picture and consulting with classmates, Northam said, 'I am convinced that is not my picture.'
He spent years courting the black community in the run-up to his 2017 race for governor run, building relationships that helped him win both the primary and the general election. He is a member of a predominantly black church.
Northam, a pediatric neurologist, has recently come under fire from Republicans who have accused him of backing infanticide after he said he supported a bill loosening restrictions on late-term abortions.
Late last month, Florida's secretary of state resigned after photos from a 2005 Halloween party showed him in blackface while dressed as a Hurricane Katrina victim.
The president of the school, Dr. Richard V. Homan, announced on Saturday that he will direct an external investigation into past yearbooks.
The investigation will be carried out by a 'panel of advocates for diversity and inclusion'.
It will include African Americans and other people of color to determine the yearbook publishing process and the extent of administrative oversight.
It will also examine the campus culture at the Eastern Virginia Medical School.
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