Fourth Virginia Politician Embroiled in Blackface Scandal

The Republican majority leader of Virginia’s state Senate finds himself in trouble over his role as the managing editor of a college yearbook featuring multiple photos of students wearing blackface alongside racist slurs. (New York Post)
 

The revelation comes as the state’s Democratic leadership is in crisis, with Gov. Ralph Northam and Attorney General Mark Herring both facing calls to resign after they admitted to wearing blackface while they were college students in the 1980s.

State Sen. Tommy Norment oversaw the Virginia Military Institute’s “The Bomb” yearbook in 1968 — the same year the college first allowed black students to enroll, according to The Virginian-Pilot.

The yearbook includes several photos of people in blackface — including one at a costume party, and another of two men in the racist makeup while holding a football — as well as the N-word and a student from Thailand who is referred to as a “Chink,” the paper reports.

A photo of one man is captioned: “He was known as the ‘Barracks Jew’ having his fingers in the finances of the entire Corps.”

Norment refused to respond to press inquiries.