Yearbooks have come back to haunt yet another Virginia state lawmaker this week, as evidence emerged Thursday that Senate Majority Leader Tommy Norment (R) oversaw a Virginia Military Institute yearbook in 1968 that included multiple pictures of students in blackface.
According to the Virginian-Pilot, the yearbook is also peppered with slurs and racist nicknames for various students.
Norment ignored reporters’ questions about the revelations Thursday.
Gov. Ralph Northam (D), who late last week was discovered to have a blackface photo on his medical school yearbook page, is one of the students listed with a racist nickname in the 1981 copy of VMI’s yearbook: “Coonman.” He reportedly said that he doesn’t know the origins of the nickname.
Virginia Attorney General Mark Herring also this week admitted that he posed for a photo in blackface during college. Meanwhile, Lt. Gov. Justin Fairfax (D) has been credibly accused of sexual assault.
Currently, the top three Democrats in Virginia politics (Northam then Fairfax then Herring) are all tarnished by political scandals. The next person in line, should the three Democrats resign, is Speaker of the House of Delegates Kirk Cox, a Republican.
