US governor refuses to quit over racist photo
THE Democratic governor of the US state of Virginia is defying calls to resign after the emergence of racist photographs claimed to be of him as a student.
The images are said to be Ralph Northam in his 1984 yearbook during his time at the Eastern Virginia Medical School. A page showed a man in blackface make-up and another in Ku Klux Klan robes and was accompanied by photographs of Mr Northam, then 25. Jack Wilson, chair of the Republican Party of Virginia, is among those calling on him to step down. He asked that Mr Northam ‘resign immediately’.
Mr Northam had apologised, saying: ‘I am deeply sorry for the decision I made to appear as I did in this photo and for the hurt that decision caused… This behaviour is not in keeping with who I am today.’
But last night he refused to resign, saying he now did not think it was him in the picture.