USA TODAY International Edition
Scandals imperil 3 top Va. officials
Attorney general admits blackface incident in ’80s
Virginia’s leadership crisis deepened Wednesday as Attorney General Mark Herring admitted that he, too, once wore blackface in the 1980s, and the woman accusing the lieutenant governor of sexual assault released details of her claim.
The revelations came days after Gov. Ralph Northam said he wore blackface in 1984 for a Michael Jackson costume at a dance contest. Leadership on both sides of the aisle called for Northam’s resignation.
Lt. Gov. Justin Fairfax, in line to succeed Northam, vehemently denied the accusations against him. Herring is next in line after Fairfax. All three are Democrats.
Wednesday’s developments accelerated a controversy that has dragged on since the weekend and put Virginia’s leadership under an intense nationwide spotlight.
“In 1980, when I was a 19year-old undergraduate in college, some friends suggested we attend a party dressed like rappers we listened to at the time, like Kurtis Blow, and perform a song,” said Herring, who has said he would run for governor in 2021. “It sounds ridiculous even now writing it. But because of our ignorance and glib attitudes – and because we did not have an appreciation for the experiences and perspectives of others – we dressed up and put on wigs and brown makeup. This was a onetime occurrence, and I accept full responsibility for my conduct.”
Herring, who had urged Northam to resign, said “honest conversation” would make it clear whether he can continue in his own job.
Herring, 57, said shame from the incident “has haunted me for decades,” but he listed his efforts to “empower communities of color” by working for equality in the state’s criminal justice and electoral systems and fighting for equal access to health care.
“I will say that from the bottom of my heart, I am deeply, deeply sorry for the pain that I cause with this revelation,” he said.
Northam said he wouldn’t resign, and he resumed governing Tuesday, signing a $750 million Amazon incentive package and issuing a statement mourning the death of a state trooper.
Northam, 59, has been under siege since Friday when a racist photo from his medical school yearbook page in 1984 was published by the website Big League Politics. The photo depicted one person in blackface and another wearing a Ku Klux Klan robe.
Friday, the governor apologized for being in the photo, but Saturday, he said he was not pictured in the “offensive, racist photo.” Northam did admit to blackening his face with shoe polish for a Michael Jackson costume at a dance contest in the 1980s.
Fairfax, 39, issued a statement Wednesday saying it was important to listen to anyone who comes forward with claims of sexual misconduct or harassment. But he said that the accusations against him from 2004, while he was a law student, are false and that the encounter was consensual.
His accuser, Vanessa Tyson, a political science professor at Scripps College in California, issued a statement saying at the 2004 Democratic National Convention in Boston, Fairfax invited her to go with him to his hotel room to pick up documents.
“What began as consensual kissing quickly turned into sexual assault,” she said. She said he forced her to perform oral sex.