(AP) — Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam has admitted to wearing blackface while dressing up like Michael Jackson at a dance contest around the time he was in medical school.
Northam made the admission Saturday at a press conference where he denied being in a photo that shows a man in blackface standing next to someone in a Ku Klux Klan costume.
That image appeared alongside photos of Northam in his medical school yearbook in 1984 and has sparked a torrent of calls for his resignation.
The Democratic governor said he darkened his face with “a little bit” of shoe polish for his Michael Jackson costume at a 1984 San Antonio talent show.
Northam said he regrets that he didn’t understand “the harmful legacy of an action like that.”
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