RICHMOND, Va. — In order to know why the picture at the center of the Governor Ralph Northam photo scandal is a big deal for some people, one must understand the history.
Ku Klux Klan hoods and dressing in blackface represent a violent and oppressive time for black people in America.
Whether you believe Governor Ralph Northam is one of the people in the 1984 yearbook picture or not, images like these are reminders of our country’s painful past and spark conversations about how far we still must go.
In the early 1800s, some white people dressed up in blackface to mock African slaves in America.
The caricatures often portrayed black people as lazy or uneducated.
Decades later, in 1866, The KKK was formed to fight against equal civil rights for African Americans.
The Klan was known for violent attacks aimed at intimidating black people, including lynching, tar-and-featherings and rapes.
“This is our history. This is who we are as Americans, and some of it is ugly,” Ethelbert Miller said.
Miller is a literary activist and an African American studies scholar.
He understands why the picture in Governor Northam’s yearbook got people fired up.
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“We just can’t look at them as images because we know that these are images of violence,” Miller explained.
While Northam has now denied being in the picture, the governor admitted using shoe polish to dress in blackface before.
However, Northam claimed he later realized he was wrong for the costume after speaking to a colleague.
“I’m not going to condemn somebody on one thing,” Miller told WUSA9. “If I see it consistent with a list of other sins, then I can say that.”
“It’s a different time period, but it’s still the same crime. People have to be held accountable for their behavior,” Miller said.