Universities Around the Country Face Yearbook Blackface Scandals

The Associated Press
The Associated Press
Tom Ciccotta

Universities all around the country have suddenly found themselves embroiled in yearbook blackface picture scandals.

According to a report from The College Fix, more than a dozen universities around the country are currently dealing with yearbook blackface scandals. Increased scrutiny on old yearbooks was established after it was revealed that Virginia Governor Ralph Northam appeared in a photo in his medical school yearbook that included two students, one wearing blackface and the other in a Ku Klux Klan outfit.

Richard Homan, the president of Eastern Virginia Medical School, apologized for Northam’s yearbook photo earlier this month. “I want to express my sincere apologies, particularly to the African-American community who are most injured by past yearbooks and photos circulated in the press over the past few days,” Homan said in a statement.

But Eastern Virginia Medical School is far from the only institution of higher education dealing with a blackface scandal this week. The University of Virginia published several yearbooks, dating back as far as the 1920s and as recent as the 1970s, that featured students in blackface.

A student at the University of Maryland was quickly able to find a blackface photo in a yearbook from the 1960s. A tweet from the student, featuring the blackface photos from the yearbook, received almost 2,000 likes.

Earlier this month, Breitbart News reported on a similar incident at George Washington University. The university published three yearbooks in the 1960s that featured blackface photos. Two of the yearbooks featured students in Ku Klux Klan outfits.

In a statement, George Washington University President Thomas LeBlanc condemned the old yearbook photos. “Racism has no place at GW, and we will work every single day to create a welcoming, inclusive community for all. And we will continue to learn from our past and try to be more inclusive now and in the future,” LeBlanc wrote in a statement.

Other schools facing similar scandals include Virginia Commonwealth University, The University of North Carolina – Chapel Hill, and The University of Alabama. The Chapel Hill scandal centers on a photo from the 1979 yearbook, which features two students in Ku Klux Klan hoods pretending to hang another student in blackface.

Stay tuned to Breitbart News for more updates on this developing trend.

 

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