The Washington Post reports that the Attorney General of the Commonwealth of Virginia, Mark Abrams, has admitted to having worn blackface make-up to a party while he was a 19-year-old undergraduate.
“In 1980, when I was a 19-year-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,” Herring said in a statement. “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.”
Herring is third in the line of gubernatorial succession. Governor Ralph Northam has faced many calls to resign after troubling copies of his college and medical-school yearbooks were exposed by a right-wing web site based in Virginia. Lieutenant Governor Justin Fairfax is the subject of a sexual-assault allegation, also highlighted by the same right-wing web site.