AP Explains: Racist history of blackface began in the 1830s

WASHINGTON (AP) ' A racist photo on Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam's yearbook page and a subsequent admission from his attorney general that he wore blackface in 1980 has roiled Virginia politics. The photo in the 1984 Eastern Virginia Medical School yearbook shows someone in blackface standing next to a person in a Ku Klux Klan hood and robe. Attorney General Mark Herring said Wednesday that he wore brown makeup to look like a black rapper during a party as an undergraduate at the University of Virginia. The revelations offer the latest examples of prominent white people facing harsh criticism for wearing blackface.
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