A leading Republican has become the next Virginia elected official to become embroiled in a racism scandal at the highest levels of state government.
Senate Majority Leader Tommy Norment edited the Virginia Military Institute yearbook in 1968 filled with racist photos and slurs, including blackface, reported The Virginian-Pilot.
The James City County Republican served as managing editor that year of The Bomb, after graduating from James Blair High School in Williamsburg.
A student poses in blackface in one photo, surrounded by other students in costumer, and another shows two students in blackface holding a football.
The N-word is used at least once, and racial slurs against Asians are also found published in the yearbook.
A caption under one photo indulges in a bigoted stereotype against Jewish people: “He was known as the ‘Barracks Jew’ having his fingers in the finances of the entire Corps.”
Norment, a state senator since 1992, declined to comment on the yearbook: “The only thing I’m talking about today is the budget. I’m here to pass a budget today.”
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