Virginia Senate Majority Leader Tommy Norment, a Republican, now joins three top Democrats in the state in facing a political crisis. Norment edited a 1968 yearbook that included racial slurs and at least one photo of a person in blackface. News4’s Julie Carey reports.
A top Virginia Republican served as an editor for a college yearbook that includes racial slurs and at least one image of a person in blackface.
Senate Majority Leader Tommy Norment was managing editor of the 1968 yearbook for the Virginia Military Institute.
The yearbook includes a photo of a man in blackface standing with others in costumes, and uses racial slurs to describe a student from Bangkok, Thailand.
The contents of the yearbook were first reported Thursday by The Virginian Pilot.
In a statement, Norment decried the use of blackface and said he was one of a team of people who worked on the yearbook.
"As one of seven working on a 359-page yearbook, I cannot endorse or associate myself with every photo, entry, or word on each page," he said in a statement.
Norment says he isn't featured in any of the photos, nor did he take them.
When an NBC News reporter asked Norment on Thursday if he would comment on the yearbook in person, he refused.
News of the yearbook comes as three top Democrats in the state are engulfed in political crises.
