Virginia Legislative Black Caucus ‘amplifies' call for Gov. Northam to resign

RICHMOND, Va. (FOX 5 DC) - The Virginia Legislative Black Caucus says it is "amplifying" its call for Governor Ralph Northam to resign, despite his appeals for "forgiveness" following the release of a racist photo that appears on his school yearbook page.

The photo - which appears in a gallery of images in his Eastern Virginia Medical School yearbook - shows two men, one in blackface, and another in a Ku Klux Klan outfit.

On Friday night, the Governor expressed deep regret about the photo, but on Saturday, he reversed course, saying it is not him.

However, the VLBC says it doubts the Governor's story.

The Virginia Legislative Black Caucus wrote, "We amplify our call for the Governor to resign. As we stated, yesterday we met with the Governor, looked him in the eye, and expressed our deep sense of betrayal, pain, and disappointment. During our meeting, both the members of the Virginia Legislative Black Caucus and Governor Northam were direct and honest with each other. In light of his public admission and apology for his decision to appear in the photo, he has irrevocably lost the faith and trust of the people he was elected to serve. Changing his public story today now casts further doubt on his ability to regain that trust."

The response was in line with a host of statements from Democratic leaders at every level calling on the Governor to resign his post.