{"id":1129,"date":"2019-02-08T09:57:56","date_gmt":"2019-02-08T14:57:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.gopplaybook.com\/?p=1129"},"modified":"2019-02-09T10:27:49","modified_gmt":"2019-02-09T15:27:49","slug":"virginias-racist-history-clashes-with-new-south-image","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.gopplaybook.com\/?p=1129","title":{"rendered":"Virginia\u2019s Racist History Clashes With New South Image"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\"><figure class=\"aligncenter\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"468\" height=\"312\" data-attachment-id=\"1134\" data-permalink=\"https:\/\/www.gopplaybook.com\/?attachment_id=1134\" data-orig-file=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.gopplaybook.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/Picture1.jpg?fit=468%2C312&amp;ssl=1\" data-orig-size=\"468,312\" data-comments-opened=\"0\" data-image-meta=\"{&quot;aperture&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;credit&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;camera&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;caption&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;created_timestamp&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;copyright&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;focal_length&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;iso&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;shutter_speed&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;title&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;orientation&quot;:&quot;0&quot;}\" data-image-title=\"Picture1\" data-image-description=\"\" data-image-caption=\"\" data-large-file=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.gopplaybook.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/Picture1.jpg?fit=468%2C312&amp;ssl=1\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.gopplaybook.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/Picture1.jpg?resize=468%2C312&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-1134\"\/><figcaption>To those who are eager to see Virginia move beyond its racist past, this past week\u2019s tribulations have obscured the real progress the state has made in recent decades. Credit Gabriella Demczuk for The New York Times<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p style=\"font-size:0\">By <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/by\/jonathan-martin\">Jonathan Martin<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/by\/alexander-burns\">Alexander Burns<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li>Feb. 8,  2019<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>RICHMOND,\nVa. \u2014 L. Douglas Wilder, a grandson of slaves, became America\u2019s first elected\nblack governor 30 years ago, winning in Virginia in part by finessing the\nracist history of the state that is now roiling its politics once more.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>To\nsucceed as a black candidate in 1989, Mr. Wilder had to patiently accommodate\nthe one-time segregationist Democrats and the state\u2019s Lost Cause Confederate\nheritage. He had to win over some of the foes who had defeated his attempt to\nestablish a state holiday honoring the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. He had\nto appear in proximity to the Confederate monuments that dot courthouse lawns\nand Civil War battlefields across Virginia without raising a whisper.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In\nthe end, Mr. Wilder <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/1989\/11\/09\/us\/the-1989-elections-virginia-joy-of-democrats-diluted-in-virginia.html?module=inline\">won by less than one-half of 1 percent of the vote<\/a>\n\u2014 far closer than polls indicated he would. His white Democratic running mate,\ntellingly, won by a far greater margin. Still, as John Warner, the former\nRepublican senator of Virginia, put it recently, \u201cIt was a monumental chapter\nnot just in Virginia history but in American history.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"468\" height=\"314\" data-attachment-id=\"1136\" data-permalink=\"https:\/\/www.gopplaybook.com\/?attachment_id=1136\" data-orig-file=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.gopplaybook.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/Picture2.jpg?fit=468%2C314&amp;ssl=1\" data-orig-size=\"468,314\" data-comments-opened=\"0\" data-image-meta=\"{&quot;aperture&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;credit&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;camera&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;caption&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;created_timestamp&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;copyright&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;focal_length&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;iso&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;shutter_speed&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;title&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;orientation&quot;:&quot;0&quot;}\" data-image-title=\"Picture2\" data-image-description=\"\" data-image-caption=\"\" data-large-file=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.gopplaybook.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/Picture2.jpg?fit=468%2C314&amp;ssl=1\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.gopplaybook.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/Picture2.jpg?resize=468%2C314&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"L. Douglas Wilder of Virginia became the first elected black governor in the country in 1989. Credit William F. Campbell\/The LIFE Picture Collection, via Getty Images\" class=\"wp-image-1136\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.gopplaybook.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/Picture2.jpg?w=468&amp;ssl=1 468w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.gopplaybook.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/Picture2.jpg?resize=300%2C201&amp;ssl=1 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 468px) 100vw, 468px\" \/><figcaption>L. Douglas Wilder of Virginia became the first elected black governor in the country in 1989. Credit William F. Campbell\/The LIFE Picture Collection, via Getty Images<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>That\nstate history on race and politics is now under intense scrutiny. Gov. Ralph\nNortham and Attorney General Mark Herring, both Democrats, are facing calls to\nresign for <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2019\/02\/06\/us\/politics\/virginia-blackface-mark-herring.html?module=inline\">wearing blackface in separate incidents as young men<\/a>.\nThe most powerful Republican state senator, Thomas K. Norment Jr., is defending\nhimself for his role decades ago <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2019\/02\/07\/us\/politics\/thomas-norment-yearbook-racist.html?module=inline\">editing a college yearbook that contained racist photos and\nslurs<\/a>. Meanwhile, Lt. Gov. Justin E. Fairfax, the state\u2019s second\nblack politician to win statewide office, is facing <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2019\/02\/08\/us\/politics\/tyson-fairfax-sexual-assault.html?module=inline\">two allegations of sexual assault<\/a> that has\nimperiled his job and likely extinguished his hopes to someday be elected\nVirginia\u2019s second black governor.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The\nrevelations of not-so-long-ago racist behavior by top leaders, which turned the\nCapitol into a veritable soundstage for a mind-bending political thriller over\nthe last week, are testing the state\u2019s image as a progressive-minded, New South\nbeacon that backed Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton for president.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>[<em>Make\nsense of the people, issues and ideas <\/em><a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/newsletters\/politics?smid=rd%3Faction%3Dclick&amp;module=inline&amp;pgtype=Article\"><em>shaping American politics with our newsletter.<\/em><\/a>]<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>With\nthe political crisis showing few signs of abating \u2014 Virginia\u2019s Democratic\ncongressional delegation renewed calls Thursday night for Mr. Northam to resign\n\u2014 the major question is how willing Virginia\u2019s leaders and voters are to punish\nthe transgressions of a younger Mr. Northam and Mr. Herring for behavior from a\nless-enlightened era before Mr. Wilder\u2019s election.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&nbsp;\u201cWe\u2019re going to have to have a greater\nunderstanding all-around of what Virginia was like, and I\u2019m not sure today\u2019s\nstandards should go back 30 to 40 years ago, when people were in college,\u201d said\nJerry Kilgore, a former state attorney general.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In\ntruth, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2019\/02\/08\/us\/northam-blackface-virginia.html?module=inline\">the firestorm over blackface photos<\/a> is only the\nlatest example of Virginia suffering humiliations over racism that cause pain\nto its residents and tarnish its well-burnished reputation. The state\u2019s ample\nself-regard has suffered blow after blow, in part because of its unwillingness\nto fully reckon with a past that, while not as violent toward its black\ncitizens, was no less ugly than its Deep South brethren.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In\n2006, then-Senator George F. Allen, a Republican, stumbled into the national\nspotlight by pointing a finger at an Indian-American Democrat videotaping his\ncampaign appearance and referring to the tracker as <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2006\/08\/24\/washington\/24allen.html?module=inline\">\u201cmacaca,\u201d a slur for dark-skinned Africans<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In\n2017, a simmering local clash in Charlottesville over the city\u2019s Robert E. Lee\nstatue became a worldwide story when <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2017\/08\/13\/us\/charlottesville-virginia-overview.html?module=inline\">a white supremacist rally turned deadly<\/a>. A year\nlater, for their 2018 nominee for Senate, Republicans backed <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2018\/08\/05\/us\/politics\/corey-stewart-virginia.html?module=inline\">Corey Stewart, a county official who ran an even balder\nversion of President Trump\u2019s campaign<\/a>, targeting immigrants and\nvowing to protect Virginia\u2019s emblems of the Confederacy. (This is to say\nnothing of the squalid scandal involving the last Republican governor, Robert\nF. McDonnell, whose term ended in disgrace after he was found to have taken\nmore than $175,000 in loans and gifts from an access-seeking Richmond dietary\nsupplement maker.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"468\" height=\"312\" data-attachment-id=\"1137\" data-permalink=\"https:\/\/www.gopplaybook.com\/?attachment_id=1137\" data-orig-file=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.gopplaybook.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/Picture3.jpg?fit=468%2C312&amp;ssl=1\" data-orig-size=\"468,312\" data-comments-opened=\"0\" data-image-meta=\"{&quot;aperture&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;credit&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;camera&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;caption&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;created_timestamp&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;copyright&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;focal_length&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;iso&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;shutter_speed&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;title&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;orientation&quot;:&quot;0&quot;}\" data-image-title=\"Picture3\" data-image-description=\"\" data-image-caption=\"\" data-large-file=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.gopplaybook.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/Picture3.jpg?fit=468%2C312&amp;ssl=1\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.gopplaybook.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/Picture3.jpg?resize=468%2C312&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"A statue of Confederate General Robert E. Lee stands in the Old House Chamber at the Virginia State Capitol in Richmond. Credit Drew Angerer\/Getty Images\" class=\"wp-image-1137\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.gopplaybook.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/Picture3.jpg?w=468&amp;ssl=1 468w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.gopplaybook.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/Picture3.jpg?resize=300%2C200&amp;ssl=1 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 468px) 100vw, 468px\" \/><figcaption>A statue of Confederate General Robert E. Lee stands in the Old House Chamber at the Virginia State Capitol in Richmond. Credit Drew Angerer\/Getty Images<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>But\nthe cascade of revelations here since the racist images from Mr. Northam\u2019s\nyearbook surfaced last Friday has stung Virginians because the blackface\nimagery demonstrates how deeply embedded white supremacy is in the state\u2019s\nnot-too-distant past.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Recounting\nMr. Herring\u2019s tearful confession Wednesday morning to the legislative black\ncaucus that he had once worn blackface, a longtime state senator, L. Louise\nLucas, choked up for a moment as she recalled the meeting\u2019s emotions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cI\nthink I would have held it together until I saw the first brother cry,\u201d Ms.\nLucas said Wednesday night, long after the gathering had broken up. \u201cIt was\nhard to get up from the table and walk away. He said he was sorry.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Larry\nJ. Sabato, a University of Virginia professor who has practiced and studied\npolitics in Charlottesville since he arrived as a college student in the early\n1970s, said this week should awaken the state.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cThis\ncollection of scandals proves beyond a doubt that Virginia has not progressed\nas far as it thought it has \u2014 and it has a past it still hasn\u2019t come to terms\nwith,\u201d said Mr. Sabato.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Perhaps\nthat is not a surprise for a state that is still littered with Confederate\niconography \u2014 the new Amazon headquarters in Arlington will sit hard by\nJefferson Davis Highway \u2014 and just last month celebrated Lee-Jackson Day, a\nstate holiday. The state Capitol is filled with promotional materials\ntrumpeting the 400th anniversary of the first representative assembly in the\nnew world, which is what makes the General Assembly here the oldest continuous\nlegislative body in America. But this year also marks two other milestones: the\n400th anniversary of slaves being brought to Jamestown and the 60th anniversary\nof Prince Edward County closing its public schools to avoid integrating them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Yet\nto those who are eager to see Virginia move beyond its racist past, this past\nweek\u2019s tribulations have obscured the real progress the state has made in\nrecent decades.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>It\nis hard to overstate how important race was to the segregationist Democratic\nmachine, led by Senator Harry F. Byrd, that controlled Virginia politics for\nmuch of the 20th century.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In\nhis seminal 1949 book, \u201cSouthern Politics in State and Nation,\u201d the scholar\nV.O. Key Jr. famously called Virginia \u201ca political museum piece\u201d for its\nefforts to keep blacks and poor whites off the voter rolls.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>By\ncomparison, Mr. Key wrote, \u201cMississippi is a hotbed of democracy.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In\nfact, the so-called \u201cmassive resistance\u201d to integration, which had its origins\nhere, is what extended the political life of the so-called Byrd Organization\neven as Virginia swelled in the years following World War II.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Image<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"468\" height=\"465\" data-attachment-id=\"1138\" data-permalink=\"https:\/\/www.gopplaybook.com\/?attachment_id=1138\" data-orig-file=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.gopplaybook.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/Picture4.jpg?fit=468%2C465&amp;ssl=1\" data-orig-size=\"468,465\" data-comments-opened=\"0\" data-image-meta=\"{&quot;aperture&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;credit&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;camera&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;caption&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;created_timestamp&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;copyright&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;focal_length&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;iso&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;shutter_speed&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;title&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;orientation&quot;:&quot;0&quot;}\" data-image-title=\"Picture4\" data-image-description=\"\" data-image-caption=\"\" data-large-file=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.gopplaybook.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/Picture4.jpg?fit=468%2C465&amp;ssl=1\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.gopplaybook.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/Picture4.jpg?resize=468%2C465&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"Senator Harry F. Byrd ran a segregationist Democratic machine that controlled Virginia politics for most of the 20th century. Credit Associated Press\" class=\"wp-image-1138\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.gopplaybook.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/Picture4.jpg?w=468&amp;ssl=1 468w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.gopplaybook.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/Picture4.jpg?resize=150%2C150&amp;ssl=1 150w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.gopplaybook.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/Picture4.jpg?resize=300%2C298&amp;ssl=1 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 468px) 100vw, 468px\" \/><figcaption>Senator Harry F. Byrd ran a segregationist Democratic machine that controlled Virginia politics for most of the 20th century. Credit Associated Press<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cIn\nthe spring of 1954, however, a new issue appeared on the horizon which was to\nretrieve the fortunes of the Byrd organization,\u201d wrote J. Harvie Wilkinson III,\nnow a federal judge, in his book \u201cHarry Byrd and the Changing Face of Virginia\nPolitics.\u201d <em>\u201c<\/em>The issue was school desegregation, and under the banner of\n\u2018massive resistance\u2019 the Byrd machine quickly refueled its sputtering engines.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>But\neven well after the death of the Jim Crow era, Virginia politicians had little\nchoice but to tread gingerly on matters of race.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Few\nknow that better than Mr. Wilder.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In\norder to earn his party\u2019s blessing to become lieutenant governor in 1985, Mr.\nWilder had to win over one of his foes, the powerful state House speaker and an\nold Byrd disciple A.L. Philpott. That was three years after Mr. Philpott\nblocked Mr. Wilder\u2019s attempt to enact a state holiday honoring Dr. King.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Then,\nas a candidate for governor, Mr. Wilder campaigned aggressively across rural\nparts of the state, such as Mr. Philpott\u2019s Southside, where the Confederacy was\nenshrined in history.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cBack\nthen, that was pretty smart politics,\u201d said Paul Goldman, a former chairman of\nthe Virginia Democratic Party who was the architect of Mr. Wilder\u2019s historic\nvictory. (Mr. Wilder called on Mr. Northam to resign after the governor\u2019s\ncringe-inducing news conference Saturday, but he has remained silent about the\nissues surrounding Mr. Fairfax and Mr. Herring.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Even\nnow, the Jim Crow era of racist behavior like blackface is hardly an ancient\nepoch in Virginia.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cIf\nyou\u2019re 50 years old, when were you born? The \u201960s, the \u201970s. The state was just\ncoming out of segregation. Your parents, everybody else, were part of it,\u201d Mr.\nGoldman said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>This year marks the 400th anniversary of the state\u2019s General\nAssembly, making it the oldest continuous legislative body in America. It is\nalso the 400th anniversary of slaves being brought to Jamestown.CreditDrew\nAngerer\/Getty Images<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Image<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"468\" height=\"312\" data-attachment-id=\"1139\" data-permalink=\"https:\/\/www.gopplaybook.com\/?attachment_id=1139\" data-orig-file=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.gopplaybook.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/Picture5.jpg?fit=468%2C312&amp;ssl=1\" data-orig-size=\"468,312\" data-comments-opened=\"0\" data-image-meta=\"{&quot;aperture&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;credit&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;camera&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;caption&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;created_timestamp&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;copyright&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;focal_length&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;iso&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;shutter_speed&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;title&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;orientation&quot;:&quot;0&quot;}\" data-image-title=\"Picture5\" data-image-description=\"\" data-image-caption=\"\" data-large-file=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.gopplaybook.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/Picture5.jpg?fit=468%2C312&amp;ssl=1\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.gopplaybook.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/Picture5.jpg?resize=468%2C312&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-1139\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.gopplaybook.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/Picture5.jpg?w=468&amp;ssl=1 468w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.gopplaybook.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/Picture5.jpg?resize=300%2C200&amp;ssl=1 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 468px) 100vw, 468px\" \/><figcaption>This year marks the 400th anniversary of the state\u2019s General Assembly, making it the oldest continuous legislative body in America. It is also the 400th anniversary of slaves being brought to Jamestown. Credit Drew Angerer\/Getty Images<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>But\nMr. Wilder\u2019s election did not fully bind up the state\u2019s wounds, and the decades\nsince have been met with both advancements and setbacks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In\n2006, Virginia Democrats pried the first of two Senate seats away from\nRepublicans by nominating Jim Webb. Mr. Webb was a former Navy secretary in the\nReagan administration who had written and spoken admiringly about the\nConfederacy\u2019s martial valor. While attending the Shad Planking, the state\u2019s\nmost iconic political event and itself a vestige of the Byrd era, he gladly\naccepted a Confederate flag lapel sticker.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Steve\nJarding, a Democratic strategist who advised Mr. Webb and helped steer Senator\nMark Warner to the governorship in 2001, said that at the turn of the century\nthere had been stronger traces of explicit racism and Confederate nostalgia in\nVirginia politics, especially in rural areas.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cThe\ncultures were written in stone, in many ways, and they\u2019re hard to break,\u201d Mr.\nJarding said. \u201cAnd that includes racist activities.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Still,\nimages of blackface and Ku Klux Klan robes \u201cwould never have been O.K.,\u201d as Mr.\nGoldman put it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Virginians\nare still coming to grips with this latest chapter in their state\u2019s history,\nwith Mr. Northam determined to try to salvage his reputation and keep his job\nand Mr. Herring doing the same but likely having lost his own hopes of becoming\ngovernor.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Many\nstate officials are in almost a state of shock, stunned that the ghosts they\nthought had been banished have returned. As she left the Capitol Wednesday\nbeneath the etched-in-stone Jefferson quote \u2014 \u201cThe most sacred of the duties of\na government to do equal and impartial justice to all its citizens\u201d \u2014 Senate\nclerk Susan Clarke Schaar said she had never seen a day like it in her 45 years\nhere.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cVirginia\nwill survive this,\u201d said Mr. Warner, the 91-year-old former Republican senator\nwhose hunt country accent and white-plumed appearance evokes the state he\nserved for three decades. \u201cBut it has been a tragic few days.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Jonathan\nMartin reported from Richmond and Alexander Burns from New York.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>A version of this article appears in print on Feb. 9, 2019,\non Page A1 of the New York edition with the headline: Racist Past, Far From\nBuried, Scars Symbol of the New South. <a href=\"http:\/\/www.nytreprints.com\/\">Order Reprints<\/a> | <a href=\"http:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/pages\/todayspaper\/index.html\">Today\u2019s Paper<\/a> | <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/subscriptions\/Multiproduct\/lp8HYKU.html?campaignId=48JQY\">Subscribe<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>To those who are eager to see Virginia move beyond its racist past, this past week\u2019s tribulations have obscured the real progress the state has&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[21],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1129","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-national-news"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p8VBh7-id","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":449,"url":"https:\/\/www.gopplaybook.com\/?p=449","url_meta":{"origin":1129,"position":0},"title":"School Teacher Fired Over Racist Facebook Rant \u2014 She Claims She was \u2018Hacked","author":"Donnie","date":"September 21, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"BATESVILLE, Miss. -- A Mississippi teacher is out of a job after parents claim she went on a racist rant on Facebook, according to\u00a0WREG. The\u00a0South Panola School District said Batesville Intermediate School teacher Cammie Rone has been dismissed following an investigation. Rone is still able to appeal the decision. Rone\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Domestic Terrorism&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Domestic Terrorism","link":"https:\/\/www.gopplaybook.com\/?cat=17"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.gopplaybook.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/03\/2018-03-04_12-19-00.jpg?fit=617%2C412&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.gopplaybook.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/03\/2018-03-04_12-19-00.jpg?fit=617%2C412&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.gopplaybook.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/03\/2018-03-04_12-19-00.jpg?fit=617%2C412&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":446,"url":"https:\/\/www.gopplaybook.com\/?p=446","url_meta":{"origin":1129,"position":1},"title":"He\u2019s not a racist, he says, just an \u2018identitarian,\u2019 and he books Richard Spencer\u2019s campus talks","author":"Donnie","date":"October 18, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"Cameron Padgett, photographed downtown in Atlanta, sued, successfully, for white nationalist Richard Spencer to speak at Auburn University in April after the Alabama school tried to cancel the event. Padgett calls himself an \u2018identitarian,\u2019 not a white nationalist, and insists that \u2018advocating for the interests of white people\u2019 doesn't make\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Domestic Terrorism&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Domestic Terrorism","link":"https:\/\/www.gopplaybook.com\/?cat=17"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.gopplaybook.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/03\/2018-03-04_12-12-34.jpg?fit=909%2C513&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.gopplaybook.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/03\/2018-03-04_12-12-34.jpg?fit=909%2C513&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.gopplaybook.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/03\/2018-03-04_12-12-34.jpg?fit=909%2C513&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.gopplaybook.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/03\/2018-03-04_12-12-34.jpg?fit=909%2C513&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":267,"url":"https:\/\/www.gopplaybook.com\/?p=267","url_meta":{"origin":1129,"position":2},"title":"Was the Charlottesville car attack domestic terrorism, a hate crime or both?","author":"Donnie","date":"August 14, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"By\u00a0Mark Berman\u00a0August 14, 2017 Attorney General Jeff Sessions said on Aug. 14 people are \"making too much\" out of President Trump's response to the violence that broke out in Charlottesville.\u00a0(Reuters) \u00a0Attorney General Jeff Sessions said Monday that the fatal car attack in Charlottesville\u00a0meets the definition of domestic terrorism, echoing calls\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Domestic Terrorism&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Domestic Terrorism","link":"https:\/\/www.gopplaybook.com\/?cat=17"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.gopplaybook.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/02\/2018-03-01_10-04-32.jpg?fit=670%2C419&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.gopplaybook.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/02\/2018-03-01_10-04-32.jpg?fit=670%2C419&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.gopplaybook.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/02\/2018-03-01_10-04-32.jpg?fit=670%2C419&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":1276,"url":"https:\/\/www.gopplaybook.com\/?p=1276","url_meta":{"origin":1129,"position":3},"title":"A Republican senator from Oklahoma apologizes to Black constituents for seeking to disenfranchise them.","author":"Donnie","date":"January 15, 2021","format":false,"excerpt":"Senator James Lankford, Republican of Oklahoma, in October. He has apologized for trying to reverse the results of the presidential election and disenfranchise tens of millions of voters.Credit...Anna Moneymaker for The New York Times Senator James Lankford, an Oklahoma Republican who spent weeks trying to reverse the results of the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;National News&quot;","block_context":{"text":"National News","link":"https:\/\/www.gopplaybook.com\/?cat=21"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1015,"url":"https:\/\/www.gopplaybook.com\/?p=1015","url_meta":{"origin":1129,"position":4},"title":"Opinon &#8211; The Weasel of Oz","author":"Donnie","date":"May 27, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"\u00a0By\u00a0Charles M. Blow\u00a0\u00a0Opinion Columnist\u00a0May 27, 2018 President Trump during a graduation and commissioning ceremony at the United States Naval Academy in Annapolis, Md., on Friday.CreditEvan Vucci\/Associated Press Assuming that you have maintained the ability to be astonished by Donald Trump\u2019s antics and insolence,\u00a0The Washington Post\u00a0reported last week that in 2017,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Presidential Politics&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Presidential Politics","link":"https:\/\/www.gopplaybook.com\/?cat=12"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.gopplaybook.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/05\/2018-05-28_14-00-39.jpg?fit=668%2C434&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.gopplaybook.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/05\/2018-05-28_14-00-39.jpg?fit=668%2C434&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.gopplaybook.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/05\/2018-05-28_14-00-39.jpg?fit=668%2C434&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":272,"url":"https:\/\/www.gopplaybook.com\/?p=272","url_meta":{"origin":1129,"position":5},"title":"Police, FBI investigating University of Maryland killing as possible hate crime","author":"Donnie","date":"May 21, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"Carrie WellsContact ReporterThe Baltimore Sun Authorities are investigating whether the stabbing death of a black college student who was visiting the University of Maryland during graduation weekend was a hate crime. (Update:\u00a0Suspect in College Park fatal stabbing held without bail) The chief of the university police said Sunday the suspect,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Domestic Terrorism&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Domestic Terrorism","link":"https:\/\/www.gopplaybook.com\/?cat=17"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.gopplaybook.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/02\/2018-03-01_09-59-48.jpg?fit=741%2C454&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.gopplaybook.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/02\/2018-03-01_09-59-48.jpg?fit=741%2C454&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.gopplaybook.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/02\/2018-03-01_09-59-48.jpg?fit=741%2C454&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.gopplaybook.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/02\/2018-03-01_09-59-48.jpg?fit=741%2C454&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x"},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.gopplaybook.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1129","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.gopplaybook.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.gopplaybook.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gopplaybook.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gopplaybook.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1129"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.gopplaybook.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1129\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1145,"href":"https:\/\/www.gopplaybook.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1129\/revisions\/1145"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.gopplaybook.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1129"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gopplaybook.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1129"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gopplaybook.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1129"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}