Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey apologizes for participating in blackface skit in college
Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey apologizes for participating in blackface skit in college
Gov. Kay Ivey of Alabama apologized on Thursday for participating in a racist skit that involved blackface when she was a college student.
In a statement Thursday afternoon, Ivey, a Republican, said she was made aware of a taped interview that she and her then-fiance, Ben LaRavia, gave to an Auburn University student radio station when she was a student there. She said she did not remember the specifics of the skit.
“Even after listening to the tape, I sincerely do not recall either the skit, which evidently occurred at a Baptist Student Union party, or the interview itself, both which occurred 52-years ago,” Ivey said. “Even though Ben is the one on tape remembering the skit — and I still don’t recall ever dressing up in overalls or in blackface — I will not deny what is the obvious.”
But Ivey, 74, did acknowledge that it happened and apologized.
“As such, I fully acknowledge — with genuine remorse — my participation in a skit like that back when I was a senior in college,” she said in the statement. “While some may attempt to excuse this as acceptable behavior for a college student during the mid-1960s, that is not who I am today, and it is not what my Administration represents all these years later. I offer my heartfelt apologies for the pain and embarrassment this causes, and I will do all I can — going forward — to help show the nation that the Alabama of today is a far cry from the Alabama of the 1960s. We have come a long way, for sure, but we still have a long way to go.”
According to AL.com, Ivey has been reaching out to state lawmakers to apologize for the skit. Photos of Ivey’s sorority sisters in the Alpha Gamma Delta sorority wearing blackface came out earlier in the year.
https://www.theplainsman.com/article/2019/02/blackface-racist-photos-among-those-in-pages-of-old-glomerata-yearbooks
?w=1000
?w=1000
