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Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey refuses to resign after her old college blackface skit surfaces online.
Remember Kay Ivey, the Alabama governor who signed off on the near-total abortion ban in the state? She’s back in headlines again after a photo of her participating in racist skit surfaced, and now, she’s refusing to resign.
The picture shows the then-college student at Auburn University and her sorority sisters of #AlphaGammaDelta. Student newspaper The Auburn Plainsman recently found photos in old copies of The Glomerata, the university’s yearbook, according to AL.com. The series of photos showed Ivey and her sorority sisters performing a skit in blackface. The caption under the pictures described them as “minstrels,” which refers to white actors painting themselves Black (blackface) to mock and insult Black people.
Instead of owning up to the racist act, the woman issued an apology and claimed she didn’t remember participating in the production. “Even after listening to the tape, I sincerely do not recall either the skit…or the interview itself, both [of] which occurred 52-years ago… 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,” Ivey said. “As such, I fully acknowledge — with genuine remorse — my participation in a skit like that back when I was a senior in college.”
“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,” she added. ”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.”
While Republicans are coming to her defense, Democratic lawmakers are calling for her to resign. “I don’t care if it was 52 years ago or yesterday,” Givan told AL.com. “She is the governor of the state of Alabama, which is still considered one of the most racist states in the U.S. This is who she was then. It is who she is now. I have nothing for her. I don’t accept her apology. She should have stood before the people of Alabama herself. She should resign. I don’t think she should have been elected, and I think she is a racist.”
Rep. Terri Sewell, the only Democratic U.S. House Representative from Alabama, tweeted: “Racism — in any of its forms — is never acceptable, not in the 1960s and not now. Governor Ivey’s actions were reprehensible and are deeply offensive. Her words of apology ring hollow if not met with real action to bridge the racial divide.” Benard Simelton, president of the Alabama NAACP, said she doesn’t believe Ivey has changed. “It may have been 52 years ago when the skit happened, but it apparently still shapes who she is today,” Simelton said in a statement. “She refused to meet with the NAACP two years ago to discuss race relations in Alabama. She has not taken steps to expand Medicaid in Alabama; she gladly signed bills to protect one of the most racist American symbols, the Confederate flag, and monuments.”
Ivey’s office said she has no plans to step down. “The governor’s commitment to serve the state is unchanged and unwavering,” her office said in a statement.
