Free Republic

In an unexpected speech shortly before the state Senate adjourned its 2019 session, Lt. Gov. Justin Fairfax cautioned against “political lynchings without any due process” and said “the truth is on my side” in the sexual assault allegations he faces. Referencing Virginia’s history of slavery and lynchings of African-Americans, Fairfax told senators from the dais Sunday that Virginia needs to decide what the next 400 years of state history will look like. “If we go backwards in a rush to judgment, and we allow for political lynchings without any due process, any facts, any evidence being heard, then I think...

Statement of Senator Norment

The slew of scandals rocking Virginia state government expanded to the Republican Party on Thursday as a local newspaper confirmed that State Senate Majority Leader Tommy Norment was one of the editors of a 1968 Virginia Military Institute (VMI) yearbook that contained numerous racial slurs and at least one blackface picture. In response, Norment, 72, suggested he was the victim of a smear campaign intended to distract from the multiple allegations of past racism and sexual assault surrounding the state's highest-ranking Democratic officials. The Virginian-Pilot reported first reported that Norment was the managing editor of The Bomb, which included a...

G. DAVID NIXON, Attorney at Law Roanoke, VA For Immediate Release ATTORNEY GENERAL’S ADVISORY OPINION DOES NOT CLEAR ETHICS COMPLAINTS AGAINST SENATORS STOLLE AND NORMENT ----------------------- Stolle misrepresents his law firm’s representation of condemnors Contact: David Nixon 540-982-1700, ext. 307 (daytime) or 540-345-4645 (evening) dnixon52@aol.com Roanoke, VA (February 12, 2007) – An advisory opinion from Virginia’s Attorney General released by Sen. Thomas K. Norment, Jr. (R-James City) to the media does not clear him or Sen. Kenneth W. Stolle (R-Virginia Beach) from ethics complaints filed against the two regarding their law firm’s representation of condemning authorities and their roles in...

NBC Guest Blames Trump, Not Northam for 'Blackface' Scandals An NBC panelist pointed the finger at President Donald Trump for the fact blackface controversies are currently in the news, according to Fox News. The issue came to the forefront of headlines thanks to a controversy surrounding Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam, whose 1984 medical school yearbook page contained a picture of a white man in blackface standing next to someone in Ku Klux Klan robes and a hood. After initially taking responsibility for the photo and issuing an apology, Northam conducted a news conference Saturday where he denied being either person...

A Virginia Military Institute yearbook overseen by future state Senate Majority Leader Tommy Norment in 1968 features a host of racist photos and slurs, including blackface. The revelation about one of Virginia's most powerful Republicans comes as the state’s Democratic governor and attorney general are facing calls to resign over their own admissions they wore blackface as young men. Norment, R-James City County, was managing editor of The Bomb publication that year. He went to VMI in Lexington after graduating from James Blair High School in Williamsburg and has been a state senator since 1992. On one page of the...

RICHMOND, Va. — The political tumult in Virginia widened Thursday as the State Senate’s top Republican faced an onslaught of questions about racist photographs and slurs in a college yearbook that he helped oversee, transforming the Capitol’s nearly week-old crisis into a bipartisan reckoning over personal conduct. The senator, Thomas K. Norment Jr., who is the majority leader, was the managing editor of the 1968 Virginia Military Institute yearbook, which included images of students in blackface.

<p>The revelation comes as the state’s Democratic leadership is in crisis, with Gov. Ralph Northam and Attorney General Mark Herring both facing calls to resign after they admitted to wearing blackface while they were college students in the 1980s.</p> <p>State Sen. Tommy Norment oversaw the Virginia Military Institute’s “The Bomb” yearbook in 1968 — the same year the college first allowed black students to enroll, according to The Virginian-Pilot.</p>