After blackface scandal, Va. governor has hung on – and is making amends

Virginia state Del. Delores McQuinn was with Democratic Gov. Ralph Northam the night the racist photo surfaced last February. A member of the state’s Legislative Black Caucus, she was shocked that the man she had helped elect two years earlier once wore blackface. But while she expected him to resign, she advised against it.

“It is not time to retreat,” Ms. McQuinn says she told him. “It is time to teach. This is a moment to turn this pain for all of us into something different.”

Her words must have stuck.

Six months later, the white governor received standing ovations from a mostly black crowd, including some who had called for him to step down. As he marked the 400th anniversary of the arrival of African slaves