Is That Ralph Northam? Facial Recognition Expert Analyzes Racist Yearbook Photo

Calls are growing for the resignation of Virginia’s Gov. Ralph Northam over a photo on his 1984 medical school yearbook page showing a person in blackface and another dressed in a KKK robe.

Though Northam initially said he was in the "racist and offensive" photo on Friday, he later backtracked. “I am not either of the people in that photo,” Northam said Saturday.

Northam’s former roommate, Rob Marsh, is coming to his defense, saying neither man in the photo is the governor. 

“I don't think it looks like him. Ralph is thinner than both people in that picture,” he told WWBT-TV. 

Facial recognition expert Kent Gibson gave his analysis to Inside Edition. “I don't think anyone could do facial recognition on the image of the blackface, no, there's nothing there, there's no definition whatsoever,” he said. 

That photo isn't alone, however. WTRK-TV reporter Brendan Ponton discovered photos of other students in blackface in the same 1984 yearbook.

"The governor said that there was a time when maybe something like that was acceptable, talking with other people [there], they disagree, they said that in 1984 dressing up in blackface or as a KKK member would have been offensive then and unacceptable," Ponton told Inside Edition. 

During Saturday's press conference, the embattled governor admitted he once impersonated Michael Jackson in blackface for a dance contest also in 1984. 

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