Sunday on CBS’s “Face the Nation,” Gov. Ralph Northam (D-VA) described the first slaves to arrive in Virginia in 1619 as “the first indentured servants from Africa.”
While addressing the controversy over the photo of people in blackface and a Ku Klux Klan robe on his medical school yearbook, Northam said, “Well, it has been a difficult week, and you know if you look at Virginia’s history, we’re now at the 400-year anniversary. Just 90 miles from here in 1619, the first indentured servants from Africa landed on our shores in Ole Point Comfort, what we call now Fort Monroe.”
CBS News’ Gayle King said, “Also known as slavery.”
Northam continued, “Yes, and you know, while we’ve made a lot of progress in Virginia, slavery has ended, schools have been desegregated, we have ended the Jim Crow laws, easier access to voting, it is abundantly clear that we have a lot of work to do.”
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