Not Another One: University of Richmond yearbook shows photo of students dress in KKK hoods and Black friend enjoying it

University of Richmond alum Michael Kizzie says he is just getting over the shock and embarrassment of being featured in this racist photo.

Blue Telusma

Feb 8, 2019

This just in – another KKK photo has surfaced in a college yearbook from the 1980s. Except, this time, the photo depicts five people dressed in Ku Klux Klan costumes standing around a giddy Black man holding up a drink while pretending to be hung by a noose. The image has understandably sparked outrage.

According to the Richmond Times Dispatch, the man at the center of this offensive photo has been identified as Michael Kizzie and alum of the University of Richmond.

In a phone interview with the publication on Thursday evening, Kizzie said he was unaware that the old photo was making the rounds until he was contacted by a reporter for The Collegian, the University of Richmond’s student newspaper.

“I’m just getting over the shock and embarrassment of it right now, and that’s going to take a while,” admitted Kizzie, who now resides in a Washington suburb.

The photo was included in the school’s 1980 yearbook and school officials say they had no idea it had resurfaced on social media until Wednesday evening. The following day, University of Richmond President Ronald Crutcher released a statement calling snapshot “repulsive” and “antithetical to the values of the University today.”

1980s VA = a nightmare. "University of Richmond President Crutcher called a racist photo from the school’s 1980 yearbook “'repulsive'. The photo depicts five people dressed in KKK costumes surrounding an African American man holding a drink and pretending to be hung by a noose." pic.twitter.com/Yw8XMANkFi

— Brooke Newman (@DrBrookeNewman) February 7, 2019

“Such images reflect a past that must be reconciled and understood,” Crutcher’s statement said. “We do not intend to forget or erase those moments. Rather, we must examine and understand our history so that we may become the more inclusive community we aspire to be.”

Kizzie says he barely remembers even taking the picture.

“The best that I can say about myself — other than being an idiot for doing it — is this is not a picture of life at the University of Richmond,” he said. “I never felt pressured, I never felt intimidated. I can’t remember a racial incident that made me feel bad. This is not reflective of my tenure there. This is me being stupid.”

“This was a party where young men were being stupid, not realizing the impact of something like this at this time,” he added.

Recently, yearbooks from several Virginia institutions have been pulled out of the archives and blasted for including blatantly racist content. This increased scrutiny comes in the wake of a racist image on Gov. Ralph Northam’s 1984 Eastern Virginia Medical School yearbook page making headlines.