Hood Takes Heat for Blackface Photos, Says Leave Trans Rights Up to Schools

HATTIESBURG, Miss.—A Hattiesburg woman confronted Mississippi Attorney General Jim Hood on Tuesday over yearbook photos from the 1980s that show members of his college fraternity wearing blackface.

After the photos surfaced in February, Hood, who is also a Democratic candidate for governor this year, said in February that he was not in the photos and never wore blackface.

"When I go hunting, I don't even like to wear a mask," he told reporters at the time, saying masks make him uncomfortable, and face paint would, too.

At a town hall event at the University of Southern Mississippi on Tuesday, Anastassia Doctor, who is African American, asked Hood why he never addressed the "racial implications" of blackface. She sat near the front of an audience of around 50 people, her two young daughters on either side of her.

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