lamont bagby,with a virginia state delegate and the chair of the virginia legislative black caucus.handler thekevin , virginia state c conference president of the naacp. and rhae lynn barnes. she is an assistant professor of american cultural history at princeton university and author of the forthcoming book "darkology: when the american dream wore blackface." >> a lot of white americans feel that blackface is innocuous, but this is an important issue. amy: and protests erupt after prisoners were forced to endure freezing temperatures during the polar vortex with h no heat, nol ight, no hot showers. >> being in the dark when the weather is plummeting, and according to accounts inside, it was 30 degrees indoors. they would have been great if chuck schumer or kirsten gillibrand showed up to have some sort of presence here, but that is not the case. things like this will continue to go on until people speak up about it. amy: after days of protests, officials say electricity is restored from about many cell -- but many cells still lack heat. all that and more, coming up. ♪ welcome to de

and this, from the head of the virginia legislative black caucus, lamont bagby: >> like i said, we're praying enough. >> reporter: the scandal rocketed all the way up to washington. >> i'm shocked, and incredibly disappointed. this has been an awful week for virginia. >> reporter: today's bombshell comes just days after herring called for governor ralph northam to resign over a racist photo, including a man in blackface, that was discovered on his medical school yearbook page... >> i am not either of the people in that photo. >> reporter: after that news conference, herring had said it is "no longer possible for the governor to lead virginia." northam remains out of sight as he contemplates his political future. he's meeting with black leaders, and may hire a private investigator to prove it's not him in the photo. then there's lieutenant governor justin fairfax, who is facing an allegation of sexual assault during the democratic national convention in 2004. today, his accuser, vanessa tyson, put out a lengthy statement, saying she's a democrat and is sharing her story "with tremendou

joining me now is the head of the virginia legislative black caucus, lamont bagby. mr. bagby, during northam's address today your caucus renewed its call on the governor to resign. could he have said anything today that would have helped him survive this? >> survive in what sense? i hope when you smean survive i, the only alternative and only thing we were looking for is the governor to gracefully step aside. i think that's the only way that the commonwealth is able to start the healing process and we are able to start to move forward. i think there is an opportunity for ralph to redeem himself. but there is no opportunity for governor northam to continue to serve as the governor of the commonwealth. he is a good man. i believe that. but i think he needs to illustrate what i think he has done in the past in times that we needed him for medicaid expansion, providing supports to schools and criminal justice reform. i think he needs to illustrate that once more by stepping aside so we can start the healing process. and he will be able to redeem himself. i'm sure he will ha

let's bring in democratic virginia delegate lamont bagby, democratic strategist and virginia native, otmar omar. and tim wise, author and anti-racism activist. let me go to you first, delegate. the black caucus of virginia has called on the governor's resignation. has that changed since his press conference this afternoon? >> no, rev. it has not changed. actually, we put out another press release again calling upon the governor to resign. we had one meeting with the governor yesterday in which about ten of my members walked over to the governor's office and met with him to talk about our concerns and talk to him directly face to face. my members deserve the opportunity to talk to him face to face and express their outrage and concern and displeasure of what we had -- what had been revealed. just on the house floor yesterday, rev, i made a speech. it's something you are probably very familiar with, and that is the virginia legislative black caucus has no permanent friends or enemies, only permanent interests. i made that -- >> let me ask you this, delegate, bagby. you're right, i am f

earlier i spoke with lamont b bagby, the chairman of the virginia legislative black caucus, who said he had just spoken with the governor about the photo. take a listen to my conversation with him. so am i hearing from you that, you know, because of the commonalities, common mission that you all have shared on policy, that your conversation didn't go as far as saying it's time for you to resign? you did say this is very hurtful and painful. >> well, to be frank with you, to be honest with you, we had two conversations. one conversation was us having a frank conversation directly to him, telling him how we felt. we then went back to the capitol and had a conversation amongst the full caucus and decided that it was in the best interests of the commonwealth to return to the governor and ask for his resignation. and at that time we walked back over, just a smaller group walked back over to the governor, had a conversation with him, and at that point i think he understood. and i think he understood because we all agreed that it's not about us. it's about the individuals that we are servin