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UNC Interim Chancellor Addresses Blackface Yearbook Photo

"There's no place certainly now or in the past," Chancellor Guskiewicz said about the 1979 UNC yearbook photo.

CHAPEL HILL, N.C. (WNCN) - UNC-Chapel Hill interim Chancellor Kevin M. Guskiewicz was faced with a question about controversy immediately during his introductory press conference on Thursday. 

On the heels of Virginia's blackface controversy involving the Democratic governor and other high ranking state officials, similar photos surfaced from a 1979 UNC yearbook. 

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One photo shows two people in Ku Klux Klan robes and another in blackface with a rope around their neck. 

Guskiewicz, along with UNC System Interim President William L. Roper, said the photo doesn't represent the University. 

"There's a number of things about our past we need to understand and deal with. That's a horrific part of our past. One that has no place here then or now," Roper said before handing off the podium to Guskiewicz.

The interim chancellor said he became aware of the photo Wednesday evening. 

Colin Campbell, a writer for the News & Observer, tweeted out the image on Wednesday. 

"There's no place certainly now or in the past," Guskiewicz said. "I don't believe that reflects what our university is about today and nor could I believe that's what it was about back in 1979."

Guskiewicz takes over following the resignation of Carol Folt - who stepped down in January. 

One of her last actions as chancellor was to remove the pedestal of the Confederate monument, Silent Sam, from McCorkle Place on campus. 

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