in the 80s or earlier provided it wasn't intended to demean. I had friends that dressed up as a reggae band for halloween in high school. I don't remember if they went all in with actual blackface, but certainly even without the blackface, that would be off limits today. But it was not done out of ugliness or to insult or demean black people.

If the picture of Northam really is of Northam, that's inexcusable. Dressing up like Michael Jackson, as Northam admitted to doing, while not OK in today's world, is a forgivable past transgression. But dressing up like a black guy and posing with a guy in KKK garb is not. Even in the mid 80s, that was no bueno. I'm not sure where it ever landed with Northam. I know he admitted to dressing up in blackface, but I don't believe it was ever confirmed that the picture of the guy in blackface posing with the guy in the KKK outfit was Northam. If it was him (and I suspect it was), that's (almost) as bad as the sherif's past photo.