Product Code Database
Lawrence Douglas Wilder (born January 17, 1931) is an American lawyer and politician who served as the 66th governor of Virginia from 1990 to 1994. He was the first African American to serve as governor of a U.S. state since the Reconstruction era, and the first African American ever elected as governor. He is currently a professor at the namesake Wilder School at Virginia Commonwealth University.
Born in Richmond, Virginia, Wilder graduated from Virginia Union University and served in the United States Army during the Korean War. He established a legal practice in Richmond after graduating from the Howard University School of Law. A member of the Democratic Party, Wilder won election to the Virginia Senate in 1969. He remained in that chamber until 1986, when he took office as the Lieutenant Governor of Virginia, becoming the first African American to hold statewide office in Virginia. In the 1989 Virginia gubernatorial election, Wilder narrowly defeated Republican Marshall Coleman.
Wilder left the gubernatorial office in 1994, as the Virginia constitution prohibits governors from immediately seeking re-election. He briefly sought the 1992 Democratic presidential nomination, but withdrew from the race before the first primaries. He also briefly ran as an independent in the 1994 Virginia Senate election before dropping out of the race. Wilder returned to elective office in 2005, when he became the first directly elected mayor of Richmond. After leaving office in 2009, he worked as an adjunct professor and was involved in planning the unrealized United States National Slavery Museum.
Wilder's father sold insurance and his mother worked as a maid. While the family was never completely destitute, Wilder recalled his early years during the Great Depression as a childhood of "gentle poverty".Joe Taylor, Associated Press, "Wilder’s Roots in ‘Gentle Poverty’", Ocala Star-Banner, November 9, 1989.
Wilder worked his way through Virginia Union University, a historically black university, by waiting tables at hotels and shining shoes, graduating in 1951 with a degree in chemistry.Virginia Union University, The Wilder Collection: Biographical Information , Retrieved October 5, 2013.
Drafted into the United States Army during the Korean War, he volunteered for combat duty. At the Battle of Pork Chop Hill, he and two other men found themselves cut off from their unit, but they bluffed nineteen North Korean soldiers into surrendering, for which Wilder was awarded the Bronze Star Medal. He was a sergeant when he was discharged in 1953.Associated Press, Fredericksburg Free Lance-Star, Wilder: Former Governor Now a Candidate for Richmond Mayor, September 26, 2005.
Following the war, Wilder worked in the state medical examiner's office and pursued a master's degree in chemistry. In 1956 he changed his career plans and entered Howard University Law School. After graduating in 1959, he established a law practice in Richmond, the Virginia capital.CNN.com, "Then & Now: Douglas Wilder", June 19, 2005.
Wilder married Eunice Montgomery in 1958. The couple had three children before divorcing in 1978: Lynn Diana; Lawrence Douglas Jr.; and Loren Deane.B. Drummond Ayres, Jr., New York Times, "The 1989 Elections: The Virginia Contest; Man in the News; Lawrence Douglas Wilder; From Confrontation to Conciliation", The New York Times November 8, 1989.
Wilder briefly flirted with an independent bid for the United States Senate in 1982. He did so after the initial favorite for the Democratic nomination, State Delegate Owen Pickett of Virginia Beach, paid homage to the Byrd Organization in announcing his bid. Angered that Pickett would praise a political machine who obstinately resisted racial integration, Wilder threatened to make an independent bid for the seat if Pickett won the nomination. Pickett not only realized that Wilder was serious, but that he would siphon off enough black votes in a three-way race to hand the seat to the Republican nominee, Congressman Paul Trible. Pickett pulled out of the race, and Wilder abandoned plans to run for the Senate.
In 1985 Wilder was narrowly elected as the 35th Lieutenant Governor of Virginia on a Democratic ticket headed by Attorney General Gerald L. Baliles, the party's candidate for governor. Wilder was the first African American to win a statewide election in Virginia. Aware that he needed to reach the swath of the state's majority-white electorate, Wilder had undertaken a two-month "back roads" campaign tour of the state, visiting Virginia's predominantly rural central and western regions and enhancing his name recognition across the state.
During his tenure as governor, Wilder worked on crime and gun control initiatives. He also worked to fund Virginia's transportation initiatives, effectively lobbying Congress to reallocate highway money to the states with the greatest needs. "Then & Now: Douglas Wilder", CNN, June 19, 2005. Retrieved March 4, 2009. Much residential and office development had taken place in Northern Virginia without its receiving sufficient federal money for infrastructure improvements to keep up. He also succeeded in passing state bond issues to support improving transportation. In May 1990 Wilder ordered state agencies and universities to divest themselves of any investments in South Africa because of its policy of apartheid.
Wilder made a failed attempt to enter into an agreement with the Washington Redskins to build a stadium at Potomac Yard in Alexandria. Wilder and Washington Redskins owner Jack Kent Cooke had made an agreement for the move which entailed a $130 million subsidy by the state of the Virginia. However, legislators revised the agreement to reduce the cost to taxpayers by $40 million (relative to the original plan by Cooke and Wilder), which led Cooke to pull out of the agreement.
Relations between Wilder and then Senator Chuck Robb became strained following Wilder's aborted 1982 senate bid, with surreptitious recordings taken by Robb's staff contributing to a long running feud between the two men.
On November 2, 2004, Wilder received 79% of the vote (55,319 votes) to become the first direct election mayor of the city in sixty years. Upon winning the election, Wilder communicated his intentions to take on corruption in the city government, issuing several ultimatums to the sitting city council before he took office. He was sworn in on January 2, 2005.
He was a member of the Mayors Against Illegal Guns Coalition, a Bipartisanship group with a stated goal of "making the public safer by getting illegal guns off the streets." The Coalition was co-chaired by former Boston Mayor Thomas Menino and former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg.
On May 16, 2008, Wilder announced that he would not seek reelection to another four-year term as mayor.
Douglas Wilder is the founder of the United States National Slavery Museum, a non-profit organization based in Fredericksburg, Virginia. The museum has been fundraising and campaigning since 2001 to establish a national museum of slavery in America. In June 2008 Wilder requested that the museum be granted tax exempt status, which was denied. From that time, taxes on the land had not been paid and the property was at risk of being sold at auction by the city of Fredericksburg.
Beset by financial problems the museum has been assessed delinquent property taxes for the years 2009, 2010, and 2011 amounting to just over $215,000. The organization filed for Chapter 11 Bankruptcy protection on September 22, 2011. Early in 2011 Douglas Wilder was refusing to respond to or answer any questions from either news reporters or patrons who had donated artifacts.
Wilder made news in 2012 when he refused to support Barack Obama, the nation's first black president, for another term. He noted that he supported Obama in 2008, but said the president's tenure in the Oval Office thus far had been a disappointment. Wilder did not endorse Mitt Romney, the Republican challenger, and later said that he hoped for an Obama victory despite having gone to a Romney fundraiser.
In 2015, Wilder published an autobiography, Son of Virginia: A Life in America's Political Arena.
In March 2018, Wilder filed suit against John Accordino, who was serving as the Dean of his namesake college, for harassing Wilder's assistant. This led to Accordino stepping down from his position and Susan Gooden being named as the interim dean of the college and then Wilder dropping the suit 4 months after filing.
In March 2019, Sydney Black filed a complaint under Title IX of the Education Amendments Act of 1972 against Wilder for sexual harassment after she claims he made sexual advances to her, which she rebuffed, and then told her later that there was no funding for her position at the Virginia Commonwealth University. In July 2019, the university's independent investigator concluded that Wilder did kiss the student without her consent. In response, Wilder provided a detailed rebuttal, in which he denied "non-consensual sexual contact” between Black and him. In addition, he denied retaliating against her by saying her position had been eliminated. Wilder also claimed the investigator ignored contradictory evidence, including his claim that Black called him eight times after the night during which he supposedly kissed her, something she presumably would not have done if she felt harassed or threatened. The university planned to consider the investigator's findings and Wilder's rebuttal before deciding what action to take, if any. On October 24, 2019, Wilder announced that the university's internal review panel had cleared him of wrongdoing.
In 2020, Wilder raised concerns that the state archives at the Library of Virginia had failed to provide access to the records of his gubernatorial administration. Library of Virginia apologizes for delay with Wilder papers, promises fix as 'highest priority' (July 9, 2020)
In 2021, following the gubernatorial election of Republican Glenn Youngkin, Wilder joined Governor Youngkin's transition team, alongside former Republican governors Jim Gilmore, Bob McDonnell, and George Allen.
|-
|-
|-
|-
|-
|-
Honors and awards
Personal papers
The L. Douglas Wilder Collection resides at the L. Douglas Wilder Library and Learning Resource Center at Wilder's alma mater, Virginia Union University. The collection contains press office photographs from Wilder's time as governor, over 600 audio cassette tapes of Wilder's WRVA radio talk show as well as other speeches, and over 350 video cassettes of political events, campaign materials, and news appearances. A gallery located in the library also displays many of Wilder's political recognitions and awards.
See also
Notes
Further reading
External links
Categories: 1931 Births, Candidates In The 1992 United States Presidential Election, 20th-century Virginia Politicians, African-american Christians, African-american Mayors In Virginia, African-american United States Army Personnel, African-american State Governors Of The United States, African-american State Legislators In Virginia, African-american Candidates For President Of The United States, African Americans In The Korean War, United States Army Personnel Of The Korean War, Anti-crime Activists, Baptists From Virginia, Democratic Party Governors Of Virginia, Governors Of Virginia, Howard University School Of Law Alumni, Lieutenant Governors Of Virginia, Living People, Mayors Of Richmond, Virginia, Military Personnel From Richmond, Virginia, Virginia Democrats, Virginia Independents, Virginia Lawyers, Virginia Union University Alumni, 20th-century African-american Politicians, 21st-century African-american Politicians, 21st-century Mayors Of Places In Virginia, 20th-century Members Of The Virginia General Assembly, Black Conservatism In The United States
|
|
