Douglas Wilder

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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.

Wilder, the first African American governor to rule a US territory since Reconstruction, and the first African-American governor in Richmond, Virginia, graduated from Virginia Union University and served in the United States Army during the Korean War.

After graduating from the Howard University School of Law, he began a law practice in Richmond.

Wilder, a member of the Democratic Party, gained the Virginia Senate in 1969.

He served in the chamber until 1986, becoming Virginia's first African American to hold statewide office.

Wilder barely defeated Republican Marshall Coleman in the 1989 Virginia gubernatorial election. In 1994, Wilder left the governorship as the Virginia constitution barred governors from seeking re-election.

He briefly ran for the 1992 Democratic presidential nomination but was disqualified from the race just before the first primaries.

In the 1994 Virginia Senate election, he briefly ran as an outsider before being pushed out of the contest.

Wilder returned to the electoral office in 2005, becoming Richmond's first directly elected Mayor.

After leaving office in 2009, he served as an adjunct professor and established the United States National Slavery Museum.

Early life

Wilder was born in Richmond's segregated Church Hill neighborhood on January 17, 1931. He is the son of Beulah Olive (Richards) and Robert Judson Wilder. He is the grandson of slaves enslaved in Goochland County, and his paternal grandparents were enslaved. Wilder, the seventh of eight brothers and sisters, was named for African-American writers Paul Laurence Dunbar and Frederick Douglass.

Wilder's father sold insurance and his mother worked as a maid. Although the family was never entirely destitute, Wilder recalled his youth during the Great Depression as a time of "gentle poverty" in the United States.

Wilder forged his way into Virginia Union University, a historically black college, by serving tables at restaurants and shining shoes after graduating in 1951 with a degree in chemistry.

He was drafted into the United States Army during the Korean War and committed to combat service. He and two other guys were cut off from their team at Battle of Pork Chop Hill, but they blasted nineteen North Korean troops into surrendering, for which Wilder was given the Bronze Star Medal. When he was discharged in 1953, he was a sergeant.

Wilder spent time in the state medical examiner's office and obtained a master's degree in chemistry after the war. In 1956, Howard University Law School reformed his career plans and enrolled Howard University Law School. He began a law practice in Richmond, Virginia, after graduating in 1959.

In 1958, Wilder married Eunice Montgomery. Lynn Diana; Lawrence Douglas Jr.; and Loren Deane were three children before divorcing in 1978.

Early political life

Douglas Wilder had joined the Democratic Party and began his career in public service by winning a 1969 special election for the Virginia State Senate from a Richmond-area congressional district. He was the first African American elected to the Virginia Senate since Reconstruction. Wilder was born in a predominantly African-American district, and he became a Democrat in a largely conservative, white-majority legislature in 1970.

In 1982, Wilder briefly flirted with an outsider running for the United States Senate as a candidate. In announcing his candidacy, John Kerry, the initial nominee for the Democratic nomination, honoring the Byrd Organization. Wilder, angling that Pickett would praise a political machine that has steadfastly opposed racial integration, has threatened to run as an outsider if Pickett were to win the nomination. Pickett not only knew that Wilder was serious, but that he would siphon off enough black votes in a three-way election to hand over the keys to Republican nominee Paul Trible, but also to Republican Senator Paul Trible. Pickett dropped out of the race, while Wilder dropped plans to run for the Senate.

On a Democratic ticket headed by Attorney General Gerald L. Baliles, the party's candidate for governor, Wilder was barely elected as the 35th Lieutenant Governor of Virginia in 1985. Wilder became the first African American to win a statewide election in Virginia. Wilder had undertaken a two-month "back roads" campaign tour of the state, visiting Virginia's predominantly rural central and western areas and raising his name recognition throughout the state, aware that he needed to reach the majority-white population.

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Post-political career

Wilder has taught public policy at Virginia Commonwealth University, part of the L. Douglas Wilder School of Government and Public Affairs, where he has served as a professor of public policy. He contributes to Virginia newspapers' occasional editorials.

Douglas Wilder, the founding of the United States National Slavery Museum, a non-profit group headquartered in Fredericksburg, Virginia, is the founder of the United States National Slavery Museum. Since 2001, the museum has been fundraising and advocating to create a national museum of slavery in the United States. Wilder requested that the museum be granted tax exempt status in June 2008, but was refused. Taxes on the property had not been paid at that time, and the house was in danger of being auctioned by Fredericksburg's city.

The museum has been assessed delinquent property taxes for the years 2009, 2010, and 2011 totaling less than $215,000. On September 22, 2011, the corporation applied for Chapter 11 Bankruptcy Coverage. Douglas Wilder had refused to respond or answer any questions from either news reporters or patrons who had donated artifacts as early as 2011.

When Wilder refused to help Barack Obama, the country's first black president, for another term, he made news in 2012. He noted that he supported Obama in 2008 but that the president's time in the Oval Office had been a disappointment. Despite having gone to a Romney fundraiser, Wilder did not endorse Mitt Romney, the Republican challenger, and later said he wished for an Obama win.

Wilder's Son of Virginia: A Life in America's Political Arena, published in 2015.

Wilder lodged a lawsuit against John Accordino, who was serving as the Dean of his namesake college, for bullying Wilder's assistant. Accordino resigned from his position and Susan Gooden was named as the interim dean of the college, and then Wilder resigned four months after being hired.

In March 2019, Sydney Black lodged a lawsuit against Wilder under Title IX of the Education Amendments Act of 1972, alleging sexual assault, which she denied, but later told her that there was no budget for her position at Virginia Commonwealth University. Wilder did kiss the girl without her permission in July 2019. Wilder responded with a lengthy rebuttal in which he denied Black and him "non-consensual contact." In addition, he denied retaliating against her by claiming that her position had been eliminated. Wilder also said that the investigator ignored contradictory evidence, including the fact that Black called her eight times after the night when he allegedly kissed her, something she may not have done if she were threatened or threatened. The university intended to consider the investigator's report and Wilder's rebuttal before deciding what action to take, if any. Wilder reported on October 24, 2019, that the university's internal review committee had found him not guilty of wrongdoing.

Wilder expressed fear in 2020 that the state archives at the Library of Virginia had failed to provide access to the documents of his gubernatorial administration.

Wilder, along with former Republican governors Jim Gilmore, Bob McDonnell, and George Allen, joined Governor Youngkin's transition team in 2021, following the gubernatorial election of Republican Glenn Youngkin.

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Honors and awards

• In 2004, Virginia Commonwealth University named its School of Government and Public Affairs in honor of L. Douglas Wilder. Wilder serves as an adjunct faculty member at the school.
• The Virginia Union University library, Norfolk State University's performing arts center, and a Hampton University dormitory are also named after Governor Wilder.
• Wilder also received an Honorary Doctorate from Arizona State University in 2004.
• Virginia State University named its Cooperative Extension Building the L. Douglas Wilder Building
• In 1996, L. Douglas Wilder Middle School was named in honor of former governor Wilder.