L (Lawrence) Douglas Wilder (born January 17, 1931), served as the first African American to be elected as governor of Virginia and first African-American governor of any state since Reconstruction. Wilder served as the 66th Governor of Virginia from 1990 to 1994. When earlier elected as Lieutenant Governor, he was the first African American elected to statewide office in Virginia. His most recent political office was Mayor of Richmond, Virginia, which he held from 2005 to 2009.
L. Douglas Wilder was born in the segregated Church Hill neighborhood of Richmond on January 17, 1931. His parents were Robert and Beulah Wilder, and he is the grandson of slaves, his paternal grandparents having been enslaved in Goochland County. Wilder’s father sold insurance, his mother worked as a maid, and while never completely destitute, Wilder recalled his early years during the Great Depression as a childhood of “gentle poverty. Wilder was elected governor on November 8, 1989, defeating Republican Marshall Coleman by a spread of less than half a percent. The narrow victory margin prompted a recount, which reaffirmed Wilder’s election. He was sworn in on January 13, 1990 by former U.S. Supreme Court Justice Lewis F. Powell, Jr..
Wilder has continued as an adjunct professor in public policy at Virginia Commonwealth University. He writes occasional editorials for Virginia newspapers. Douglas Wilder is the founder of the United States National Slavery Museum. 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.
