Lawrence Douglas Wilder was born January 17, 1931 in Richmond, Virginia. He was inaugurated as the first Black elected governor in U.S. history on January 13, 1990 in Virginia. The first Black governor of a U.S. state was P. B. S. Pinchback, who was not elected, but became Governor of Louisiana on December 9, 1872 upon the removal of his predecessor from office. Deval Patrick, the Governor of Massachusetts, is the second African American to be elected governor, and became the third African American governor overall. And David Paterson recently became governor of New York after the resignation of his predecessor.
Wilder, the grandson of slaves, took the oath of office in Richmond, Virginia’s capital and the former capital of the Confederacy. The state had once denied him admission to its White schools. He served from 1990 to 1994. He graduated from Virginia Union University in 1951 with a bachelor’s degree in chemistry.
Wilder then served in the Korean conflict, earning a Bronze Star for heroism. After his service, he attended Howard University School of Law under the G.I. Bill, graduating in 1959 and co-founding the law firm Wilder, Gregory, and Associates. He was elected a state senator in 1969, becoming the first Black to serve in the Virginia Legislature since Reconstruction. He was elected lieutenant governor in 1985 making him the first Black elected to statewide executive office in the South in the twentieth century. He served as lieutenant governor until he won the governorship. In recognition of his landmark achievement, the NAACP awarded Wilder the Spingarn Medal for 1990. He currently serves as mayor of Richmond.
Mayor Wilder was named after poet Paul Laurence Dunbar and abolitionist, speaker and author Frederick Douglass. Wilder is a life member of Omega Psi Phi Fraternity, Inc.
On October 11, 1958, Wilder married Eunice Montgomery. Before divorcing in 1978, they had three children: Loren, Lynn, and Lawrence Douglas, Jr.
During his tenure as governor, Wilder granted a controversial pardon to basketball star Allen Iverson. Iverson, then a popular high school sports figure, was convicted after being accused of assaulting a woman in bowling alley and sentenced to 15 years in prison. However, after Iverson had served just five months, Governor Wilder granted Iverson clemency and released Iverson from his prison sentence.
Wilder left office in 1994 because Virginia does not allow governors to serve successive terms.
Wilder declared himself a candidate for President in 1992 and briefly considered running for the U.S. Senate in 1994. Since his tenure as governor, Wilder has declared himself an independent.
On May 30, 2004, Wilder announced his intention to run for Mayor of Richmond. Until recently, the Richmond City Council chose the mayor from among its 9 members.
On November 2, 2004, Wilder received 79% of the vote; Wilder is the first directly elected Mayor of Richmond in sixty years. Upon winning the election in November, Wilder communicated his intentions of aggressively taking on corruption in the city government by issuing several ultimatums to the sitting City Council even before he took office. He was sworn in on January 2, 2005.
In 2008 Wilder voiced support for the construction of a Black theme park in Richmond.
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 is also named after Mr. Wilder. Wilder also received an Honorary Doctorate from Arizona State University in 2004.
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