Douglas Wilder: First Elected Black Governor

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.

Paterson Sworn in As New York’s First Black Governor

David Paterson was sworn in as New York's governor on today, becoming the state's first black chief executive and vowing to move past the scandal that has rocked the state Capitol. Paterson, who is legally blind, was interrupted at several times during his address with thunderous applause. Before he spoke, lawmakers gave him a two-minute standing ovation and chanted: "David! David! David!" "This transition today is an historic message to the world: That we live by the same values that we profess, and we are a government of laws, not individuals," Paterson said.

Governor Paterson rose from the lieutenant governor's office after ex-governor Eliot Spitzer resigned last week amid allegations that he hired a call girl from a high-priced escort service. It was a dramatic fall for Spitzer, who was elected with an overwhelming share of the vote and who had vowed to root out corruption at the Capitol. Paterson spoke without notes for 26 minutes with much of his speech being self-deprecating humor that helped define him as a lawmaker and lieutenant governor. It seemed aimed at smoothing the damage Spitzer did with his adversaries in the Legislature. "We move forward. Today is Monday. There is work to be done," Paterson said. "There was an oath to be taken. There's trust that needs to be restored. There are issues that need to be addressed." Paterson drew howls from the audience when he poked fun at his disability and deadpanned that he would accept an invitation to dinner with the state's top Republican, Senator Joseph Bruno, only if his "taster" could come along. He playfully teased Assembly Minority Leader James Tedisco, a former small-college basketball star, that he is ready to school him on the court. And he told the story of how Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver stopped him from accidentally bringing his gavel down on a glass, saying he didn't want him to turn the Legislature into a Jewish wedding. The mood at the Capitol was cheerful and most politicians said they were hopeful that Paterson can help the state recover from the shock of the past week. Lawmakers including New York Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton, New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg and governors from three neighboring states attended Paterson's inauguration.

Governor Paterson was the lieutenant governor for just 14 months. Before that, he was a Democratic state senator since 1985, representing parts of Harlem and Manhattan's Upper West Side. He is the first legally blind governor in the nation to serve more than a few days in office. His father, Basil, a former state senator representing Harlem and later New York's first Black secretary of state, was part of a political fraternity that included fellow Democrats U.S. Representative Charles Rangel, former New York City Mayor David Dinkins and former Manhattan Borough President Percy Sutton.

New Governor of New York

The state of New York is getting a new governor. Lieutenant Governor David Paterson will replace Governor Eliot Spitzer effective Monday. Governor Spitzer announced today that he is resigning, completing a spectacular fall from power for a politician whose once-promising career imploded amid revelations that he paid thousands of dollars for high-end prostitutes. A law enforcement official said that Spitzer had spent tens of thousands of dollars with the call-girl service Emperors Club VIP. Another official said the amount could be as high as $80,000. Spitzer built his political reputation on rooting out government corruption, and made a name for himself as attorney general as crusader against shady practices and overly generous compensation. He also cracked down on prostitution. He was known as the "Sheriff of Wall Street." Time magazine named him "Crusader of the Year," and the tabloids proclaimed him "Eliot Ness."

Soon-to-be Governor Paterson will become New York's first Black governor. He was not at the announcement, but he issued a statement in which he said he was "saddened by what we have learned over the past several days. It is now time for Albany, the state capitol, to get back to work as the people of this state expect from us," said Paterson. Barely known outside of his Harlem political base, the 53 year old Paterson has been in New York government since his election to the state Senate in 1985. He led the Democratic caucus in the Senate before running with Spitzer as his No. 2.
Though legally blind, Paterson has enough sight in his right eye to walk unaided, recognize people at conversational distance and even read if text is placed close to his face. While Spitzer is renowned for his abrasive style, Paterson has built a reputation as a mediator.

New York Senate Majority Leader Joseph Bruno, Spitzer's chief rival, said, "We are going to partner with the lieutenant governor when he becomes governor." "David has always been very open with me; very forthright ... I look forward to a positive, productive relationship." The lieutenant governor's office will remain vacant until the next general election in 2010 under state law.

10 Things You Didn't Know About David Paterson

1. David Alexander Paterson was born on May 20, 1954, in Brooklyn, N.Y., to labor law attorney Basil Paterson and his wife, Portia. His father was the second Black politician nominated for statewide office in New York and served as a state senator. David was legally blind from birth, with only partial sight in his right eye.

2. When their son was denied the opportunity to attend classes with sighted students in his hometown, Paterson's family moved to Hempstead, N.Y., so that he could participate in a mainstream classroom. An excellent student, Paterson graduated from high school in three years.

3. He attended Columbia University, receiving a bachelor's degree in history in 1977. He worked at various jobs for a few years and then earned a law degree from Hofstra Law School in 1983.

4. In 1985, Paterson was elected to the New York State Senate, representing the 30th State Senate District, which encompasses Harlem, East Harlem, and the Upper West Side neighborhoods of Manhattan. It is the same district his father had represented.

5. Paterson gained national attention in the 1990s because of his efforts to preserve a Black burial ground that was discovered at the excavation site for construction of a new federal building in New York City. He worked to secure federal funding for the project and said in 1997 that "through the discovery of the African-American Burial Grounds, our history has at last come to the surface for all of us to know and respect."

6. In 2002, David Paterson was elected Democratic leader of the New York State Senate, the first nonwhite legislative leader in New York's history.

7. In 2004, he became the first visually impaired person to address a Democratic National Convention and, in 2006, he was elected New York's first Black lieutenant governor.

8. David Paterson lives in Harlem with his wife, Michelle, and their two children, Ashley and Alex.

9. Paterson is a board member of the Achilles Track Club, an international track club for athletes with disabilities. He completed the New York City Marathon in 1999. He is also on the President's Council of the American Foundation for the Blind.

10. When asked by the New York Amsterdam News about life lessons he had learned, Paterson replied, "You never get to any level of leadership where your race is not a factor." He continued, "You don't want to be the first; you want to be the first of many."