The Douglas Wilder reference article from the English Wikipedia on 24-Jul-2004 (provided by Fixed Reference: snapshots of Wikipedia from wikipedia.org)

Douglas Wilder

Lawrence Douglas Wilder (born January 17, 1931) was the first African-American to be elected governor of a U.S State. He became governor of Virginia on January 13, 1990 after being elected on November 7, 1989. He was governor until 1994. He was born in Richmond, Virginia. He briefly considered running for president in 1991 in the Democratic Party.

The first African-American governor of a U.S State was P. B. S. Pinchback, who became governor of Louisiana in December 9, 1872 upon the removal from office of his predecessor.

On May 30, 2004 Wilder announced his intentions to run for Mayor of Richmond. Until recently, the City Council chose the Mayor from among its 9 members. The attempt to change this policy began in November 2003 when voters approved a mayor-at-large proposal (~80% voting in favor of the measure). Wilder was a leading proponent of the mayor-at-large proposal.

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