Doug Wilder Addresses the Senate

Doug Wilder ran for the Senate of Virginia in 1969 and won a plurality of the vote in a three-way race against two white candidates. His victory made him the twentieth century's first African American state senator. Over the course of the decade, he became heavily influential in Richmond, especially on white legislators seeking black support. Journalist Michael Isikoff described Wilder as "the undisputed kingpin of black politics in Virginia," in a May 1, 1982, profile in the Washington Post. In this photo, Wilder is addressing the Senate Rules Committee; clerk J. T. Shropshire listens at right.