L. Douglas Wilder Addresses the Virginia Senate

Virginia state senator L. Douglas Wilder addresses the Senate Rules Committee in March 1978, and the serving senate clerk, J. T. Shropshire (at right), turns to look at him. Wilder defeated two white candidates in the 1969 election for the senate and became the twentieth century's first Black state senator. He went on to become the lieutenant governor of Virginia, the governor of Virginia, and the mayor of Richmond.