Conspicuously absent from Monday’s historic dedication of the Virginia Civil Rights Memorial was one of the Commonwealth’s—and the country’s—most significant political figures:
L. Douglas Wilder.
Wilder, the current mayor of Richmond, home to our state capitol, was also the nation’s first black governor, elected in 1989. He was a card-playing friend of noted civil rights attorney Oliver W. Hill Sr., who represented Moton High School student Barbara Johns, whose walkout on April 23, 1951 is immortalized in the memorial unveiled Monday.
So where was Doug?
“He wanted to be there but there was no way he could change his schedule ,” said mayoral spokesman Linwood Norman. “He had a previous longstanding commitment.”
When asked whether the commitment was on city business or personal, Norman said he did not know.
There was no such mystery surrounding the absence of Lt. Gov. Bill Bolling. Bolling sent his regrets through Senate Minority Leader Thomas K. Norment Jr., R-James City, who spoke at the ceremony in Bolling’s absence. Bolling was attending the annual conference/junket of the National Association of Lieutenant Governors in captivating Buffalo, N.Y.
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