Douglas Wilder becomes the first elected African American governor as he takes office as Governor of Virginia in Richmond, Virginia.

Lawrence Douglas Wilder is an American lawyer and politician who served as the 66th governor of Virginia from 1990 to 1994. He was the first African American to serve as governor of a U.S. state since the Reconstruction era, and the first African American ever elected as governor. He is currently a professor at the namesake Wilder School at Virginia Commonwealth University.

The governor of the Commonwealth of Virginia is the head of government of the Commonwealth of Virginia. The governor is head of the executive branch of the government of Virginia and is the commander-in-chief of the Virginia National Guard and Virginia Defense Force.

Richmond is the capital city of the U.S. commonwealth of Virginia. Incorporated in 1742, Richmond has been an independent city since 1871. It is the fourth-most populous city in Virginia with a population of 226,610 at the 2020 census, while the Richmond metropolitan area with over 1.37 million residents is the third-most populous metropolitan area in Virginia and 44th-largest in the United States.