If you lived in Richmond in 2005, chances are you recall when the nation’s first Black elected governor, Douglas Wilder, became the city’s first popularly elected mayor in 60 years.

Although Wilder won in a landslide election, plenty of voters weren’t prepared for his strong style of leadership. Linwood Norman, Wilder’s press secretary during his tenure as mayor, had a front row seat for the turmoil of Richmond’s transition to the “strong mayor” model of local government during that era.

“It was quite a rollercoaster ride to work with someone as dynamic as Mayor Wilder,” Norman recalls. “My biggest challenge was anticipating what would be needed in order to be prepared for the occasion at hand, be it a speech, press conference or some other event.”

Norman had always thought that he might someday write a book about Wilder’s impact during a unique moment in the city’s history. He’d collected a wealth of materials from those days, down to keeping copies of all press releases, annual reports and such. By the time Wilder’s term ended, Norman had accumulated five boxes full of stuff, all of which sat in storage for nearly 15 years while he worked as a senior communications adviser for the U.S. Department of Health and Services in Washington, D.C.

After he retired, Norman decided to write the book because, to his surprise, most published materials from one mayoral administration to another are not archived by the city, and everything would have been lost to oblivion without a book to document such a unique era.

The result was “When Mayor Doug Wilder Ruled Richmond: Strong-Arm Politics in Virginia’s Capital City,” which will be the subject of Norman’s talk at the Virginia Museum of History and Culture on Nov. 14. The book also features a foreword by former Wilder press aide and Richmond City Councilmember Jon Baliles, who runs the Substack “RVA 5X5.”

“My goal was to provide a balanced and unbiased account of Wilder’s actions as mayor during what became a turbulent time of city governance, as officials were adjusting to their roles under the new strong mayor model,” Norman says. “To my knowledge, there are no other books today that document Wilder’s time as mayor.”

In many ways, Norman thinks Wilder was particularly well suited to being Richmond’s first popularly elected mayor. He had extensive experience with the workings of state government and knew how to get things done based on his collective 24 years as state senator, lieutenant governor and governor. According to Norman, “That vast knowledge base and network of colleagues served him well in confronting the serious issues facing Richmond.”

But in other ways, Wilder was less than well-suited to take on the job. He wanted to see results and his patience was tested by the slow-moving ways of Richmond’s political leadership. “Richmond’s political arena is faulted by some for having a ‘go along – get along’ approach that can lead to a relative state of inertia,” Norman says. “As a Richmond Times-Dispatch editorial once said regarding Wilder, ‘A little cage-rattling can be healthy in a hotbed of social rest like Richmond.’”

Style Weekly named Wilder “Richmonder of the Year” several times, including in 2005, adding that he was perhaps more powerful as mayor than when he was governor. “For the last 12 months, Richmond’s first popularly elected mayor in half a century hasn’t only shaken things up, he’s jackhammered the foundation,” this publication wrote. “Single-handedly, Wilder’s taken on Richmond’s ruling business class, challenged City Council at every turn, and asserted his influence in a tight gubernatorial race.”

Norman is the first to acknowledge that how Wilder’s mayoral years resonate today is wholly dependent on who you ask. Overall, Norman expects that Wilder will be remembered as a catalyst for change in a city that had experienced rampant corruption among its local officials. “He pledged to eliminate the cesspool of corruption and inefficiency in local government,” Norman says. “And I think he essentially succeeded in accomplishing that during the time he was in office.”

Although the book was extremely time consuming to write—it includes nearly 340 endnotes—Norman found that the hardest part was trying to ensure he offered a balanced depiction of Wilder’s tenure as mayor. “I didn’t want to intentionally gloss over anything,” he says. “Instead, I wanted to lay it all out there: the good, the bad, and the ugly.”

The way Norman sees it, Wilder secured his legacy when his love for his hometown compelled him to leave the comfort of retirement and spend four arduous years in office trying to guide the city down a positive path. “He demanded accountability in government, and he wasn’t afraid to make decisions that could be considered unpopular,” he says. “While many may have disagreed with his tactics, a substantial majority of citizens felt he was moving the city in the right direction.”

Kicking and screaming all the way, perhaps, but moving forward.

As for the legendary Wilder charisma, Norman is succinct. “I think it runs in the family.”

Linwood Norman’s book talk, “When Mayor Doug Wilder Ruled Richmond: Strong-Arm Politics in Virginia’s Capital City,” takes place Thursday, Nov. 14 at noon at the Virginia Museum of History and Culture, virginiahistory.org