Author Linwood Norman, Mayor Wilder's former press secretary, will speak about his new book, When Mayor Doug Wilder Ruled Richmond: Strong-Arm Politics in Virginia's Capital City. Copies will be available for purchase.

From the publisher: Our nation’s first elected Black governor, L. Douglas Wilder, returned to public service in 2005 as the first popularly elected mayor of Richmond, Virginia in nearly sixty years. Despite his landslide election, voters may have had little idea what they were getting themselves into, as many were ill-prepared for Wilder’s bold style of leadership. He had remarkable success in reducing crime, cutting government spending, and boosting economic vitality, but Wilder’s relationship with City Council and the School Board—and the disagreements that ensued from both sides—tarnished his record as mayor. Author and former press secretary to the mayor, Linwood Norman, skillfully recounts the turmoil of Richmond’s transition to the “strong mayor” model of local government during what was a memorable chapter in Richmond’s rich political history that is still deliberated today, more than fifteen years after Wilder’s charismatic tenure concluded. 

As Mayor Wilder’s press secretary, Linwood Norman was provided with an insider’s view on what compelled Wilder to take actions that were deemed courageous by some and abominable by others. A Richmond native with a master’s degree in journalism from Virginia Commonwealth University, Norman also served as the city’s director of communications during Wilder’s mayoral term. Other positions, spanning the public, corporate, and nonprofit sectors included senior communications advisor for the US Department of Health and Human Services; communications manager for Anthem Blue Cross Blue Shield; and communications director for ZERO—The End of Prostate Cancer. Earlier in his career, Norman was a reporter for the Newport News Daily Press; the Petersburg Progress Index, where he received a Virginia Press Association First-Place Award for Investigative Journalism; and a contributing writer for Richmond Magazine and Virginia Town & City Magazine.