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Hijinks and Low Expectations

The upcoming mayoral elections have generated neither heat nor light. The candidates are just so bland, so un-Wilderesque. We have become spoiled; we watched with bemusement, mystification and occasionally horror the mayoralty of L. Douglas Wilder . Controversies raged from one week to the next. The media struggled to understand and to catch up with events. But in this respect, Wilder is not unique; Richmond has had a long history of colorful mayors. Here are a few highlights and lowlights.

Richmond was incorporated as a city in 1782, population approximately 1,800, half of them slaves. In that same year, property holders were granted voting rights for the first time, and on July 2 they met at Henrico County Courthouse and chose "twelve fit and able men" (meaning landed white gentry) to lead them. They then selected from amongst themselves Dr. William Foushee (term from 1782-3) to be Richmond's first mayor. During the Revolution, a man assaulted Foushee because he thought the good doctor was too chummy with British officers. A witness described how the man "flew at him [Foushee], and in an instant had turned his eye out of his socket, and while it hung upon his cheek, the fellow was barbarous enough to endeavor to pluck it entirely out, but was prevented." As a doctor, Foushee was farsighted enough to initiate a smallpox vaccination program, the first such program in Virginia. He was also at one time the president of the James River Company .

In 1851, Richmond switched to popular elections for mayor, instead of the council appointed system originally established in 1782.

In 1863, the city was in the throes of a food shortage, particularly bread, a result of hardships of the Civil War. Three hundred angry women descended on Capitol square to demand that Mayor Joseph Mayo (1866-8) redress the situation. His perceived inaction led to a Bread Riot , in which women sallied forth ransacking stores and taking food. Mayor Mayo tried to quell the riot by reading the Riot Act , literally, to the women. The femi-mob only dispersed after Jefferson Davis threatened to open fire on them. It was Mayo who surrendered the city of Richmond to Union forces in April 1865 amidst a conflagration that enveloped large parts of the city.

Henry K. Ellyson (1870-1), publisher of the Richmond Dispatch , was selected by council to be mayor. But George Chahoon (1868-70), the sitting mayor, refused to vacate the office. Ellyson cronies (mostly white policemen) surrounded Chahoon and his cohorts (mostly black policemen) in a police station and refused them food and water. The Virginia Supreme Court of Appeals finally got the case and established a tribunal to settle the matter on April 27, 1870. People crowded into the galleries, until it gave way and crashed onto the courtroom floor. This floor too gave way and hundreds of people fell more than 40 feet to their various fates. Sixty-two died and over 250 people were injured. The court finally decided for Ellyson. But the story didn't end there. There was an election a month later and Chahoon's group carried the day. A messenger who was delivering the ballot box from a large voting district was set-upon and beaten, and the ballot box was carried off, never to be seen again. Charges flew fast and furious. Finally, after another election, A. M. Keily (1871-6) was elected mayor.

Mayor Carlton McCarthy (1904-08) was a man who took prurience very seriously. He demanded that all department store mannequins be fully clothed, as naked ankles were considered too sexy for polite society.

During the mayoralty of George Ainslie (1912-24), the "strong mayor" system was established. His new charge was to see to the administration of city policies and to appoint officials to any vacancies in city government.

In the midst of the Depression, Mayor J. Fulmer Bright (1924-40) saw red, or rather Reds. A New York Communist (the worst kind of Communist, no doubt) came to town and organized a march of unemployed blacks. They marched to City Hall and demanded an audience with the mayor. Hizzoner, in a moment that would have made current Mayor Wilder giddy with joy, asked his police force to "take these men by the scruff of the neck and the seat of the pants and throw them out of here." One witness described his plight thus: "We got throwed in and then we got throwed out." During another march, protesters circled City Hall in a snowstorm under the watchful eye of legions of police officers. When a march organizer attempted to give a speech, he was clubbed over the head and arrested. The incident garnered widespread negative publicity, but Fulmer continued his quixotic Red-hunting here in Richmond, the hotbed of Marxism. Bright was also a prig. He thought a billboard for Bull Durham tobacco showing a red-blooded bull gazing with desire upon a cow was indecent. A crack team of painters was dispatched to paint out the bull's private parts.

W. Stirling King (1948-50) was the first mayor elected under the Council-Manager system of city governance (1948). The mayor became essentially a figurehead, with most of his previous power accruing to the City Manager.

Eleanor P. Sheppard (1962-4) became Richmond's first woman mayor, and remained very popular everafter. She was seated for several terms in the House of Delegates.

In 1988, Geline Bowman Williams (1988-90) was elected mayor. Her term was historic in that she served with a female vice mayor, a first for Richmond.

In 1977, Henry L. Marsh III (1977-82) became the city's first black mayor.

Leonidas B. Young's (1994-6) political career came to a sordid and inglorious end. He was indicted for, and eventually plead guilty to, several felonies, including selling his influence while mayor, and using money from the church at which he was a pastor to help fund an extramarital affair. It was rumored that he used some of the money to have his penis enlarged.

That brings us to Mayor Wilder (2005 to present). The less said here the better.