A walk on the Wilder side; Doug Wilder returns to politics

Now Douglas Wilder, the Virginian grandson of slaves who became America's first elected black governor in 1990, has reappeared as mayor of his poor, ailing hometown, Richmond. Mr Wilder, an on-again, off-again Democrat, has no background in local government; but the business-friendly powerbroker is now recasting himself as an idealistic reformer.  For nearly 60 years, Richmond's mayor has been a largely ceremonial figure, selected by the city council from among its nine members. But in 2003 Mr Wilder persuaded Virginia lawmakers and Richmond voters to change the office so that the mayor would be directly elected (never mind that a decade ago he helped block the proposal apparently for fear it would dilute black electoral hegemony). The pitch is that only a directly elected mayor can reform rotten Richmond. The slightly Stalinesque tower that houses the city's government has seen a spate of corruption scandals. But the bigger problem is racial Balkanisation. At present, blacks control the city's politics and whites its economy; and neither trusts the other.