Breakthrough In Virginia Dougas Wilder

Not every dream deferred dries up like a raisin in the sun. In politics it can sometimes ripen and harden into a tough kernel of ambition, as the unimaginable slowly becomes transformed into the attainable. Such a gradual course requires patience, guile and discipline, rather than flamboyant words and heroic poses. But the subtlety of these stratagems should never mask the majesty of the dream or the boldness of the dreamer.

So it was with a Virginia political trailblazer named Douglas Wilder. Back in 1975, when Wilder was the only black in the state senate (and the first since 1890), he...