Source: Photography by Deb Snelson / Getty
HERE WE GO AGAIN!!! A 22 year old Virginia Commonwealth University Student – (VCU – which happens to be my alma mater) has accused the Nation’s first African American Governor “L. Douglas Wilder” of sexual harassment.
Sydney Black, 22 say that L. Douglas Wilder who is 88 tried to kiss her without her consent. She report this accusation to VCU Police where she actually works. Ironically she works as an office assistant at the school’s L. Douglas Wilder School of Government and Public Affairs. Former Governor Wilder is a distinguished professor at the school.
Ms. Black said that Doug Wilder offered to pay for her Law School and asked to come live in his home in 2017.
Citing privacy concerns, VCU declined to answer questions, but the newspaper reports the university notified Sydney Black in a January letter that its Title IX office intended to investigate. Doug Wilder didn’t respond to the newspaper’s repeated requests for comment over several weeks.
Black, who is African-American, said she struggled with making a report that could tarnish Wilder’s legacy and attract negative attention.
Ms. Black: “I had to choose being a woman over being black.”
In February 2017, Sydney Black said that Wilder took her to dinner on her 20th birthday, gave her alcohol and invited her back to his Richmond condo, where he kissed her. Wilder told her he could help her get accepted at the Howard University School of Law, where he is a board member, she said. When she asked what he wanted in return, he said, “As long as you stick with me, you should be fine.”
They went to his condo, where he poured them both champagne, and as they talked, Black said he put his hand on her leg and then kissed her. She said she “immediately jerked away” asking why he “felt comfortable doing that” and he responded that he “shouldn’t have.”
