“Governor Wilder has always struck me as a man of great determination and persistence,” said Stephen J. Farnsworth, a professor of political science at the University of Mary Washington, in Fredericksburg. “For him to accomplish what he did, starting in the days of Jim Crow, is an extraordinary accomplishment. And sometimes persistent, determined politicians need to remain persistent and determined to get their initiatives to come to fruition.”
The math and the politics do not look promising for Mr. Wilder. “The city’s project seems to be on a firmer financial footing, and that will be decisive in all likelihood,” said Mr. Farnsworth, the professor. “And I’m not sure that two separate visions for the same project can both be constructed.”
Still, Mr. Farnsworth doesn’t count out the tenacious Mr. Wilder from securing a role in whatever slavery museum does get built in Richmond.
