Inspired by his Catholic faith, he often touched on racial reconciliation. When he first ran for City Council in 1994, he filled out a questionnaire that asked him to list his qualifications for the post.

Kaine cited his honors degree in ethics and law, his role as manager/owner of a downtown law firm with 85 employees, and his experience as a professor of legal ethics at the University of Richmond.

But at the top of the list he wrote: “coalition builder between black and white Richmonders.”

On July 1, 1998, a City Council made up of five African-Americans and four whites voted 8-1 to elect Kaine as mayor.

That day, the new mayor gestured toward the Council Chamber wall, where the names of previous mayors are etched in marble. He noted that for 195 years, Richmond excluded blacks from the mayorship. For much of that time, when blacks were barred from voting, that exclusion carried the weight of law.

In 1977, when a court order created a ward system, blacks became a majority on the council and elected Richmond’s first black mayor, Henry L. Marsh III.