In the 1980's racism and racial tensions were worse. Crime was much higher, and crime was always tied to blacks. A lot of white suburbanites in the 1980's were afraid of blacks breaking into their homes at night and robbing them. It was only 20 years before the 1980's that blacks were being lynched and denied the right to vote. Even a 'white friendly' non threatening black candidate like Obama would have lost in the 80's. It wasn't until crime declined in the 1990's for the average white person to put crime and the fear of blacks on the back burner.
Than why did Douglas Wilder win in suburban VA in 1989?
He ran behind both the Lieutenant Governor (Beyer won with 54%) and the Attorney General (Terry won with 63%) - he did the same in 1985 when he ran for LG, drastically underperforming the rest of the ticket. He did as good as any other Democrat of the time in the coal field counties, but there was massive bleeding in the suburbs.
