Lionel Joseph Wilson (March 14, 1915 – January 23, 1998) was an American political figure and a member of the Democratic Party. He was the first black mayor of

Oakland, California Oakland is the largest city and the county seat of Alameda County, California, United States. A major West Coast port, Oakland is the largest city in the East Bay region of the San Francisco Bay Area, the third largest city overall in the ...

, serving three terms as

mayor of Oakland The city of Oakland, California, was founded in 1852, and was incorporated in 1854. Until the early 20th century, all Oakland mayors served terms of only one or two years each. Terms * Office terms: ** 1 year 1854 – mayor elected by fellow ...

from 1977 until 1991.

Biography

Born March 14, 1915, Wilson was the eldest of eight children of Louise Barrios and Julius Wilson in

New Orleans, Louisiana New Orleans ( , ,New Orleans

. By 1920, the family had moved to Oakland, California, where his father worked as a plasterer in building construction. Wilson was educated in the public schools, and in 1932 graduated from McClymonds High School. Wilson attended UC Berkeley, graduating with an A.B. in economics in 1939. During 1939 to 1943, he was a semi-professional

baseball Baseball is a bat-and-ball sport played between two teams of nine players each, taking turns batting and fielding. The game occurs over the course of several plays, with each play generally beginning when a player on the fielding t ...

player, pitching for the

Oakland Larks The Oakland Larks were a Negro league baseball team in the West Coast Negro Baseball League, based in Oakland, California Oakland is the largest city and the county seat of Alameda County, California, United States. A major West Coast port, O ...

club as part of the short-lived

West Coast Negro Baseball League The West Coast Negro Baseball Association (WCNBA) was one of the several Negro baseball leagues created during the time organized baseball was segregated. The WCNBA was organized as a minor league in 1946 by Abe Saperstein and Jesse Owens as a me ...

. On January 4, 1943, during

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...

he enlisted in the U.S. Army, rising to the rank of Sargeant. After his discharge, he continued his studies at University of California, Hastings College of the Law, receiving his LL.B. in 1949. In January 1950, he was admitted to the State Bar of California and began a private practice with George Vaughns. In 1953 and 1955, Wilson ran for the Berkeley City Council. He then formed the law firm Wilson, Metoyer & Sweeney (later joined by Allen Broussard). In 1961, Governor Pat Brown appointed Wilson a judge of the Alameda County Municipal Court (becoming the first African American judge in California), and then in 1964 Brown elevated Wilson to serve as a judge of the

Alameda County Superior Court The Alameda County Superior Court, officially the Superior Court of California, County of Alameda, is the California superior court with jurisdiction over Alameda County as established by Article VI of the Constitution of California. It functions ...

. In 1962, he joined the Metropolitan Oakland YMCA's Board of Directors. In 1977, Wilson won the election for mayor of Oakland, defeating Oakland school board president, Dave Tucker. While mayor, Wilson addressed development in downtown Oakland, including extension of Bay Area Rapid Transit to the city, and one natural disaster: the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake. He lost the 1990 mayoral election to

Elihu Harris Elihu Mason Harris (born August 15, 1947) is a retired American politician and college administrator. A member of the Democratic Party, Harris served as the 46th Mayor of Oakland, California from 1991 to 1999; he previously served for 12 years ...

after making an expensive and unsuccessful bid to return the then Los Angeles Raiders to Oakland. In 1991, Wilson nominated himself to serve on the Oakland Board of Port Commissioners, being appointed by the Oakland City Council after losing his mayoral bid. He served on the port commission for a year, working under his appointee and then-President Carole Ward Allen of the board of port commissioners.

had him removed from the port in 1992. Wilson was a member of

Alpha Phi Alpha Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, Inc. () is the oldest intercollegiate historically African American fraternity. It was initially a literary and social studies club organized in the 1905–1906 school year at Cornell University but later evolved in ...

fraternity. He, along with Allen Broussard, was also part of the coterie that used to gather at the

pharmacy Pharmacy is the science and practice of discovering, producing, preparing, dispensing, reviewing and monitoring medications, aiming to ensure the safe, effective, and affordable use of medication, medicines. It is a miscellaneous science as it ...

of William Byron Rumford, another important

African American African Americans (also referred to as Black Americans and Afro-Americans) are an ethnic group consisting of Americans with partial or total ancestry from sub-Saharan Africa. The term "African American" generally denotes descendants of ens ...

in Northern California politics. Lionel Wilson died on January 23, 1998 of

cancer Cancer is a group of diseases involving abnormal cell growth with the potential to invade or spread to other parts of the body. These contrast with benign tumors, which do not spread. Possible signs and symptoms include a lump, abnormal b ...

; he was 82.

Honors and legacy

The office building at 150 Frank H. Ogawa Plaza, called the Broadway Building (formerly the First National Bank Building), is named in his honor. In 2002, Aspire Public Schools founded a small 6-12 grade school called "Lionel Wilson College Preparatory Academy" in Oakland. Also, at

Oakland International Airport Oakland International Airport is an international airport in Oakland, California, United States, 10 miles (16 km) south of downtown located in the San Francisco Bay Area. It is owned by the Port of Oakland and has domestic passenger ...

, Terminal 2, which houses Southwest Airlines and their airplane flights, is named the "Lionel J. Wilson Terminal."

Personal life

Wilson married twice. With his first wife, Gloria, he had three sons: Steve, and twins Robin and Lionel. On August 12, 1950, he remarried to Dorothy P. McGuinness in

Los Angeles Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the world ...

. His brothers include Harold, Kermit, Julius and Warren Barrios Wilson, who was also an attorney in Oakland.

References

External links

Lionel J. Wilson collection
Oakland Museum of California.
Guide to the Lionel J. Wilson collection
African American Museum and Library, Oakland Public Library. Online Archive of California.
Lionel J. Wilson
Oakland Local Wiki. {{DEFAULTSORT:Wilson, Lionel African-American judges African-American mayors in California 1915 births 1998 deaths Mayors of Oakland, California California state court judges Superior court judges in the United States African-American lawyers American jurists UC Berkeley College of Letters and Science alumni University of California, Hastings College of the Law alumni United States Army personnel of World War II Deaths from cancer in California Oakland Larks players 20th-century African-American politicians 20th-century American lawyers 20th-century American judges 20th-century American politicians

Biography

Honors and legacy

Personal life

See also

References

External links