Lionel J. Wilson collection, 1944-1998

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Summary

Creators:
East Bay Negro Historical Society
Abstract:
The Lionel J. Collection consists of newspaper clippings, political campaign flyers, biographical sketches, photographs, and programs documenting the political career of Oakland’s first black mayor Lionel J. Wilson. The collection is organized into five series: biographical material, programs, photographs, political flyers, and newspaper clippings. The bulk of the collection is newspaper clippings on Wilson’s political career, and also includes photographs of the Oakland City Council and various mayoral events, political flyers from Wilson’s mayoral campaigns in 1977 and 1981, biographical sketches, and programs from mayoral events including the mayor’s annual prayer breakfast and various banquets honoring Wilson.
Extent:
.25 linear feet (1 box)
Language:
Languages represented in the collection: English
Preferred citation:

Lionel J. Wilson collection, MS 134, African American Museum & Library at Oakland, Oakland Public Library. Oakland, California.

Background

Scope and content:

The Lionel J. Collection consists of newspaper clippings, political campaign flyers, biographical sketches, photographs, and programs documenting the political career of Oakland’s first black mayor Lionel J. Wilson. The collection is organized into five series: biographical material, programs, photographs, political flyers, and newspaper clippings. The bulk of the collection is newspaper clippings on Wilson’s political career, and also includes photographs of the Oakland City Council and various mayoral events, political flyers from Wilson’s mayoral campaigns in 1977 and 1981, biographical sketches, and programs from mayoral events including the mayor’s annual prayer breakfast and various banquets honoring Wilson.

Biographical / historical:

Lawyer, judge, and politician Lionel J. Wilson (1915-1998) was born on March 14, 1915 in New Orleans, Louisiana the eldest son of Julius J. and Louise Barrios Wilson. At the age of three, he moved with the Wilson family to Oakland, California where he attended Clawson Elementary School and graduated from McClymonds High School in 1932. After graduating from the University of California Berkeley in 1939 with a degree in economics, he played semi-professional baseball for four years as a pitcher for the Oakland Larks. In 1943, he left baseball and enlisted in the United States Army and served in combat duty in Europe for 22 months during World War II eventually reaching the rank of first sergeant.

He enrolled in the University of California’s Hastings School of Law following the war earning a J.D. in 1949 and practicing law in Oakland until Governor Edmund G. Brown, Sr. appointed him to the Oakland-Piedmont Municipal Court in 1960 making him the first African American judge in Alameda County. He was promoted in 1964 to the Alameda County Superior Court and became its presiding judge in 1973. Wilson’s political career began with his unsuccessful bid for the Berkeley City Council in 1953 and 1955. In 1977, he was elected as Oakland’s first African American mayor and was successfully reelected to the office in 1981 and 1985. During his term as Oakland’s mayor, he initiated a downtown building boom that brought over 1$ billion in development projects and an unsuccessful bid to return the Los Angeles Raiders back to Oakland.

Wilson was also active in a number of civic and professional organizations. He served as president and a member of the board of directors of the New Oakland Committee of the National Urban Coalition, Oakland Economic Development Council, Men of Tomorrow, Inc., Charles Houston Law Club, Oakland and Berkeley branches of the N.A.A.C.P., and served as chairman of Oakland’s anti-poverty board and on-the-job training program. He was also an active member of the Executive Committee of the Criminal Courts Bar Association of Alameda County, Alameda County Committee on Drug Abuse, Alameda County Mental Health Association, and the Alameda County Council on Alcoholism.

Processing information:

Processed by Sean Heyliger, 02/21/2014.

Arrangement:

Series I. Biographical material Series II. Programs Series III. Photographs Series IV. Political flyers Series V. Newspaper clippings

Rules or conventions:
Finding aid prepared using Describing Archives: a Content Standard

Access and use

Restrictions:

No access restrictions. Collection is open to the public.

Materials are for use in-library only, non-circulating.

Terms of access:

Permission to publish from the Lionel J. Wilson collection must be obtained from the African American Museum & Library at Oakland.

Preferred citation:

Lionel J. Wilson collection, MS 134, African American Museum & Library at Oakland, Oakland Public Library. Oakland, California.

Location of this collection:
659 14th Street
Oakland, CA 94612, US
Contact:
(510) 637-0198
aamlo@oaklandlibrary.org
Website