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Guide to the Lionel J. Wilson Collection
MS 134
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Title: Lionel J. Wilson collection
Dates: 1944-1998
Collection number: MS 134
Collector:
East Bay Negro Historical Society
Collection Size:
.25 linear feet
(1 box)
Repository:
African American Museum & Library at Oakland (Oakland, Calif.)
Oakland, CA 94612
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.
Languages:
Languages represented in the collection:
English
No access restrictions. Collection is open to the public.
Materials are for use in-library only, non-circulating.
Permission to publish from the Lionel J. Wilson collection must be obtained from the African American Museum & Library at
Oakland.
Lionel J. Wilson collection, MS 134, African American Museum & Library at Oakland, Oakland Public Library. Oakland, California.
Processed by Sean Heyliger, 02/21/2014.
Biography / Administrative History
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.
Scope and Content of Collection
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.
Series I. Biographical material
Series II. Programs
Series III. Photographs
Series IV. Political flyers
Series V. Newspaper clippings
The following terms have been used to index the description of this collection in
the library's online public access catalog.
Oakland (Calif.). Mayor
Oakland (Calif.)--Politics and government.