San Diego Union-Tribune (Sunday)
FIRST BLACK MAYOR IN COUNTY HISTORY
On Dec. 5, 2000, Terry Johnson was sworn in as mayor of Oceanside, the region’s thirdlargest city, becoming the first African American mayor in county history. And he did it, said Johnson and others, in a campaign in which no one openly mentioned that he is Black and in which race did not play a major role.
“Most voters don’t give a hoot about the issue of race here because we’re used to a diverse community,” ethnically, economically and in every other way, Johnson said shortly after winning the election.
Johnson, was first elected to the Oceanside City Council in 1992, re-elected in 1996, and then served one four-year term as mayor from 2000 to 2004.
From The San Diego Union-tribune, Wednesday, Dec. 6, 2000:
OCEANSIDE CROWD IS WITNESS TO HISTORY AT MAYOR’S SWEARING-IN
By Lola Sherman, Staff Writer
One of the largest and most distinguished crowds ever to jam into the City Council chambers here watched two new council members and Mayor Terry Johnson take the oath of office yesterday.
“This is about as many people as we can get into the Oceanside City Council Chambers,” outgoing Mayor Dick Lyon said. “I have never seen more.”
Johnson and Councilwoman Esther Sanchez were sworn in by Superior Court Judge Gilbert Nares, who, like them, was born and raised in the Eastside neighborhood of Oceanside.
Councilman Jack Feller was sworn in by
City Clerk Barbara Riegel Wayne, who is starting her sixth term in the elective office.
She also swore in City Treasurer Rosemary Jones, re-elected to a third term.
Johnson and Sanchez received whoops and hollers from the audience of at least 200 people who were crammed into the chambers and its foyer. Johnson was given two standing ovations as well.
Warm applause, but not quite so much exuberance, was accorded Feller.
Wayne reminded each new officeholder of specific promises they made during their campaigns and said the public will hold them to those vows.
She also noted that Johnson “in two years has raised more money ($110,000) for a campaign than we ever had in Oceanside.”
Johnson introduced a slew of dignitaries in the audience, including former Rep. Lionel Van Deerlin, D-san Diego, and representatives of Gov. Gray Davis and several state legislators.
Van Deerlin, a local resident in the 1920s and ’30s, joked afterward that so many people would not have shown up in one place in old Oceanside for a political event unless it was to watch a mayor jump off the pier.
Johnson also pointed out such Africanamerican leaders as former county Supervisor Leon Williams and Dr. George Walker Smith, a longtime San Diego civil rights activist and former school-board member. Johnson said Smith broke the color barrier in San Diego politics when the area was known as “the Mississippi of the West.”
Johnson is the first African-american mayor in county history.
He also introduced Henry Holloway, longtime trustee of the Miracosta College District, as the first elected black official in Oceanside.
“This crowd is reflective of what we’re all about,” Johnson, 48, an electrician, said. “It’s a magnificent city. You will have a wonderful, wonderful council to help move the city forward,” he said.