By Norma Adams-Wade
The story goes that the late legendary Dallas civil rights advocate Albert Lipscomb was in disbelief when he first met then rookie civil rights advocate John Wiley Price at a political gathering more than 50 years ago.
Circumstances concerning why Price was there and the role he filled partly were bazaar. The staunch young Democratic civil rights proponent also was a budding precinct chairman and election judge at the time.
Strangely, part of his assigned duties included leading a delegation of George Wallace supporters for the Alabama governor’s 1968 third-party, pro-segregation Presidential campaign. Despite the discomfort, Price kept his ethnic identity hidden from the delegates and managed to complete his election judge duties. Lipscomb witnessed the feat and later approached Price.
“Young man, who ARE you?! And where did you COME from?!” Price said Lipscomb asked him pointedly.
After an amiable conversation, the senior and novice political operatives began forging a mentor and protégé bond that led to decades of collaborative community service and serving in elected offices – Lipscomb with the Dallas City Council, Price with the Dallas County Commissioners Court.
Our Man Downtown
Price eventually was elected in 1985 as the first and still only African American on the Dallas County Commissioners Court and is now the court’s ranking member.
His noted achievements have included inroads he has made in Dallas County for minority and women-owned businesses, significantly increasing funding for projects that benefit ethnic communities, pointedly increasing health services for underserved communities, bringing water and health clinics to disadvantaged areas, and spotlighting needs and inequities in the criminal justice system.
Also, it’s a little known fact that a school in Kenya is named in Price’s honor. Voters have returned him to office so often that the fond label “Our Man Downtown” is largely accepted as his familiar pseud-onym.
“I’m not trying to be Methuselah as the oldest person at Dallas County,” Price said, adding that because voters rely on him to solve problems, the work doesn’t cease.
Known for aggressive style
Price will be honored this weekend as a trailblazer at a city of Dallas event commemorating the life of the late civil rights icon Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. The award applaudss Price’s nearly 40-year, illustrious — and often controversial — political career as another torch-carrying civil rights advocate.
Price and Dr. King Jr. had the same goals but opposite methods of achieving them. Dr. King Jr. was known for his non-violent style of protesting injustice and inequality. Price’s personal style has been called “militant,” “radical,” “aggressive,” and “in-your-face.”
Benefitting from courage of pioneers
Price puts his recent trailblazer award in perspective by paying tribute to individuals on whose shoulders he said he stands.
“I’ve been such the beneficiary by just being around courage and talent. I think there’s a lot of talent around today, but courage is kind of the missing virtue.
“I’ve been able to see people who had courage — strategic courage. I’m blessed to have been around all this transition over nearly 74 years of living,” said Price, who will be 74 in April this year. I could not ask for more. I have to give credit. I’ve been fortunate. So, what else am I going to do but what I do?”
People who influenced Price
As if calling the roll in a classroom, Price recited names of people who influenced him and led the way for him during his for-mative years: Among them were Lipscomb, Elsie Faye Heggins, J. B. Jackson, Bill Stoner, Kathlyn Joy Gilliam, J. B. Brown, Gary Weber, several local Black Muslim leaders, Fahim Minkah, and Dr. Napoleon B. Lewis.
“I’ve always been surrounded by people who are serious. Who know where our community needs to go,” the commissioner said. “I’ve been just so blessed. I’d say I’ve not blazed trails, but I’ve followed many.”
But politician and preacher Adam Clayton Powell Jr. of Harlem made a lasting impact from afar. Powell was pastor of Abyssinian Baptist Church in Harlem, New York and became the first African American elected to Congress from New York State.
“Who inspired me? A lot of people inspire you and you don’t even know they’re inspiring you,” Price said.
He told of his reaction when he first saw news reports about Pow- ell’s activities to promote equality for African Americans.
“When I first saw Adam Clayton Powell I was just blown away,” Price recalled. “People come into your life for a season, and you never know the impact they’re going to have on you.”
Formative years
The Commissioner grew up in Forney, about 20 miles east of Dallas. He is one of six children of Rev. Holman Price, a minister and truck driver, and Willie Faye McCoy Price, a homemaker. He was 18 when he came to Dallas in 1968, shortly after high school graduation. He studied at El Centro College where he got involved in student politics and local Black community advocacy. During that time, he also successfully ran for chair of his Dallas precinct.
King statue and early political involvements
Price cut his political teeth after being appointed to the Crossroads Community Center board in his early 20s. The Center later became Martin Luther King Jr. Community Center on Martin Luther King Jr Blvd. in beautiful Sunny South Dallas near Fair Park.
He, and dedicated community advocate J. B. Jackson and local Dallas artist Walter Winn played key roles in the creation and erection of the now iconic King statue in front of the Center. Detroit sculptor Oscar Graves joined the group later.
“It did so much for me just to be in the whole environment. J.B. went to school with Dr. King at Morehouse and knew the King family,” Price recalled.
Using Jackson’s connections, the three men travel to meet with Dr. King Jr.’s dad, “Papa King.”
The elder King looked at the proposed, molded figure of his late son, suggested small tweaks, then gave his approval.
When the project was completed, “Papa King” came to Dallas and helped unveil and dedicate the 7-ft bronze statue in front of the center in 1976.
Price also was chief clerk for the late Judge Cleophas Steele who later became a Justice of the Peace. Price also broadcasted popular radio shows informing the public of the city’s important happenings.
Threats of physical harm
History has taught us that public service can be physically dangerous, even life-threatening. Price’s personal in-your-face style of advocacy, of course, often puts him in risky, confrontational situations. Asked if he ever considered quitting public service to protect his life, Price said:
“I’m not trying to compare myself to them but, ask the same question of Medgar, Malcolm, and Dr. King – referring to Medgar Evers. Malcolm X and Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Dr. King said, ‘If a man, meaning a man or woman, can’t find something worth dying for, he is not fit to live.’ I’ve been such a beneficiary. How dare I sit back? I need to do what I need to do to make sure they (the opposition) understand that we are a serious community, and come what may, we will (fight for the cause).”
Commissioner John Wiley Price is set to receive the Trail- blazer Award at the Dallas city-sponsored 42nd annual Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Scholarship and Awards Gala, 6:30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. Saturday, January 13, 2024, Renaissance Dallas Hotel, 2222 N. Stemmons Frwy. Rev. Dr. Frederick Haynes is the keynote speaker. WFAA- TV news anchor Tashara Parker is the emcee.
Faithful confidant in the wings
Price said if ever fear or worry attempted to creep in, he appreciates the legendary Rev. Zan Wesley Holmes for being his support.
“I can’t say there weren’t times,” Price said. “I appreciate Pastor Holmes. He has always been my confidant and I could always go to him. He has said clearly that faith and fear can’t dwell in the same temple. Well, either you believe, or you don’t.”
One challenging time was the harrowing three-year wait for a verdict in a federal alleged corruption case from which Price was acquitted in 2017. There was a hung jury on a few other counts and prosecutors chose not to seek a retrial. There was much celebration among supporters and the public.
Legacy and appreciation
Asked about his message to the next generation, Price said: “I’m saying the same thing that people said to me,” he said. ““You just drop those seeds wherever you can. As kids say, ‘I know the assignment.’ The baton has been passed to me. “So many of us have been the beneficiary and don’t realize it. What grieves me is that some people today just think they are entitled.”
No regrets. But proud of the people
Any regrets?
Price responds: “Nelson Mandela said, ‘If I had my life to do over again, I would do the same.
And so would any man who calls himself a man.’”
When asked what makes him proud he points to supporters: “The People around me. They make me proud,” Price said. “They have undergirded me, supported me, believed in me.”
He cited the example of TV journalist Tamron Hall who praised her media role model, Iola Johnson, when Hall recently won a Grio Award for media.
“What pricked my heart is that she did not try to take credit,” Price said. “She thought of someone else.”
Criminal Injustice remembered
During a recent interview, the commissioner sat in a conference room of his administrative office in the downtown Dallas County Tax Office building near historic Dealey Plaza.
Price said the conference room historically was the city’s old jail and that portion of the jail was Death Row.
That’s where the modernized conference room is set. Price has put his brand on the space with memorabilia to remind visitors of how the space was used from 1915 until 1924 when Texas ended local executions and moved them to the Huntsville prison site.
That area of Dallas also is steeped in history that includes the site of Pres. John F. Kennedy’s assassination, the School Book Depository from which the assassin fired final bullets that killed the president, the site where three enslaved Black men were lynched after being accused of starting the infamous 1860 fire that destroyed much of downtown Dallas, and the “Old Red Courthouse” where Allen Brooks, a Black man, was jailed before a mob came in, threw him from a window and dragged him to Main and Akard streets where the mob lynched him.
Commissioner Price points out that the last five men executed by hanging at the County death row site were African Americans. The wall plaque names them and the dates their lives ended.
“This is the hanging gallery where we are sitting now,” Price states. “We didn’t just make this a conference room. It has its own history… When you put it in the African tradition, the Griot tradition, we’ve got to tell the story.”
Dallas County Commissioner John Wiley Price has stories that will be told for centuries to come.
Norma Adams-Wade, is a proud Dallas native, University of Texas at Austin journalism graduate and retired Dallas Morning News senior staff writer. She is a founder of the National Association of Black Journalists and was its first southwest regional director. She became The News’ first Black full-time reporter in 1974. norma_adams_wade@yahoo.com
