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Sheriff Johnson has long been the most visible representative of the local power structure in Alamance County, North Carolina, a place where the governing board is all-white, where Black people still endure racial slurs in grocery stores, and where a marble statue of a Confederate soldier looms over the downtown square of the city of Graham, the county seat. A tireless political operator, Johnson has served as the county’s top law enforcement official since first being elected in 2002. So dominating is his presence that supporters and opponents alike refer to Graham as “Terry’s Town.”
In a Small Town, A Battle for Racial Justice Confronts A Bloody Past And An Uncertain Future GRAHAM, NC - NOVEMBER 3: Marchers in the Push to the Polls March led by Rev. Greg Drumwright, hold a rally at the Alamance County Historical Courthouse on November 3, 2020 in Graham, N.C. (Photo by Ricky Carioti/The . GRAHAM, NC - NOVEMBER 3: Marchers in the Push to the Polls March led by Rev. Greg Drumwright, hold a rally at the Alamance County Historical Courthouse on November 3, 2020 in Graham, N.C. (Photo by Ricky Carioti/The Washington Post via Getty Images) MORE LESS
| May 25, 2021 9:23 a.m.
This story was produced by The News & Observer in partnership with the ProPublica Local Reporting Network.
One afternoon in mid-July, hundreds of people gathered around a stage in front of the historic gray stone courthouse at the heart of the small town of Graham, North Carolina. They were listening to a song of protest.
“We don’t want to die,” a local musician sang out to the diverse crowd.
The group wanted the removal of a marble statue of a Confederate soldier that had stood watch over the town square since white citizens of Alamance County erected it in 1914. But protesters in this central North Carolina county seat were seeking much more.
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