John Wiley Price

John Wiley Price is a Democratic politician in Dallas, Texas. He has been the Dallas County Commissioner for District 3 since January 1, 1985. He campaigns as "Our Man Downtown".

Price was born on April 29, 1950 in Kaufman County, Texas at the small town of Forney, where he grew up. He attended the town's schools, and has throughout his speaking career spoke of the desegregation experience there. Price's father, Rev. Holman Colman Price worked as a truck driver and built a small career as a part-time Baptist preacher, which afforded Willie Faye née McCorney Price, a homemaker's career.

After Price graduated from high school, he moved to Dallas, where he attended El Centro College and studied computer programming. In the 1970s, Price married Vivian Pauline née Salinas Price in his father's chapel; the couple had one child together. In 1972, he ran for his first political office as chair of his Dallas Precinct. After winning, in the latter part of 1973, at the age of 23 Price was appointed to his first civic position on the advisory board of Crossroads Community Center near Fair Park. On December 1, 1975, Price would be appointed as Chief Clerk for Judge Cleo Steele.

He would later divorce his wife in 1983. Price adopted two children, John Nicholas and Angelina Monique.

Price has aroused local controversy during his time in office. During the 1980s and 1990s Price would lead protests for racial issues in the Dallas area. In the spring of 1990 Price threatened a citywide “call to arms” if the city manager did not pick someone sensitive to minorities for a new police chief. Price was quoted in the paper as saying “M-16's and all, we will take to the (expletive) street, we'll shoot at (expletive) police cars.” Soon after that he got into a fight with an off-duty policeman who was jogging by Price's home. The officer yelled “Wiley sucks!”. Price then pulled out a gun and allegedly stuck it against the officer's head. In 1991 during a protest, Price was accused of breaking the ankle of a construction worker. In May 1992, Price was found not guilty of felony assault charges from the incident. The verdict was rendered just days after the Rodney King riots in the Los Angeles area, and several jurors reported to have received threatening phones calls during the trial. Among many other instances, Price received national media attention when he took offense at the use of the term "black hole" by a fellow commissioner. His words were lampooned repeatedly by the media and radio talk show hosts including Rush Limbaugh

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