After eight years of service to the city of Greensboro, Mayor and Guilford graduate Keith Holliday has hung up his hat and called it a day. Yvonne Johnson, long time city council representative and Greensboro’s first African-American mayor has taken the helm.Holliday graduated from Guilford in 1975 during a turbulent time in American history: The Vietnam War. His experiences here changed him forever.
“If you would of told me I would one day be mayor of Greensboro, I would have said you’re nuts,” Holliday said. “I would never have thought about being that institutional. Even back in high school I was always in trouble,” Holliday said with a chuckle. “Guilford set the stage for my whole attitude, it raised my conscience level far beyond any other college would have.”
Born in Greensboro to a conservative Quaker family, Guilford was an eye opening change for Holliday. “I remember on my first day freshman year I saw an interracial couple walking toward me holding hands. I thought I was about to faint. It was an unbelievable eye-opener. My mouth hit the ground. That sight told me what the next four years were going to bring.”
He attributes much of this change to his experiences as a student during the Vietnam War. “A lot of things happened that had us all paying attention, it was a real growing experience for a majority of us.”
Holliday showed signs of being a political mover and shaker when he and a group of his peers ousted the Guilford “rent-a-cops” as he called them and started a student police force of criminal justice majors.
“I became the head of the student security force and wound up hiring all of my buddies,” Holliday said.
After graduating with a sociology degree and minors in both psychology and criminal justice, Holliday began working for the North Carolina Department of Corrections. In 1984, he received the Young Correctional Officer of the Year award. In 1987, he left his position to work for First Citizens Bank where he is currently the vice president. Holliday got his political feet wet in 1995 when he became a member of the City Council, a position he held until being sworn in as mayor in 1999.
“The economy was struggling when I took office, we were losing jobs galore, but I worked hard to turn it all around. I worked to diversify the workforce, shifting from a textile based industry to a knowledge-based industry; this is what I want my legacy to be.”
With eight successful years under his belt, Holliday left office on Dec. 3 and Yvonne Johnson was sworn in. A veteran in the Greensboro political arena, she has been part of the city council since 1993, and the mayor pro-tem from 1999-2005.
“I think the world of her,” Holliday said, ” I’ve known her for eighteen years and she is extremely dedicated to this city. She is extremely wise and makes very good judgments.”
Johnson attended Bennett College and North Carolina A&T State University and received a master’s degree in psychology and guidance and counseling. For the past 24 years she has served as executive director of One Step Further, Inc., a private, nonprofit United Way agency that “recommends sentencing options for adults and juveniles, provides mediation services and life skills/conflict resolution classes.” She has also served on the boards of Foster Friends, Sports Dream, the Women’s Resource Center and Malachi House.
A self-described “change agent,” Johnson has high hopes for the city of Greensboro. She plans to build upon Greensboro’s social capital and adopt an environmental sustainability initiative. She was one of the major forces behind the building of the new First Horizon Park, the home of the Greensboro Grasshoppers, and she hopes to continue the revitalization of downtown Greensboro.
“I am going to do a great job . I think I have a vision that people embrace, which is to bring this community together,” Johnson said to the News and Record.
Guilford and Greensboro, bid farewell to your native son Keith Holliday – you are being left in safe hands.