William A. Johnson, Jr.

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For other persons named William Johnson, see William Johnson (disambiguation).

William A. "Bill" Johnson, Jr. was the first African-American elected mayor of the City of Rochester, New York. Elected in November 1993, Johnson was the 64th mayor of the city and was re-elected in 1997 and 2001. Although he received 78% of the votes in 2001, he announced that he would not seek a fourth term and was succeeded in 2006 by former Rochester Police Chief Robert Duffy.

Johnson was educated at Howard University where he received both his bachelor's, master's and three honorary degrees. He was the deputy executive director of the Flint, Michigan Urban League and director of the National Urban League Voter Registration Project. He also taught political science at Mott Community College.

He moved to Rochester in 1972 and served 21 years as president and chief executive officer of the Urban League of Rochester. He later became a trustee of the U. S. Conference of Mayors and served as chairman of the Smart Growth and Regionalism Task Force. He also became a Minett Professor at Rochester Institute of Technology.

Johnson's tenure as Mayor though successful in many ways, having built new housing and revitalized parts of the city, is largely discounted due to the failure of two large scale projects: the attempted revitalization of the High Falls district and the attempt to bring a high speed ferry service bridging Rochester and Toronto.