Email address: Thanks for signing up. If you like our stories, mind sharing this with a friend? https://www.propublica.org/newsletters/the-big-story?source=www.propublica.org&placement=share®ion=local-reporting-networkCopy link For more ways to keep up, be sure to check out the rest of our newsletters.See All Fact-based, independent journalism is needed now more than ever.Donate 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.”