Our celebration of St. Paul A.M.E. Church’s 150th year continues. Today we’re taking a look at Mr. James B. Morris, Sr., a man who absolutely did *all of the things.*
James B. Morris was born in Atlanta, Georgia on August 15. 1890. His parents had both been enslaved. One of his earliest memories was of his best friend being strung up and set on fire after having been accused of impropriety with a white woman. James went away to Hampton Institute in Virginia, where he graduated in 1912. He went on to attend Howard Law School in Washington, DC, graduating in 1915.
In 1916, he arrived in Des Moines, Iowa, initially to visit his friend and former Howard Law classmate George Woodson, another notable member of St. Paul A.M.E. James ended up sticking around. He passed the Iowa bar in 1917 and got married to Georgine Crowe, a Howard alumna, in April of 1918.
After graduating from the first Black Officer training class, J.B. Morris earned a rank of 2nd Lieutenant, and saw live combat in France during the first world war.
After the war, James returned to Des Moines, he co-founded the National Negro Bar Association in 1925 (later the National Bar Association) with his colleague Mrs. Gertrude Rush . He served as Polk County treasurer from 1921-1924. He took on the KKK, including an incident where he had to fend them off with gunfire when white supremacists threatened his home and his family. He was deeply involved with the Des Moines Interracial Commission, a group formed to address and mitigate the harm caused by racism. The Des Moines Interracial Commission was involved in a variety of efforts to improve the lives of Black Des Moines residents by addressing gaps in housing, employment, and education. If you’ve ever had a Black teacher in Des Moines, or if you’ve ever been a Black teacher in Des Moines and weren’t sure who to thank: you can start with J.B. Morris. In 1922, Morris also purchased the Iowa Bystander, the oldest Black newspaper west of the Mississippi (founded in 1894), which he led until his retirement in 1972.
