James Perkins Jr. (born 1952 or '53) was the first

African American African Americans (also referred to as Black Americans and Afro-Americans) are an ethnic group consisting of Americans with partial or total ancestry from sub-Saharan Africa. The term "African American" generally denotes descendants of ens ...

mayor and is the incumbent mayor of

Selma, Alabama Selma is a city in and the county seat of Dallas County, in the Black Belt region of south central Alabama and extending to the west. Located on the banks of the Alabama River, the city has a population of 17,971 as of the 2020 census. About ...

. He won a run-off in 2000 and served two terms, lost his second bid for reelection in 2008, and won a third non-consecutive term in 2020. Perkins grew up in Selma, where his parents were an elementary school principal and a nurse, and graduated in 1971 in the first racially integrated class at

Selma High School Selma High School is a public secondary school in Selma, Alabama. It is the only public high school in the Selma City School System. History Selma High School was formed in 1970 in response to court-ordered integration, merging the former white ...

; he organized an unsuccessful effort to use the former black high school as the integrated school, rather than the former white school. He has a bachelor's degree in mathematics from

Alabama A&M University Alabama Agricultural and Mechanical University (Alabama A&M) is a public historically black land-grant university in Normal, Huntsville, Alabama. Founded in 1875, it took its present name in 1969. AAMU is a member-school of the Thurgood Marsha ...

and took business courses at

Auburn University at Montgomery Auburn University at Montgomery (AUM) is a public university in Montgomery, Alabama. Established by an act of the Alabama Legislature in 1967, it is governed by the Auburn University Board of Trustees as a member of the Auburn University syste ...

. He is a businessman and pastor and has also taught mathematics and computer science at

Selma University Selma University is a Private historically black Baptist Bible college in Selma, Alabama. It is affiliated with the Alabama State Missionary Baptist Convention. History The institution was founded in 1878 as the Alabama Baptist Normal and The ...

. In December 2015 he was elected presiding pastor of Ebenezer Missionary Baptist Church in Selma, succeeding F. D. Reese. After working as a computer consultant out of state, Perkins returned to Selma as manager of Reese's unsuccessful 1980 campaign against the long-term mayor of Selma, Joe Smitherman, a former segregationist. He returned again in 1991 and ran against Smitherman himself in 1992 and 1996 before succeeding in a run-off in September 2000 in defeating Smitherman's bid for his tenth consecutive term. He was Selma's first African American mayor. In 2008 he was elected president of the

National Conference of Black Mayors The National Conference of Black Mayors (NCBM) was incorporated in 1974 and was originally organized as the Southern Conference of Black Mayors (SCBM) forty years ago. The thirteen mayors who founded the group were elected after the enactment o ...

. Perkins served two terms in office; in 2008, George Evans, who was Selma's first African American City Council president, defeated his bid for reelection. He ran again in 2016 after Evans's second term but was defeated by State Representative Darrio Melton. Perkins was elected in a run-off over Miah Jackson to secure a third non-consecutive term in 2020.

References

African-American mayors in Alabama Living people Politicians from Selma, Alabama Mayors of places in Alabama 1950s births 21st-century African-American people 20th-century African-American people {{alabama-mayor-stub

See also

References