J. Dallas Bowser

James Dallas Bowser`
James and Dora Bowser in 1919
Born	(1846-02-15)February 15, 1846 Weldon, North Carolina
Died	January, 1923 (aged 76) Kansas City, Missouri
Occupation	Journalist, educator
Political party	Republican

James Dallas Bowser (February 15, 1846-January 1923) was a journalist and educator in Kansas City, Missouri. He was the principal of Lincoln School there from 1868-1879 and later the principal of Attucks School. He was a civil rights leader in the city and was widely known for his poem, Take up the Black Man's Burden written in 1899 in response to Rudyard Kipling's poem The White Man's Burden. He was a member of the Citizen's League of Kansas City Inter-Racial Committee.

James Dallas Bowser was born in Weldon, North Carolina on February 15, 1846 to free parents. When he was about six years old, the family moved to Chillicothe, Ohio where his father, Henry Bowser, was one of the areas first black teachers. In the mid 1860s, Bowser moved to Kansas City where he became a teacher. In 1868, principal of the Lincoln School, James Milton Turner resigned to become minister to Liberia, and Bowser took the position. He held that job for eleven years before moving to Wyandotte County, Kansas where he took a position as principal of another school. In 1873 he married Dora J. Troy of Xenia, Ohio. Bowser was active in Republican politics and in 1881 he was appointed mail carrier, a position he held for four years, when Republican appointees were removed by Democratic President Grover Cleveland. He was a member of the Republican State Central Committee in 1885 and 1886. In 1887 he was sealer of weights and measures in Kansas City. He also worked as principal at Attucks School in Kansas City in the 1900s.

In 1880, H. H. Johnson founded The Free Press in Kansas City, but was only able to afford a single issue. Johnson solicited the aid of Bowser, and Bowser took control of the paper starting with its second issue, changing its name to the Gate City Press and becoming its editor. The paper was very successful and attracted well known writers. William Ward Yates (husband of Josephine Silone Yates) and G. N. Gresham were associate editors of the paper. In 1886, he hosted Ida B. Wells when she visited Kansas City for the National Teachers Association meeting. Shortly after, Bowser suggested Wells apply for a teaching position in Kansas City and that she could write for the paper, although Wells ultimately decided to settle in Memphis. Bowser continued to publish the paper until 1889.