James Carroll Napier
| James Carroll Napier | |
|---|---|
| Born |
9 June 1845 Nashville, Tennessee, U.S. |
| Died | 21 April 1940 (aged 94) Nashville, Tennessee, U.S. |
| Occupation | Lawyer, politician |
| Political party | Republican |
| Spouse(s) | Nettie De Ella Langston (1860-1938) |
| Children | Carrie Langston Napier (adopted; 1894-1918) |
| Parent(s) | William Carroll Napier Jane Elizabeth Watkins |
| Signature | |
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James Carroll Napier (June 9, 1845 – April 21, 1940) was an American businessman, lawyer, politician, civil rights leader, and Register of the Treasury from 1911 to 1913. He is one of only five African Americans to have their signatures on American currency.
James Carroll Napier was born to William Carroll Napier and Jane Elizabeth Napier (née Watkins), who were slaves at the time of his birth, in Davidson County, Tennessee. They were emancipated in 1848. Napier attended a private school for free blacks in Nashville, until it was forced to close by whites in 1856. Napier's family moved to Ohio, and in 1859 he enrolled in Wilberforce College. He later transferred to Oberlin College, the first American institution of higher learning to regularly admit female and black students in addition to white males. He left Oberlin in 1867 without a degree. Napier eventually received his law degree from Howard University in 1872. The year later, he married Nettie Langston, daughter of John Mercer Langston, Howard University law school's first dean.
After returning to Tennessee from Oberlin College, Napier served as the Commissioner of Refugees and Abandoned Lands in Davidson County, for a year, before moving to Washington, DC to serve as State Department Clerk - the first African American to hold the office. After receiving his law degree, he returned to Nashville, where he became influential in Nashville's African American community, serving on the Nashville City Council and the Tennessee Republican Executive Committee. Napier was the first African American president of the city council, and worked to hire African American teachers for the black public schools, and organize the Black Fire-engine Company. Owing to his work in Nashville and his association with Booker T. Washington, Napier had become an influential African American leader.
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