James T. Rapier was born a free Black man in Florence, Alabama, and educated in Nashville and in Canada. At the end of the Civil War, he returned to Alabama, owned a plantation, and became a major figure in the Republican Party. In 1867, Rapier wrote the platform for the Republican Party and in 1870 he ran for Secretary of State, the first Black man to seek state office. He was elected to the House of Representatives in 1872 and served one term. Rapier also founded the first Black-owned newspaper in the state, the Republican State Sentinel.
An educated and eloquent speaker, Rapier was a living refutation of the characterization of Black politicians by their opponents in the Reconstruction. He lost his bid for re-election in 1874 only because of mass violence and the destruction of an entire box of ballots from Eufaula. As a Republican, he was appointed in 1878 to one of the few federal jobs at the disposal of the Republican presidents, Collector of the Port of Montgomery.
