The first African American mayor of Fairbanks, Alaska, James C. Hayes was born in Sacramento, California on May 26, 1946. His parents were Caustella and Juanita Metoyer Hayes. In 1955, after his parents divorced, James and his mother relocated to Fairbanks, Alaska. As a teenager, James attended Austin E. Lathrop High School in Fairbanks. In 1964 he was a member of the school’s varsity basketball team that played in the state championships. The following year he graduated from high school.
Hayes continued his education by attending the University of Alaska, Fairbanks campus, earning a Bachelor of Arts degree in education with minors in sociology and psychology in 1970.
During the 1970-1971 school year, Hayes taught at the Joy Elementary School in Fairbanks. In 1971 he was appointed director of the President’s Council on Youth and Job Opportunity. He later took the position of Special Assistant to the Alaska Attorney General for Consumer Affairs where he worked as a fraud investigator.
Hayes took an interest in local politics and in 1975 was elected to the Fairbanks North Star Borough School Board of Education. He was the first African American to hold that position. Hayes participated in a variety of community and civic activities in Fairbanks, becoming well-know in the city. He was the Assistant Pastor and Youth Leader of the Lily of the Valley Church of God in Christ from 1997-2008.
In 1992 James Hayes ran unopposed for the office of mayor. He served until the end of his third term in 2001. James Hayes was the first African American mayor of Fairbanks, the first Fairbanks mayor to serve three terms, and the first African American elected mayor of an Alaska City. Hayes served on the Alaska Human Rights Commission and on the Board of Regents for the University of Alaska. In 2002 he was recognized as a distinguished alumnus by the University of Alaska, Fairbanks. As mayor he was considered a fiscal conservative and a “law and order” advocate.
After serving as mayor, he and his wife worked together on their non-profit tutorial center, Love Social Services. The grants awarded the center included $2.7 million received from the Department of Housing and Urban Development and the Department of Justice, Office of Juvenile Programs. In 2008, however, he and his wife, Murilda “Chris” Hayes, were charged with misappropriation of government funds. They were accused of spending $450,000 for personal expenses, remodeling their church and paying off personal debts. The couple was found guilty of sixteen counts of conspiracy, theft from a program receiving federal funds, money laundering and filing false tax returns. James Hayes was sentenced to 66 months in prison while his wife, “Chris” Hayes was sentenced to 36 months. According to the sentencing judge James received a harsher sentence because, “He lied to me, and he lied to the jury.”
James Hayes and his wife M. Chris Parham Hayes were married 48 years. They had two children: La Nene and James, Jr. James “Jim” Hayes died on June 9, 2022, in Fairbanks after a lengthy illness.