James Perkins Jr. became the first African American mayor of Selma, Alabama on September 13, 2000. Perkins was born on January 15, 1953. His parents were James Perkins, Sr., an R.B. Hudson High School teacher in Selma and Etta Perkins, a nurse. In 1971, Perkins was part of the first racially-integrated class to graduate from the newly established Selma High School. He enrolled in Alabama A&M University in Huntsville and received a Bachelor of Science in Mathematics in 1976. While at Alabama A&M he joined Kappa Alpha Psi Fraternity, Inc. Perkins later did graduate work at the Montgomery campus of Auburn University.
In 1980, Perkins created Business Ventures, Inc., a computer consulting firm in Selma. Four years later, in 1984, Perkins’ young colleague Frederick Reese, a lifelong activist, ran for the mayor’s office and asked Perkins to be his campaign manager. Perkins agreed, marking his first formal involvement in politics. While Reese was unsuccessful, it did not deter Perkins from his commitment to advocating for change.
In 2000, 35 years after the Selma to Montgomery March on March 7, 1965, a protest to support voting rights for African Americans, Perkins was elected mayor of Selma, Alabama. He was the first African American to hold that office.
During Perkins’s tenure as mayor, the minimum wage in Selma, Alabama was $5.25 an hour, as Alabama does not have a state minimum wage. Perkins committed himself to raising it to $9.00 an hour. He was able to raise it to $7.25 an hour, the national minimum, when he left office as mayor in 2008.
Just before leaving office in 2008, Perkins was elected president of the National Conference of Black Mayors. In 2012, he embarked on a new career when he was ordained and licensed to preach the Gospel. Two years later, in 2014, he received Pastor’s Alternative for Teacher Certification through the Alabama Baptist Congress of Christian Education. In 2015, he served as pastor of Ebenezer Missionary Baptist Church in Selma.
In 2020, twelve years after leaving the mayor’s office, Perkins was re-elected mayor by the citizens of Selma. “Let’s Fix this Together” was the theme of his campaign. Returning as mayor, he recognized that many of the same problems of poverty and crime continue to exist. There were new problems as well, including the growing difficulty of accessing the right to vote following changes by the Republican-dominated state legislature.
Perkins is a recipient of numerous awards, including the “MLK55 Stone Award” for community activism at the 28th Annual Stone EBEN Awards Gala in Memphis, Tennessee in 2023.
James Perkins, Jr., a father of four with his wife, Cynthia Perkins, continues to serve as a pastor at Ebenezer Missionary Baptist Church where he promotes added protections for voting equality and efforts to dismantle remaining segregation. He also promotes access to technology education in an impoverished city of 20,756, 80% of which is African American.