St. Pete is celebrated for its fabulous weather, beautiful vistas, world-class food scene, and thriving cultural atmosphere but the people of St. Pete truly make this city something special. In appreciation, each month Green Bench shines a light on one of the many people that make St. Pete unique.
This month we remember Black activist and community advocate Chester L. James Sr.
“A Committee of One”
Born in 1884 outside of Ocala, James moved to St. Pete in the 1910s, married, and settled down with his growing family in the segregated neighborhood of Methodist Town. He had attended the historic Fessenden Academy and understood how the lack of education affected the Black community. Hoping to fill that gap, he and his wife, Rachel, operated the first private school in Methodist Town. The neighborhood had other challenges: unfair rent rates, willfully negligent landlords, and indifferent officials. James pressured the City Council to help improve Methodist Town by paving the streets, providing city services, and forcing landlords to comply with building codes. As a 1961 article described, he was “a committee of one for the improvement of street and housing conditions. …” Despite the fact that his efforts mostly fell on deaf ears, he persisted for decades. He once told council members that “St. Petersburg is like a man dressed in a fine tuxedo, complete with top hat, but wearing an old, dirty, run-down pair of shoes. That pair of shoes is Methodist Town.” Finally in 1974, “after 25 years of broken promises,” James pounded the gavel for the roll call as the City Council voted unanimously to construct new housing. Methodist Town was finally going to get a new pair of shoes. The area also got a new name when it was dubbed “Jamestown” in honor of his tenacious advocacy.
“I have worked hard to make the town a better town.”
As the “honorary mayor” of Jamestown, he continued to devote himself to its improvement, and his work expanded beyond. He was committed to making all of St. Pete a better place. James was a leading member in many local organizations intent on that goal, including the Citizens Cooperative Committee, NAACP, Democratic Club, Greater St. Petersburg Council on Human Relations, and the Bethel Community Baptist Church. Not content to simply sit on committees or develop strategy, James took action. In 1955, he was a named petitioner in a federal lawsuit against the City of St. Petersburg demanding the “end of the custom, practice and policy of barring Negroes from city facilities because of race. …” In the early 1960s, he was a leader in protest rallies connected with selective buying campaigns (i.e., boycotts) to protest racial discrimination. In 1968, James marched with sanitation workers who went on strike for better wages. Throughout the 1950s, ‘60s, and ’70s, he devoted significant time to recruiting new members for the NAACP as well as registering Black voters and making sure those voters made it to the polls on election days. His lifelong devotion to change earned him numerous accolades, including the Distinguished Citation of Merit from the Ambassador Club, the Distinguished Service award from the NAACP, the Gold Pin from President Lyndon B. Johnson, the Annual Award from the Greater St. Petersburg Council on Human Relations, and the Book of Golden Deeds Plaque from the St. Petersburg Exchange Club. Age barely seemed to slow him. Bethel Community Baptist Church’s the Rev. Enoch D. Davis once described James as “one of the youngest old men I have ever seen.” Motivated by being active and having a chance to help others, James died at age 94 (and 11 months) in March 1979, leaving a lasting legacy of activism and advocacy.
