James T. Rapier (1837-1883) was a United States Representative from 1873 until 1875. Born a free African American in Florence, Alabama, to John H. Rapier, a wealthy barber. He was raised in Nashville, Tennessee and attended college in Canada. He studied law and was admitted to the Bar association. He returned to Tennessee in 1865, where he was a cotton planter and an advocate for black suffrage.
In 1866 he moved to Alabama, where he continued to plant cotton and was a delegate to the 1867 state constitutional convention. He ran for Alabama Secretary of state and lost in 1870. He was elected to the Forty-third United States Congress. While in Congress, he proposed the creation of a land bureau to give Western lands to freedmen. He also proposed $5 million for Southern schools.
He lost his re-election campaign in 1874, and became a collector for the Internal Revenue Service. He campaigned against the Redeemer government in Alabama. He died in Montgomery, Alabama on May 31, 1883.
