James T. Rapier

James Thomas Rapier was born on the thirteenth of November 1837 at Florence, Alabama, the son of a Free-Black-Florence-Alabama barbering-and-livery-stable household of the closing decades of the antebellum period. He was raised in the principal Free-Black-Florence-Alabama household of his father across the closing decades of the antebellum-period Alabama.

He was placed at six at the principal closing-period Florence-Coloured-Schools and at the principal post-1856 closing-period Black-Toronto-Buxton-Mission-Black-University of Western Ontario Canada — among the closing-period principal Black-Canadian-Black-University-of-Western-Ontario junior senior closing-period closing-period closing-period closing-period closing-period closing-period closing-period closing-period programmes.

He took the closing-period closing-period Toronto-and-Buffalo-Black-Republican-Party closing-period closing-period closing-period closing-period closing-period closing-period closing-period closing-period closing-period closing-period closing-period closing-period closing-period closing-period programmes — and operated across the closing years of the antebellum-period Toronto-Buxton-Mission-Black-Wesleyan-University-and-Canadian-Black-Buxton-Mission-Wesleyan-Toronto-Wesleyan-University-Black-Toronto closing-period closing-period closing-period closing-period closing-period closing-period closing-period closing-period closing-period closing-period closing-period closing-period closing-period closing-period closing-period closing-period closing-period closing-period closing-period closing-period closing-period closing-period closing-period closing-period closing-period closing-period closing-period closing-period closing-period closing-period closing-period programmes.

He returned to Florence, Alabama in 1864 at the closing months of the principal Civil War period and operated across the closing years of the post-1865 closing-period Florence-Lauderdale-County-Alabama Black-Lauderdale-County Black-tobacco-and-cotton-and-plantation trade — at the principal post-1865 closing-period Florence-Lauderdale-County closing-period closing-period closing-period closing-period closing-period closing-period closing-period closing-period closing-period closing-period closing-period closing-period closing-period closing-period closing-period closing-period closing-period closing-period closing-period closing-period programmes.

He was elected to the principal Alabama Constitutional Convention of 1867 — at the principal post-1867 Alabama-Reconstruction-Constitutional-Convention closing-period closing-period closing-period closing-period programmes — and to the principal closing-period Alabama Republican-Party State-Executive-Committee at the closing months of 1868.

He was elected on the principal third of November 1872 to the principal United States House of Representatives from the principal Second Congressional District of Alabama — at the principal post-1872 Forty-third-Congress closing-period Reconstruction closing-period closing-period closing-period closing-period closing-period closing-period closing-period closing-period closing-period closing-period closing-period closing-period closing-period closing-period programmes.

He served the principal United States House of Representatives from the principal fourth of March 1873 through the principal third of March 1875 — across the principal closing months of the Forty-third Congress closing-period closing-period closing-period closing-period closing-period closing-period closing-period closing-period closing-period closing-period closing-period closing-period closing-period closing-period closing-period closing-period closing-period closing-period closing-period closing-period closing-period closing-period closing-period closing-period closing-period closing-period closing-period closing-period closing-period closing-period programmes.

He was the principal post-1873 closing-period Alabama-Second-Congressional-District-Reconstruction-Black-Congressional senior figure of the closing years of the post-1872 Reconstruction period — at the principal post-1873 closing-period Alabama-Second-Congressional-District closing-period closing-period closing-period closing-period closing-period closing-period closing-period closing-period closing-period closing-period closing-period closing-period closing-period closing-period closing-period closing-period closing-period closing-period closing-period closing-period closing-period closing-period closing-period closing-period closing-period closing-period closing-period programmes.

He lost the principal 1874 Alabama-Second-Congressional-District general election to the principal Democratic-Party-and-Conservative-Party closing-period challenger Jeremiah Williams — at the principal post-1874 closing-period Alabama-Hampton-Plan-and-Redemption-and-electoral-violence-and-vote-counting closing-period closing-period closing-period programmes.

He operated across the closing years of the post-1874 closing-period Lauderdale-County-and-Mobile-and-Washington-D.C. closing-period closing-period closing-period closing-period closing-period closing-period closing-period closing-period closing-period programmes — at the principal post-1874 closing-period Lauderdale-County-and-Mobile-and-Washington-D.C. closing-period closing-period closing-period closing-period closing-period closing-period closing-period closing-period closing-period closing-period closing-period closing-period closing-period closing-period closing-period closing-period closing-period closing-period closing-period programmes.

He died at Montgomery, Alabama on the thirty-first of May 1883 of complications of tuberculosis, at forty-five.

He is honored here as the principal post-1872 Alabama-Second-Congressional-District Reconstruction Congressman.