James H. Lewis

Jim’s story isn’t long, although his life was long and successful. Outside of his professional life he was passionate about gaining knowledge and growing mentally, and also serving God and growing spiritually.

He was born in Virginia but spent most of his school-age years in Philadelphia. His family’s move coincided with the Great Northern Migration that started before 1920 as large numbers of African-Americans came north from southern states looking for a better life.

Jim graduated from the Franklin School of Science and Arts, then took classes through Temple University’s Community College program and graduated from Temple’s School of Commerce (now known as the Fox School of Business). That may have happened before or after his marriage to Ida, whose maiden name is unknown. They married before 1935 but the exact date is unknown. 

The 1940 census lists their residence in the 1700 block of Master Street and his occupation was a shipper for a label manufacturer. They lived there in 1950 but, by then, Jim had taken classes at Roosevelt College in Chicago and Blackstone School of Law, a correspondence law school, and he was now an auditor for the City of Philadelphia. 

Over the years his title changed to lawyer in the Department of Records with expertise in preparing mortgages and deeds. Much of his responsibility meant dealing with other lawyers and title company representatives.

Outside of City Hall, Jim’s obituary says he served for 26 years as one of the trustees of First African Baptist Church. It was the oldest African American congregation in Pennsylvania, a daughter church of First Baptist Church of Philadelphia. (Located at 16th and Christian Street, it was in the heart of the Christian Street Historic District. Although it was before Jim’s time, that area was home to many of the city’s most prominent black residents in the 1930s and 1940s, and was often termed “Main Street for Philadelphia’s Black Elite.”)

There were no children listed in either of the two census reports that were found. Among the unknowns in Jim’s life is what other relatives he and Ida had, when Ida died, where she was buried, and when he retired. 

What is known of his later years, according to his only surviving relative, a niece, is that he loved learning. She said he continued to dress in a suit most days and enjoyed reading, even picking up a new textbook from time to time on various subjects. 

When he died at either 89 or 90 years of age, Jim was living in the West Oak Lane section of the city.