James Carroll Napier (June 9, 1845 – April 21, 1940) was an American businessman, lawyer, politician, and civil rights leader from Nashville, Tennessee, who served as Register of the Treasury from 1911 to 1913.

He was instrumental in founding civic institutions in Nashville to benefit the African-American business community and residents including educational opportunities.

[2] His father was mixed race, the son of his White master, Dr. Elias Napier, and an enslaved mother named Judy.

He later transferred to Oberlin College, the first American institution of higher learning to regularly admit female and black students in addition to white males.

Napier returned to Tennessee and was appointed to serve as the Commissioner of Refugees and Abandoned Lands in Davidson County for a year.

He moved to Washington, D.C. to serve a political appointment as State Department Clerk, the first African American to hold this office.

Wilson ordered similar segregation at the Post Office and the Bureau of Engraving and Printing to appease Southerners in his cabinet.

In addition, in 1914 the Civil Service Commission began to require photographs with job applications, a means to screen out African Americans.

While attending law school, Napier met John Mercer Langston, his wife Caroline, and their daughter Nettie.