James Dixon Black (September 24, 1849 – August 5,[1] 1938) was an American attorney who was the 39th Governor of Kentucky, serving for seven months in 1919.

Deeply interested in education, he served as superintendent of the Knox County public schools for two years, and was instrumental in the founding of Union College in Barbourville.

Black was chosen as the Democratic nominee for lieutenant governor in 1915, despite having only meager previous political experience.

He was unable to satisfactorily answer charges of corruption made against the Stanley administration by his opponent, Edwin P. Morrow.

Black returned to his legal practice in Barbourville and served as president of a bank founded by his older brother.

[2] Deeply interested in education, he also served as superintendent of the Knox County public schools in 1884 and 1885, but returned to his law practice thereafter.

Brown as a commissioner to the Chicago World's Columbian Exposition, representing Kentucky's forestry and mineral departments.

Consequently, Stanley refused to travel out of state on vacation because he feared he would not approve of anyone Black would appoint to any unfilled governmental offices while he was gone.

The Kentucky Court of Appeals had ruled that the Commission acted illegally in selecting textbooks submitted in dummy form.

In the second case, Stanley had appointed three special attorneys to collect inheritance taxes from the estate of Mrs. Robert Worth Bingham.

Black wanted the attorneys to resign and save the state their large fees, but refused to remove them outright.

[14] In 1919, Black was chosen as the Democratic gubernatorial nominee over John D. Carroll, chief justice of the Kentucky Court of Appeals, by more than 20,000 votes.

[5] Morrow cited as evidence the tax cases of Mr. Harkness and Mrs. Bingham and Black's inaction against the State Textbook Commission.

[13] Days before the election, Morrow exposed a contract approved by the state Board of Control to purchase cloth from a man named A. S. J. Armstrong at twice its normal price.

The investigation revealed that Armstrong was a plumber who was bidding on behalf of his brother-in-law, a former prison official in the Stanley administration.

On December 1, 1919, he issued a pardon for Henry Youtsey, a recent parolee who had served eighteen years for conspiracy in the assassination of Governor William Goebel.

[8] While working as Ninth Congressional District campaign manager for Senator Alben Barkley in 1938, Black developed pneumonia and died on August 5, 1938.