James M. Simms

James Merilus Simms (December 27, 1823 – July 9, 1912)[1][2] was a minister, newspaper publisher, author, and elected representative in the Georgia Assembly during the Reconstruction era.

He left Savannah for Boston and became a chaplain in the Union Army,[5] later returning to his home district.

Simms may have been the same person as the James M. Symms whose company published an edition of William Wells Brown's The Black Man in 1863.

In 1871, Simms became the first African American judge in Georgia when he was appointed to the First Senatorial District Court.

[8] In 1870, he supported the Baptist minister and Assembly delegate Ulysses L. Houston in occupying the Bryan County Baptist Church, which had been taken over by his rival Alexander Harris; for their role in this protest, Houston and Simms were both arrested.