James T. White (August 25, 1837 – March 13, 1892) was a Baptist minister and state legislator from Helena and Little Rock, Arkansas.

[2] White moved to Helena with a unit of African-American Union Army soldiers.

A part of the Confederacy, many Arkansas veterans resented the presence of newly freed slaves.

White became pastor of a church that met in a government stable until Colonel Charles Bentzoni of the 56th United States Colored Infantry permitted them to move into the old Cumberland church, where services were held for two years until White was able to build a small house for services.

[2] In 1867, White organized an Arkansas Missionary Baptist convention in the capital city of Little Rock.

In 1868, White supported Reconstruction efforts and, in the fall of that year, he was elected to the state convention to frame a new constitution for Arkansas.

[6] He was then elected to the state House of Representatives[7] serving the 11th district, which consisted of Phillips and Monroe counties.

[12] During this time, he continued his work as a minister, and he succeeded in building two new churches, one in Helena and another in Little Rock.

[2] In 1874, White was attacked by a group of Democrats and thrown into the Mississippi River, which ran beside Helena.

Each side raised militias mostly of black men, who fought several bloody battles, known as the Brooks–Baxter War.

[18] In 1884, he began to work for the Benevolent and Church Aid Society and became editor of The Arkansas Review.

[2] In 1886, he was a delegate at the American National Baptist Convention led by William J. Simmons and Richard DeBaptiste.

A major issue facing the group was unifying black Baptists for mutual support and to increase their "race confidence" as Solomon T. Clanton put it in a presentation of a paper he wrote.