Robert James Harlan (December 12, 1816 – September 21, 1897) was a civil rights activist and politician in Cincinnati, Ohio in the 1870s-1890s.

He was born a slave but was allowed free movement and employment on the plantation of Kentucky politician James Harlan, who raised him and may have been his father or half-brother.

He became interested in horse racing as a young man and moved to California during the 1849 Gold Rush where he was very successful.

For the rest of his life, he was involved in city, state, and national African-American civil rights and political movements.

The trip was made on foot, before the advent of railroad connections, and when they reached Danville, Kentucky, they received word that Robert's father had died and they were seized as parts of his property to be sold.

[4] James Harlan worked in dry goods, and became a lawyer and politician, serving in the U.S. House of Representatives from Kentucky from 1835 to 1839.

[3] Robert made money hunting and selling coonskins, and moved to Louisville where he learned to be a barber.

From this point, Harlan began racing and gambling on horses throughout the South and Southwest with good success.

[3] Although not formally freed, by 1840, Robert moved to Lexington, Kentucky where he appears in records as a "free man of color".

About the time Reverend John Tibbs was tarred and feathered and run out of Kentucky for his work educating black children, and Harlan decided Lexington was not a safe place to live and he moved to Louisville.

On September 18, 1848, James Harlan went to the Franklin County, Kentucky, Courthouse to formally free Robert.

[4] Harlan began working as a benefactor for black people in Cincinnati, becoming a trustee of the colored schools there and negotiating with Nicholas Longworth, Esq.

About this time,[1] he was or considered himself technically owned by James Harlan, although he was wealthier than the slave owner and had been freed a few years earlier.

[4] In Cincinnati, his fortune continued to grow, but in 1859 Harlan desired to escape the discrimination he felt in America and move to England to race horses.

[3] Harlan moved to England with jockies Charley Kyte and Johnnie Ford, who later became a prominent horse trainer.

Harlan's thoroughbred race horses in England included the Cincinnati, Ochiltree, Deschiles, Powhattan,[3] and Lincoln.

He was close friends with and adviser to another famous American turfman in England, Richard Ten Broeck.

[3] When he left America, Harlan invested his money into American securities which at the time would earn him an income of $7,000 per year.

[9] Also in 1870, black residents of Cincinnati raised an Ohio militia battalion led by William Travis, Wilson Scott, and Harlan.

[15] The battalion was disbanded in December 1874 and Harlan was held responsible for guns missing from the armory since the 1872 violence.

[3] In 1872, Harlan gave a speech in Saratoga Springs, New York, in support of Grant against former Republican-turned-Democrat Horace Greeley, who he felt betrayed blacks in switching allegiances.

[19] In December, Harlan was a prominent delegate at the National Colored Convention in Washington, D.C. led by P. B. S. Pinchback, William Nesbit, and Robert B. Elliott.