{{short description|American politician}} {{Use mdy dates|date=April 2025}} {{Infobox officeholder | name = | image = | birth_name = | office = Georgia Assembly | term_start = 1868 | term_end = ? | birth_date = | birth_place = | death_date = | death_place = | death_cause = | resting_place = | resting_place_coordinates = | other_names = | known_for = | education = | employer = | occupation = | title = | salary = | networth = | term = | predecessor = | successor = | party = Republican Party | boards = | spouse = | children = | parents = | relatives = | footnotes = | allegiance = | branch = | service_years = | rank = | unit = | battles = }}

'''James Ward Porter''' was elected a state representative in Georgia during the Reconstruction era, representing Chatham County. Before becoming a representative he was the owner of a tailor's shop in Savannah. This was unusual, as the laws in Georgia at the time largely prohibited Black people from owning property.<ref name="Drago1982">{{cite book|author=Edmund L. Drago|title=Black Politicians and Reconstruction in Georgia: A Splendid Failure|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=JXL7t1rVltkC&pg=PA38|year=1982|publisher=University of Georgia Press|isbn=978-0-8203-1438-9|pages=38–}}</ref> He and other African Americans were expelled from the legislature.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=T1RHAQAAIAAJ&q=james+porter+chatham&pg=RA3-PA5|title=United States Congressional serial set|date=December 16, 1869|publisher=U.S. Government Printing Office|via=Google Books}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=cvxXAAAAcAAJ&q=james+porter+chatham&pg=RA6-PA62|title=Senate Documents|first=United States|last=Senate|date=December 16, 1871|publisher=U.S. Government Printing Office|via=Google Books}}</ref>

==See also== *Original 33 *African American officeholders from the end of the Civil War until before 1900

==References== {{Reflist}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Porter, James}} Category:African-American state legislators in Georgia (U.S. state) Category:African-American politicians of the Reconstruction era Category:Year of birth missing Category:Year of death missing Category:Original 33 Category:Georgia (U.S. state) Republicans Category:19th-century members of the Georgia General Assembly

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