James, Sly, 1951-

Sylvester "Sly" James, Jr. (born December 9, 1951) is an American lawyer and politician. A member of the Democratic Party, he notably served as the 54th mayor of Kansas City, Missouri from 2011 to 2019. He was the second African American to hold the office after Emanuel Cleaver.

Born and raised in Kansas City, Missouri, he graduated from Bishop Hogan High School there. In his youth, he was the lead singer of the Amelia Earhart Memorial Flying Band (later renamed Manchester Trafficway) from 1965 to 1970. In 1971 James joined the Marines and served as a military policeman in California, Japan, and the Philippines; he was honorably discharged in 1975. He received a Bachelor of Arts degree in English from Rockhurst College in 1980, graduating cum laude. Thereafter, he attended law school at the Syracuse University College of Law from 1980 to 1981, but then transferred to the University of Minnesota Law School, where he received a juris doctor degree in 1983, again graduating cum laude.

After law school, James returned to Kansas City and joined the law firm of Blackwell Sanders Matheny Weary & Lombardi as an associate; in 1990, he became the firm's first African-American partner. In 1993, he and Nancy Kenner left to form their own firm, Kenner & James, P.C., specializing in personal injury, medical malpractice, and nursing home negligence. In 2002 he left to start the Sly James Firm, where he continued to specialize in personal injury and other civil litigation, as well as mediation. Between 1992 and 2002, he served as a member, secretary, and later the president of the Missouri Board of Law of Examiners. In 2003 he served as president of the Kansas City Metropolitan Bar Association.

In 2010, despite having held no previous public elected office, James announced his candidacy for mayor of Kansas City in the city's 2011 non-partisan election. Placing first in the primary and winning in the general election, he was sworn in on May 2, 2011. As mayor, James oversaw the construction and expansion of a transformative modern streetcar line, overwhelming passage of an $800 million infrastructure package, helped to create the first “Smart City” initiative in North America, attracted an 800-room convention hotel to the heart of Kansas City’s downtown, collaborated with Major League Baseball and the Kansas City Royals to build the Kansas City Urban Youth Academy, and closed the gap between the city’s third grade reading proficiency and the state average by a third.

After leaving office, James co-founded Wickham James Strategies and Solutions with his former Chief of Staff Joni Wickham.