(Sept. 22, 1929-Apr. 23, 2020). A lifelong Indianapolis resident, James Cummings shaped the African American experience in Indianapolis through the founding of the Indiana Black Expo and played a prominent role in Republican local and national politics. Born on the west side of Indianapolis in the historic Fayette Street district, Cummings took photos and wrote stories for the Indianapolis Recorder as a teenager. He went on to earn a bachelor of arts degree in business from Indiana Central University, renamed the University Of Indianapolis.

During the Korean War, Cummings served as a sergeant and was an active member of the local chapter of the Veterans of Foreign Wars of the United States Auxiliary.

After the war, Cummings returned to Indianapolis where he worked many years as a journalist for the Indianapolis Recorder. While covering his usual assignments of crimes and fires, he met Eugene S. Pulliam, who at the time was a reporter at the Indianapolis Star, the paper that Pulliam’s father Eugene C. Pulliam published. The two young reporters struck up a friendship and exchanged notes when they covered the same events to ensure that both the Recorder and the Star had all the facts.

Later, Cummings worked in real estate. He specialized in buying and selling residential and commercial property throughout the city, notably helping to found the Meadows on the city’s eastside. His wife encouraged him to join the F.C. Tucker & Company team but Cummings balked, saying his name was just as well-known around town as Tucker’s, thereby leading him to open the eponymous Cummings Real Estate.

As a life-long Republican Party member, Cummings was drawn to the ideology of personal responsibility and progress. He helped found the National Black Republican Council and in the late 1970s helped open chapters nationwide. He also served as a director within the Republican National Committee, overseeing operations in 20 states.

Cummings played an active role in Ronald Reagan’s 1980 presidential campaign, consulted on the president’s cabinet picks, and was ultimately appointed to serve as deputy assistant secretary of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development in 1985. Earlier, he tried his hand at local politics, running unsuccessfully for the legislature in 1964 against John Mutz, who later served as lieutenant governor. 

Cummings’ vision to showcase Indiana’s African American history and accomplishments through the Indianapolis Black Expo is his hallmark achievement. In 1970 Cummings and fellow community activist Willard B. Ransom took out a $20,000 loan from Merchants National Bank with a plan to create a statewide organization for Blacks. The organization would serve as a support system that would host a major educational and entertainment exposition. The Reverend Dr. Andrew J. Brown helped Cummings and Ransom start and promote the Indianapolis Black Expo in a true grassroots effort.

The inaugural exhibition was held June 19-20, 1971, in the Exposition Hall at the Indianapolis State Fairgrounds. Cummings served as the first general chairman. Since 1971, the event has grown to a 10-day affair that includes concerts, a job fair, a business convention, and other gatherings. Rebranded as the Indiana Black Expo Summer Celebration, it has grown into the largest African American event in the nation, drawing nearly 300,000 visitors and celebrities to downtown Indianapolis each year.

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