John James' pioneering legacy honored with Hall of Fame induction

John A. James' induction into the Automotive Hall of Fame this year is the culmination of a legacy spanning five decades in trucking and supply chain management.

James founded O-J Transport Co., which would later become James Group, in 1971 with his uncle Calvin Outlaw. The company started its journey hauling beer and auto parts, but the operation has grown to offer an expansive service list that includes logistics and e-commerce services.

In its early years, O-J Transport had to overcome numerous federal legislative battles until a breakthrough Supreme Court decision allowed James to obtain a 48-state operating authority while easing the burden for minorities to enter the trucking business, the company said.

James' son, Lorron, became James Group CEO in 2018. The Detroit company is composed of several subsidiaries and has a client list that includes the Detroit 3 and Toyota.

Lorron James said in an interview last May that his father transitioned the business to him and his brother, U.S. Rep. John E. James, R-Mich., around five years earlier. But Lorron James said his father likes to "keep his thumb firmly pressed on top of my head whenever he can" and still asks questions about the operation.

"Being able to plan our 35th, 40th, 45th and 50th anniversary, throw those parties for him, making him feel like all the work that he's done over the years hasn't fallen on deaf ears," Lorron James said. "To let people know that the things that he went through, it meant something, and he paved the way for a lot of folks in the industry now. I'm just happy and honored to be a part of it and to keep it going."

John A. James, 82, will be inducted into the Hall of Fame in September with six others, including Bill Ford Jr., executive chair of Ford Motor Co.; Betsy Ancker-Johnson, the auto industry's first female vice president; and Wendell Scott, the first African American NASCAR driver to win a Cup Series race.

James was born in 1941 in rural Starkville, Miss., the middle of nine children.

He earned a Bachelor of Science in sociology from Mississippi Valley State University and furthered his studies at the University of Toledo before joining the Army Corps of Engineers as a commissioned officer, according to his biography on the Hall of Fame's website.

James earned a Bronze Star and an Army Commendation Medal for his service in the Vietnam War, and he received equivalent recognitions from the Vietnamese government. After leaving the military, he studied business administration at Wayne State University from 1969 to 1972.

He started working for Chrysler Corp. in personnel and labor relations in 1969. In 1971, he learned of an opportunity to haul Schlitz beer from Milwaukee to Detroit for a local beer distributor.

James was still with Chrysler when he started O-J Transport with Outlaw. The two pursued an application early on to haul beer for Sky-Pac Distributing Co. through the federal Interstate Commerce Commission, a board dating to Grover Cleveland's presidency that was originally formed to regulate trains, according to Crain's Detroit Business, a sibling publication of Automotive News.

That application kick-started a yearslong battle over a dozen individual applications for O-J Transport Co. to haul beer along with auto parts for General Motors, Ford and American Motors Corp.

It took years of legal wrangling at federal and state levels to obtain O-J Transport's 48-state and international operating authority, the company said. James regularly met with aides to then-President Gerald Ford and members of Michigan's congressional delegation, including U.S. Sen. Robert Griffin, to advocate for reforms to the trucking industry regulations.

The Supreme Court ruled in James' favor in 1976, granting him the authority to transport between states in a decision that allowed women and minorities to enter transportation. In 1978, he was given permission to haul within Michigan by the state's Public Service Commission.

James left Chrysler to go into the trucking business full time that year. He and Outlaw purchased 23 used trucks around that time to build their fleet, Crain's Detroit Business reported.

In 1980, President Jimmy Carter signed the Motor Carrier Act, successfully deregulating the trucking industry and making it easier for new carriers to enter.

James, according to the James Group website, is "the first African American whose company was issued broad operating authority to transport automotive parts and other commodities in Michigan."

"For more than a decade, John James advocated on behalf of African Americans and other marginalized groups for the ability to operate a trucking and logistics company in the State of Michigan and nationally," Sarah Cook, president of the Automotive Hall of Fame, said in a statement. "His determination and knowledge were critical to opening up and driving innovation across these industries. He is a mobility pioneer whose efforts continue to help shape the automotive and mobility marketplace."