James Cameron Biography Favorites Color Black Quote “The more you learn, the more you can do.” Time of Year Summer Vacation Spot Hawaii

James Cameron, founder of America's Black Holocaust Museum was born February 23, 1914 in LaCrosse, Wisconsin to James Herbert Cameron and Vera Carter. When Cameron's father left the family they moved to Birmingham, Alabama, then to Kokomo, Indiana. When his mother remarried, Cameron resettled in Marion, Indiana. He attended DaPayne School through the 8th grade where he was given the name "Apples" because he carried apples in his pockets for lunch. On the night of August 7, 1930, Cameron's friends Abe Smith, 19 and Tommy Shipp, 18 tried to hold up a white couple at "Lovers' Lane". The Grant County Sheriff arrested Cameron charging he and his friends with murder. The Ku Klux Klan stormed the jail and tried to lynch Cameron and his friends. Cameron passed out. His two friends were lynched and Cameron's life was spared.

Although Madame C.J. Walker sent him two NAACP lawyers from Indianapolis, Cameron was convicted in his 1931 trial as an accessory. Paroled in 1935, Cameron moved to Detroit, Michigan where he worked for Stroh's Brewing Company and attended Wayne State University. In Madison, Wisconsin, he founded the local branch of the NAACP and founded two more chapters in Muncie and South Bend, Indiana.

In 1983, Cameron mortgaged his house in order to publish his memoir, A Time of Terror. In 1988, with the assistance of philanthropist, Daniel Bader, Cameron founded America's Black Holocaust Museum, a not for profit devoted to preserving the history of lynching in the United States and the struggle to eradicate it. Located in a twelve thousand square-foot gym purchased for one dollar from the City of Milwaukee, Wisconsin, the museum contains artifacts from slavery, stereotypes, lynching postcards and photographs. Today, thousands of school children visit the museum. Cameron appeared on ABC television's Nightline, and scores of other television programs. In 1991, Cameron was officially pardoned by the State of Indiana.

Cameron passed away on June 11, 2006 at the age of 92. He is survived by his wife, the former Virginia Hamilton, their four sons and one daughter.

Cameron was interviewed by The HistoryMakers on July 14, 2005.