James Perry, J.D.  is president and CEO of the Winston-Salem Urban League. Perry leads a 20-person team across the North Carolina’s Triad, advocating for civil rights, employment opportunities, economic opportunities, affordable housing, health and wellness, voting rights, food security, and more. Since taking the helm of the Winston-Salem Urban League, Perry has authored the eye-opening State of Black Winston-Salem report, raised nearly $1.4 million, and strengthened and reorganized the agency’s programs and fiscal systems.

Before taking charge of the Winston-Salem Urban League, Perry served for 10 years as the Chief Executive of the Greater New Orleans Fair Housing Action Center.  Perry led the center through hurricane Katrina, the most disastrous hurricane to make landfall in America. Under his leadership, the center won more than half a billion dollars for victims of discrimination across Louisiana.

Perry founded the Mississippi Gulf Coast Fair Housing Center, has testified before Congress eight times, has served on dozens of local, state and national boards and commissions, and has managed political campaigns numbering in the dozens. He currently serves on the National Fair Housing Alliance Board of Directors. Perry is business partner and consultant to his wife, Dr. Melissa Harris-Perry.

Perry is a political science graduate of the University of New Orleans and Loyola University School of Law.

James and Melissa reside in Winston-Salem, NC,  where they are raising 14 chickens, five rabbits, three ducks, two daughters, one dog, and a mother in law.