James Kelly came to Seattle from his native Illinois in 1976, and received a Masters degree in Social Work from the University of Washington in 1980. Kelly worked as an investigator for Washington State Child Protective Services, and in the Seattle City Attorney’s Office, before being appointed by Governor Booth Gardner to head the newly created Commission on African-American Affairs in 1989. In 1996, he became the Special Assistant to the Secretary of the Washington Department of Social and Health Services, and in 1998 was selected to serve as Deputy Assistant Secretary for the Economic Services Administration. In 1999, Kelly accepted the position of President and CEO of the Urban League of Metropolitan Seattle, a position he held until his retirement in 2011.

This photo of James Kelly was taken when he was the Executive Director the Commission of African-American Affairs. In the interview by the Seattle Post-Intelligencer accompanying this photo, Kelly commented that Seattleites seemed "civil" and "polite" about their prejudices.

Caption information source: "James Kelly" at BlackPast.org website at https://www.blackpast.org/author/kellyjames/.
Caption information also derived from captions written by Seattle Post-Intelligencer staff and attached to the back of the photo.