Stella James Sims

Stella James Sims (born 1875) was an early African American academic who held positions at Storer College, Virginia University of Lynchburg, and Bluefield State College.

Stella James was born in 1875 in Washington, D. C.. to Lewis and Annie (Smith) James. James graduated from Storer College in 1893 and Bates College in Maine in 1897 (as the first African American woman to graduate from that school). While in college she wrote for the Bates Student. She taught at the Virginia Seminary (Virginia University of Lynchburg) in Lynchburg, Virginia from 1897 to 1898 and then Storer College from 1898 to 1901. In 1901 she married Robert Page Sims, and they had six children. Sims taught at Bluefield State College in Bluefield, West Virginia from 1906 to 1910.