James H. Piles was an African-American teacher, school principal, lawyer, and state legislator in Mississippi.
He was born c. 1842 in Springfield, Ohio, and before attending Oberlin College, worked as a barber. He left Mississippi after Reconstruction ended and worked in Washington, D.C., and Memphis, Tennessee.Freedom's Lawmakers by Eric Foner Louisiana State University Press 1996 page 170
He represented Panola County in the Mississippi House of Representatives from 1870 to 1875 as a Republican. He served as Assistant Secretary of State in 1875.
See also African American officeholders from the end of the Civil War until before 1900
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