James L. Robinson Sr. was born on September 18, 1958 in Anderson County, South Carolina in a small rural town called Starr. He lived in South Carolina until 1964 when his family moved to Cincinnati, Ohio. He grew up in an all black neighborhood called Lincoln Heights which is 15 miles north of Kentucky.
He went to Lincoln Heights Elementary School until he was in the 5th grade after which he moved to Fort Jackson, South Carolina. James stayed in Fort Jackson until he completed the 6 grade and then moved backed to Cincinnati where he graduated from Princeton District Schools in 1976.
Feeling that his Family was too poor to send him to college James started working at Stearns and Fosters at the age of 18 and worked there until he was hired at General Electric on his 21st birthday. Having a desired to improve his skills James went to the University of Cincinnati’s College of Applied Science. He took up Machine Tool Operations and Fundamentals from 1982 until 1985. Learning and operating machinery was a passion of James until he decided to take up Jet Engine Assembly, a job he did the majority of his working career at General Electric.
After being laid off from General Electric in 1994 James worked at Siemens’ Energy and Automation for 2 ½ years until he quit to go work at The Ford Motor Company in 1996. During the time that James worked at Ford Motor Company he applied for an apprenticeship position in which he was denied. Feeling that he was discriminated against he started a class action racial discrimination lawsuit that lasted for 6 years. James eventually won a landmark historical settlement in 2005 in which over 3400 African Americans shared in a 10 million dollar settlement. James left Ford in 2008 after graduating from the apprenticeship program he fought so hard to get into. Feeling that his mission at Ford was accomplished he went to work for The Proctor and Gamble Company in Cincinnati Ohio.
James is married to his childhood sweetheart Regina and the two of them have 2 children James Jr. and Rosalyn. James is currently a Deacon and Sunday school teacher at Mt. Moriah Missionary Baptist Church in Lincoln Heights, Ohio where he serves faithfully every Sunday with his wife Regina. James said, “If I can stop other children from going down the road I traveled, then my journey would not have been in vain.”