Ranjana Hans met James Whitt for the first time in an after-hours talk about ways to move her small business forward. She couldn’t leave work early, but she really wanted Whitt’s well-seasoned advice.
Whitt sat with her for hours that evening to get her the help she needed, and he texted her the next morning to make sure she didn’t have any more questions.
“It was incredible. I mean, he could have just sent me an email. But he reached out personally,” she said. “He wanted to genuinely help me.”
Hans, owner of Raw Roots Turmeric, is one of many business owners Whitt mentored, and she is among many more in the Columbia community left behind to honor and treasure his memory.
Community leader James “Jim” Whitt passed away Monday evening. He was 74. Friends and colleagues — two commonly overlapping groups — remember him as a kind and patient person who really wanted to help others.
“He was just kind of a pillar to minority men and women in the community,” said Mike McClain, who Whitt mentored as McClain navigated the complex process of operating a new business. “He really wants to help you grow something.”
Whitt came to Columbia in 2001 from Indiana, and he used every second of the next 20 years to uplift the community. During his time on the Columbia School Board, he championed diverse hiring practices and getting air conditioning in all district schools.
He later became chairman of the Sharp End Heritage Committee in 2016, named for Columbia’s iconic Black business district that was destroyed by urban renewal in the ‘60s. He then became the director for the city’s Supplier Diversity Program. In that role, he spent much of his time meeting with minority and women business owners like Hans one-on-one to help them succeed.
‘Always a coach’
Former Columbia Public Schools Superintendent Peter Stiepleman said Whitt was always looking for ways to better those around him, whether that be fellow School Board members or those in the community seeking a good mentor.
“Mr. Whitt was always a coach, whether he was coaching you as a person and as a leader, or whether the countless young men that he influenced through his basketball league,” Stiepleman said.
Stiepleman recalled an anecdote Whitt would commonly tell about Duke basketball Coach Mike Krzyzewski, who is known for making his colleagues better prepared to tackle their jobs, no matter where they end up.
Whitt told him, “’That’s what you want to do,’” Stiepleman said. “‘You shouldn’t worry about losing people, you should be excited for their ability to go shine somewhere else.’”
Whitt carried that philosophy into his role with the Supplier Diversity Program, operated by the Regional Economic Development Inc. that helps local minority- and women-owned businesses succeed.
McClain needed help obtaining all the certifications for his electrical business, McClain’s Electric Workz, and he said Whitt was there every step of the way.
“Mr. Whitt, he believed in people who wanted to do better for their lives,” McClain said. “He believed if you can do things for yourself, you can make a better life for yourself. You don’t have to depend on people.”
McClain and Hans received grants through the Supplier Diversity Program’s Sharp End Entrepreneurial Development Fund, which Whitt managed. Both emphasized the patience and kindness Whitt showed them as they moved through the process.
“He just went above and beyond,” Hans said. “The encouragement you get from those types of people, it’s incredible. It’s so special. … He was special.”
A tenacious undertaking
When elected to the School Board in 2010, Whitt’s tenacity for change came with him. He served as board vice president from 2013 to 2015 and president from 2015 to 2017.
Paul Cushing sat next to Whitt on the School Board for several years. When the two met, Whitt was pushing for air conditioning in all the schools in the district.
“It was his tenacity that lit a fire underneath the superintendent to get that done,” Cushing said.
Whitt served on the School Board until 2019. He worked on several projects to push for equity for students. One of his lasting legacies is with the African American Heritage Trail.
The trail has 22 historic markers that memorialize the history of the Black community in Columbia, including the Sharp End. It’s currently part of a learning experience for seventh graders, and they walk the 2-mile trail while learning about influential figures and institutions that existed in Columbia.
“I mean, having our kids be able to understand our history, and that really was his legacy — to know that that’s part of our social studies experience,” Stiepleman said.
Whitt was also remembered by many for his generosity and dedication to his myriad causes and the people in his life. He was a mentor for many and a friend to almost everyone he met.
But most of all, he dedicated everything he had to the work he did.
“He was doing public service, and it was voluntary,” Cushing said. “And all those things he was doing were to better our community.”