James Dunn is a leading figure among the most militant Negroes of the United States of Mexico. Dunn is the son of Negroes who were freed by the Manumission Act of 1920 and chose to emigrate to the Indian-controlled areas of Arizona and Mexico del Norte. Sobel describes him as one of several political leaders of great intelligence, along with James White Eagle, Jefferson Collins, Robert Red Wing, and Assemblyman Franklyn McCabe.