James A. Ray was born on August 23, 1872, in Alamance County, North Carolina. On the night of July 19, 1920, he and two others—William W. Phillips and Clem William Bradshaw—were shot by national guard soldiers with the Durham Machine Gun Company when they (the soldiers) opened fire on a lynch mob attempting to jailbreak Black men accused of sexual assault. Ray had been severely wounded; he died later that same night. An official investigation ensued, and the official findings of the investigating committee found that Ray, Bradshaw, and Phillips were not part of the mob but were onlookers who got caught in the crossfire.