James B. Henley has dedicated his life to teaching since 1987.  He has taught History and Debate at Sidney Lanier Middle School where he has won the praise and devotion of a generation of Houston students. 

    The Lanier debate teams have won three consecutive National Middle School Debate Championships.  In fact, Mr. Henley’s teams are undefeated in debate competition since 2002.  [See the news links in Lanier Debate section.] For the past eighteen years, Mr. Henley has directed an annual tour of Washington D.C. leading several thousand parent and students from his school community to meet national leaders from both parties.

    Jim was born in 1947, the son of James B. Henley Sr., a World War II veteran and Laura H. Henley, a native of Belgium.  They met and married after the war and raised seven children in Camden, Arkansas.

    Jim graduated from University of the Ozarks in Clarksville, Arkansas.  He served as pastor of the Second Baptist Church of Clarksville from 1967 to 1976 and graduated from Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Fort Worth.