James “Sparky” Rucker is descended from a longline of Church of God, Sanctified preachers and law enforcement officers, and his sense of justice stems from both of these traditions. Sparky's raucous guitar and singing styles are a direct result of his having performed in many doo-wop, soul, and rock bands. He has been involved with the civil rights movement since the 1950s. He participated in workshops at the Highlander Center with many prominent people in the movement, such as Rosa Parks, Myles Horton, and Bernice Reagon. As an activist, he worked with the Poor People's Campaign and several civil rights organizations, including SNCC, SCLC, and SSOC. He marched shoulder-to-shoulder with SNCC Freedom Singers Matthew and Marshall Jones and played freedom songs at rallies, marches, and sit-ins alongside other folksingers such as Guy Carawan and Pete Seeger. His support for others knew no color boundaries. He worked to win recognition and benefits for white Southern Appalachian coal miners as a staff member of the Council of the Southern Mountains in the 1970s.
During Sparky's career as a folksinger and social activist, he has been on the boards of Sing Out! magazine, the John Henry Memorial Foundation, and the Southern Folk Cultural Revival Project (SFCRP). He also toured throughout the South with the SFCRP for several years with such luminaries as John D. Loudermilk, Johnny Shines, Ola Belle Reed, Dewey Balfa, Dock Boggs, Anne Romaine, Alice Gerrard, Hazel Dickens, Nimrod Workman, Hedy West, Mike Seeger, and Bessie Jones & the Georgia Sea Island Singers.
Over almost sixty years of performing, Sparky has performed at the Kennedy Center in Washington D.C., the American Folk Blues Festival in Europe, and the Smithsonian Folklife Festival as well as NPR's On Point, Prairie Home Companion, Mountain Stage, All Things Considered, and Morning Edition. Their recording, Treasures & Tears, was nominated for a W.C. Handy Award, and their music is also included on the Grammy-nominated anthology, Singing Through the Hard Times.
Sparky and Rhonda have been featured tellers at the International Storytelling Center and Festival. Together, they have received many accolades, including the Underground Railroad Free Press Award, the Spirit of Freedom Commemorative Medal of Honor (African American Civil War Memorial), the MLK Art Award from the Dr. Martin Luther King Commemorative Commission, the Howard “Louie Bluie” Armstrong Legacy Award, and the Robert H. Chambers Award for Excellence in the Traditional Arts.
