James Dallas Bowser (February 15, 1846-January 1923) was a journalist and educator in Kansas City, Missouri. He was the principal of Lincoln School there from 1868-1879 and later the principal of Attucks School. He was a civil rights leader in the city and was widely known for his poem, "Take up the Black Man's Burden", written in 1899 in response to British poet Rudyard Kipling's poem "The White Man's Burden". Bowser was a member of the Citizen's League of Kansas City Inter-Racial Committee.