James and Ella Collier

From Humble Beginnings to an Enviable Collection of 30-Plus Cars

J. Michael Hemsley had the honor of meeting African-American collecting pioneers James and Ella Collier at the First Atlanta Concours d’Elegance. They were sitting under a canopy, surrounded by four of their cars, all Chevrolets and all beautifully restored. The four cars were a fuel-injected 1963 Corvette Split-Window Coupe, a very rare big-block, stick-shift 1959 Impala convertible, and two 1932 Chevrolets. The ’32s were among James Collier’s favorites, because they have lots of chrome—he loves chrome. The green ’32 is a Landau convertible, and the brown one is a Phaeton that didn’t sell well when it was new—it was a bit too upscale for the regular Chevrolet buyer.