Scipio Jones
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Scipio Africanus Jones (August 3, 1863 – March 2, 1943) was an American
educator A teacher, also called a schoolteacher or formally an educator, is a person who helps students to acquire knowledge, competence, or virtue, via the practice of teaching. ''Informally'' the role of teacher may be taken on by anyone (e.g. whe ...
,
lawyer A lawyer is a person who practices law. The role of a lawyer varies greatly across different legal jurisdictions. A lawyer can be classified as an advocate, attorney, barrister, canon lawyer, civil law notary, counsel, counselor, solic ...
,
judge A judge is a person who presides over court proceedings, either alone or as a part of a panel of judges. A judge hears all the witnesses and any other evidence presented by the barristers or solicitors of the case, assesses the credibility an ...
,
philanthropist Philanthropy is a form of altruism that consists of "private initiatives, for the Public good (economics), public good, focusing on quality of life". Philanthropy contrasts with business initiatives, which are private initiatives for private goo ...
, and Republican politician from the state of Arkansas. He was most known for having guided the appeals of the twelve African-American men condemned to death after the Elaine Massacre of October 1919. More than one hundred African Americans were indicted in the aftermath of the riot, although an estimated one hundred to two hundred Black Americans were killed in the county, along with five whites. No whites were prosecuted by the state. The case was appealed to the United States Supreme Court, which in ''
Moore v. Dempsey ''Moore et al. v. Dempsey'', 261 U.S. 86 (1923), was a Supreme Court of the United States, United States Supreme Court case in which the Court ruled 6–2 that the defendants' mob-dominated trials deprived them of due process guaranteed by the Due ...
'' (1923) set a precedent of reviewing the conduct of state criminal trials against the
Due Process Clause In United States constitutional law, a Due Process Clause is found in both the Fifth and Fourteenth Amendments to the United States Constitution, which prohibits arbitrary deprivation of "life, liberty, or property" by the government except as ...
of the
Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution The Fourteenth Amendment (Amendment XIV) to the United States Constitution was adopted on July 9, 1868, as one of the Reconstruction Amendments. Often considered as one of the most consequential amendments, it addresses citizenship rights and ...
. Born into slavery in Smith Township near Tulip in
Dallas County Dallas County may refer to: Places in the USA: * Dallas County, Alabama, founded in 1818, the first county in the United States by that name * Dallas County, Arkansas * Dallas County, Iowa * Dallas County, Missouri * Dallas County, Texas, the nint ...
in south Arkansas, Jones became a successful and powerful businessman. Jones was the first lawyer in Arkansas to raise the question that African Americans had not been permitted to serve on
grand juries A grand jury is a jury—a group of citizens—empowered by law to conduct legal proceedings, investigate potential crime, criminal conduct, and determine whether criminal charges should be brought. A grand jury may subpoena physical evidence or ...
and petit juries. In 1915, Jones broke a color barrier when he was appointed to serve as acting judge of the Little Rock police court, presiding over a case in which all the parties were blacks, as were the witnesses and attorneys except the city attorney, who supported having a Negro judge preside at this particular trial. Jones also represented Negro
Shriners Shriners International, formally known as the Ancient Arabic Order of the Nobles of the Mystic Shrine (AAONMS), is an American Masonic society established in 1870 and is headquartered in Tampa, Florida. Shriners International describes itself ...
as part of a successful defense against efforts to keep them from using the name and paraphernalia of the Shriners organization.


Early life and education

Jones' mother, Jemmina Jones, was a 15-year-old slave when her mixed-race son Scipio was born. She had been held by Dr. Adolphus and Carolyn Jones, who assigned her as the companion of their daughter Thresa when the girls were young. Thresa, a year younger, became Jemmina's best friend. Thresa's parents died when she was 9 years old, and she and her slave were moved to the house of her uncle, Dr. Sanford Reamey. He would later become Scipio's father. Jones attended black schools near his hometown. In 1883, he moved to Little Rock at the age of twenty and took preparatory courses at Philander Smith College. In 1885, Jones earned a bachelor's degree from Shorter College, a
historically black Historically black colleges and universities (HBCUs) are institutions of higher education in the United States that were established before the Civil Rights Act of 1964 with the intention of primarily serving the African-American community. ...
college in
North Little Rock North Little Rock is a city in Pulaski County, Arkansas, across the Arkansas from Little Rock in the central part of the state. The population was 64,591 at the 2020 census. In 2019 the estimated population was 65,903, making it the seventh-mo ...
. Jones worked as a school teacher in Big Rock District Two from 1885 until 1887. He was a tenant of James Lawson, a white man, a member of a pioneer family of Little Rock. At this time Jones also befriended three prominent black business owners: Ed Wood, Sr., owner of the largest black-owned plantation in the state and the only African American on the local commodities trading floor; John Bush, a powerful black merchant and lumber yard owner; and Chester Keatts. These three initiated Jones into the Prince Hall Freemasonry, a secret fraternal society of prominent African Americans who pooled resources for the ideals of liberty, equality and peace. Jones offered to work for free as a janitor at the law offices of U.S. District Judge Henry C. Caldwell, Judge T.B. Martin, and Atty. S.A. Kilgore. While there, he began to
read law Reading law was the method used in common law countries, particularly the United States, for people to prepare for and enter the legal profession before the advent of law schools. It consisted of an extended internship or apprenticeship under the ...
books during his free time. He also became an apprentice under Circuit Judge Robert J. Lea. Jones passed the Arkansas Bar in 1889. When he had begun his studies, Arkansas had no law school for African-American students, and reading law in an established firm was still a common way for men to study the law and prepare for the bar.


Political life

Jones joined the Republican Party and ran unsuccessfully ran for
state representative A state legislature is a legislative branch or body of a political subdivision in a federal system. Two federations literally use the term "state legislature": * The legislative branches of each of the fifty state governments of the United Sta ...
in 1892. He was a delegate to the
Republican National Convention The Republican National Convention (RNC) is a series of presidential nominating conventions held every four years since 1856 by the United States Republican Party. They are administered by the Republican National Committee. The goal of the Repu ...
several times. In 1891, the Democratic-controlled
Arkansas General Assembly The General Assembly of Arkansas is the state legislature of the U.S. state of Arkansas. The legislature is a bicameral body composed of the upper house Arkansas Senate with 35 members, and the lower Arkansas House of Representatives with 100 ...
passed a new election law making voting more complicated and eliminating numerous illiterate voters; together with a
poll tax A poll tax, also known as head tax or capitation, is a tax levied as a fixed sum on every liable individual (typically every adult), without reference to income or resources. Head taxes were important sources of revenue for many governments fr ...
amendment passed in 1892, these measures disenfranchised most blacks in the state and many poor whites. The Republican Party offered Jones the positions of Recorder of Deeds in the District of Columbia and Ambassador to the Republic of Haiti, but he declined both appointments to concentrate on local affairs. The Republican Party in the state suffered a substantial loss in voters due to the disfranchisement measures. Jones became involved in the struggle between the Lily Whites and the Black and Tans within the
Republican Party Republican Party is a name used by many political parties around the world, though the term most commonly refers to the United States' Republican Party. Republican Party may also refer to: Africa *Republican Party (Liberia) * Republican Part ...
. In 1902, Jones helped organize a slate of black Republicans to challenge the Lily Whites and Democrats in the city of Little Rock general election. The struggle reached a breaking point in 1920, when the blacks nominated J.H. Blount, a Negro candidate, for Governor for the first time. In that year, Jones was selected as the Black and Tan contender for the Arkansas Republican National Committee. Four years later, Jones, J. H. Blount, N. R. Parker and J. Hibbler helped organize a Black and Tan protest meeting in Little Rock in which a list of demands for equal political treatment was presented to the Lily Whites. Eventually, a compromise was reached that guaranteed black representation on the Republican State Central Committee.


Business life

Jones was a successful and powerful businessman. He was the founder and owner of People's Ice & Fuel Company, which had the distinction of being both the only black-owned and black-operated ice manufacturing company and the only black-owned and black-operated fuel company in the U.S. He extended his relationship with Eddie Wood, Sr, and Jon Bush, when they supported his formation of the Arkansas Negro Business League, an affiliate of
Booker T. Washington Booker Taliaferro Washington (April 5, 1856November 14, 1915) was an American educator, author, orator, and adviser to several presidents of the United States. Between 1890 and 1915, Washington was the dominant leader in the African-American c ...
's National Negro Business League (NNBL). Additionally, he joined the Prince Hall Masons, with their sponsorship. During the administration of Mayor Ben D. Brickhouse, the Little Rock Clearing House, composed of representatives from the ten banks of Little Rock, had declined to make a loan to the city. When Brickhouse mentioned this fact to Jones, Jones asked the mayor how much money the city needed. The mayor replied that he needed $75,000; Jones said, "My clients have $120,000 on deposit in the banks of Little Rock and if the Clearing House will not let you have the money, my clients will." After hearing about the conversation, the Clearing House agreed to lend the city the $75,000.


Practice of law

Jones was accepted into the American Bar Association in 1889. Shortly thereafter, he was admitted to practice in the circuit court of Pulaski County, which includes Little Rock. In 1900, he was admitted to the state Supreme Court, followed by the United States District Court (1901), the United States Supreme Court (1905), and the United States Court of Appeals (1914). He served as the first treasurer of the National Negro Bar Association when it was formed in Little Rock in 1910 as an auxiliary of the NNBL. Jones was the National Attorney General of the
Mosaic Templars of America The Mosaic Templars of America was a black fraternal order founded by John E. Bush (Mosaic Templars of America), John E. Bush and Chester W. Keatts, two former slaves, in Little Rock, Arkansas, in 1883.Davis, Ryan. "A Cultural Icon Rises From the As ...
, an organization founded by John E. Bush and Chester W. Keatts, was, at the time, one of the largest African-American fraternal organizations in the nation, and one of the largest black-owned business enterprises. The organization provided burial and life insurance to members; operated a building and loan association, a newspaper, a nursing school, and a hospital; and offered other social programs to the community. Its international headquarters were located in Little Rock, Arkansas. Jones also served as the attorney, counselor, and legal adviser for several other African-American fraternal organizations, including the International Order of Twelve and Knights and Daughters of Tabor, which also had its headquarters in Arkansas, a few blocks from the Mosaic Templars. He successfully defended the Grand Lodge of the Knights of Pythias when the Arkansas Insurance Commission attempted to put them out of business. Because of his work with African-American fraternal organizations, he was called "the Gibraltar of Negro fraternal beneficiary societies." In 1915, when Fred A. Isgrig was judge of the Little Rock police court, Isgrig disqualified himself in a case. City Attorney, Harry C. Hale, nominated Jones to act as judge. As all the parties were blacks, as were the witnesses and attorneys except Hale, Hale thought it proper to have a Negro judge preside at this particular trial. Jones was elected special judge. The election of a Negro justice so angered W. N. Lee, a white lawyer from Little Rock who was originally from Mississippi, that he engaged in fisticuffs with Hale for nominating Jones. He said that he would not live in a state in which white people would elect a Negro. The trial was held about ten o'clock in the morning and Lee left the state about four o'clock that afternoon and never returned. On August 26, 1924 the Pulaski County Democratic convention met in session. The meeting, packed with anti-Klan delegates who listened attentively to many verbal lashings of the secret fraternity, was the first at which a direct attack was ever made by the Democratic party in the county against the
Ku Klux Klan The Ku Klux Klan (), commonly shortened to the KKK or the Klan, is an American white supremacist, right-wing terrorist, and hate group whose primary targets are African Americans, Jews, Latinos, Asian Americans, Native Americans, and ...
, which had been active in the state since 1921. Scathing denunciations of the order were made by the chairman of the convention, Fred A. Isgrig, and the secretary of the County Central Committee, Frank H. Dodge. These were both received with applause. Isgrig traced the history of the Little Rock Klan in politics, describing the fight it had made to obtain control of the school board, the county offices, and the membership of the state legislature allotted to the district. He pointed out further that the election judges and clerks were chosen with the assistance of Klansmen, including C. P. Newton, the Democratic candidate for county judge. Before adjourning, the convention adopted a resolution, the conclusion of which stated:
Be it ... resolved that we call upon the citizens not only of this county but upon all the counties of the state of Arkansas, to join with us in casting the Ku Klux Klan out of the Democratic party and forcing it to come out in the open, under its own colors as a Ku Klux Klan party, instead of seeking to hide its identity within the folds of the Democratic party.
In 1924, Jones was elected special chancellor in the Pulaski County Chancery Court. Jones was the first lawyer in Arkansas to raise the question that African Americans had not been permitted to serve on the grand and petit juries, although many were qualified. He contended that this was discrimination on account of race, color, and previous condition of servitude, and was prohibited by the US Constitution. Jones raised this question before it was raised in the Carter case of Texas, which was afterwards appealed to the
Supreme Court of the United States The Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) is the highest court in the federal judiciary of the United States. It has ultimate appellate jurisdiction over all U.S. federal court cases, and over state court cases that involve a point o ...
. The Supreme Court held that it was a discrimination on account of race, color, and previous condition of servitude. Many cases were dismissed in Texas in which indictments had been made without Negro persons being on the jury. Following the Adair case in Georgia, many suits of injunction were brought in other states against the Negro
Shriners Shriners International, formally known as the Ancient Arabic Order of the Nobles of the Mystic Shrine (AAONMS), is an American Masonic society established in 1870 and is headquartered in Tampa, Florida. Shriners International describes itself ...
to keep from using the name and paraphernalia of Shriners. Jones represented the Negro Shriners in such a suit brought in Pulaski County. Chancellor Judge John Martineau held in his favor. Jones also assisted in the trial of the case at
Houston, Texas Houston (; ) is the most populous city in Texas, the most populous city in the Southern United States, the fourth-most populous city in the United States, and the sixth-most populous city in North America, with a population of 2,304,580 in ...
, against the Negro Shriners. The white Shrine Temple had sold its paraphernalia to the Negro Shrine Temple, and then enjoined the Negro Shriners from using the paraphernalia. This case was carried to the U.S. Supreme Court where it ruled that the Negroes had the right to use the paraphernalia on the ground of "estoppel".


The Elaine Twelve

Jones is most famous for his skillful defense of the Elaine 12, twelve black
sharecropper Sharecropping is a legal arrangement with regard to agricultural land in which a landowner allows a tenant to use the land in return for a share of the crops produced on that land. Sharecropping has a long history and there are a wide range ...
s sentenced to death for allegedly being involved in the murder of a white man during the Elaine Massacre in October 1919. The twelve men had been convicted and sentenced to death by an all-white jury in a series of trials that were said to have lasted approximately 20 minutes. The plight of the Elaine 12, and 87 other black men who were convicted to prison terms for participation in the riot, quickly made international headlines. Three organizations offered assistance: the Arkansas Conference on Negro Organizations (ACNO), the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (
NAACP The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) is a civil rights organization in the United States, formed in 1909 as an interracial endeavor to advance justice for African Americans by a group including W. E.&nb ...
), and the
National Equal Rights League The National Equal Rights League (NERL) is the oldest nationwide human rights organization in the United States. It was founded in Syracuse, New York in 1864 dedicated to the liberation of black people in the United States. Its origins can be tr ...
(NERL). The ACNO and NERL joined together to hire Jones as the defense attorney for all 99 of the convicted men. The NAACP hired former state attorney general George W. Murphy as the defense attorney for the Elaine 12. The two attorneys were friends and decided to work together. When George Murphy died unexpectedly after they had started the retrial of six of the murder defendants in May 1920, after winning an appeal in the Arkansas Supreme Court, Jones took the lead in guiding the appeals process. After much internal debate, the NAACP temporarily retained Jones as their replacement for Murphy, making him briefly the sole attorney for all of the 99 defendants. He successfully continued with the Moore et al. defendants, whose cases were reviewed by the U.S. Supreme Court. Jones is credited with having been the author of the brief used before the Court.For the text of his petition for a writ of habeas corpus, see http://www.esauboeck.com/index/SA-Jones-petition-for-writ-of-habeas-corpus.html When it was time to argue the Elaine 12 case before the Supreme Court, the NAACP decided to replace Jones with
Moorfield Storey Moorfield Storey (March 19, 1845 – October 24, 1929) was an American lawyer, anti-imperial activist, and civil rights leader based in Boston, Massachusetts. According to Storey's biographer, William B. Hixson, Jr., he had a worldview that embod ...
of Boston, founding president of the NAACP since 1909, and former assistant U.S. attorney Ulysses S. Bratton of Little Rock. Jones continued to support the cases, and in 1923 the Supreme Court ruled in ''
Moore v. Dempsey ''Moore et al. v. Dempsey'', 261 U.S. 86 (1923), was a Supreme Court of the United States, United States Supreme Court case in which the Court ruled 6–2 that the defendants' mob-dominated trials deprived them of due process guaranteed by the Due ...
'' that, for the first time, collateral attack through habeas corpus was permissible on a state appellate court decision. It was a landmark precedent that marked the Court's review of state criminal cases from the point of view of the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. During the trials, Jones received frequent lynching threats while in Arkansas. He was said to have shifted his location each night because of the risk to his safety. New trials were granted to the twelve defendants as the court stated that they had not received due process in the original trials. Charges were quickly dismissed against six of the defendants. The remaining six were retried, convicted and sentenced to twelve years in prison. Jones successfully lobbied Arkansas Governor Thomas McRae, who had earlier refused to release the defendants, to let men out on indefinite furloughs in 1925. Before leaving office, Governor McRae also pardoned the other 87 Elaine defendants. This was hours before Governor-elect
Tom Jefferson Terral Thomas Jefferson Terral (December 21, 1882 – March 9, 1946) was an American attorney and the 27th governor of Arkansas. Early life Terral was born in Union Parish in northern Louisiana. He attended the University of Kentucky at Lexington ...
, a Klan member, assumed office. During a speech before one of the largest KKK rallies in Arkansas history the night before his inauguration, Terral vowed to execute the six remaining Elaine defendants as his first official duty in office.


Later in life

Jones remained active in Republican politics and continued to press legal challenges to racial discrimination in Arkansas until his death. During World War I, Jones led the Liberty Bond recruitment drive among the African-American community in Arkansas and raised $243,000 in the effort. Jones also served as the head of the Negro State Suffrage League and fought for voting rights for black citizens throughout his life. Jones served as director of the United Charities drive, a predecessor of the United Way of America. Jones's last case was in 1942, when he teamed up with Thurgood Marshall of NAACP's Legal Defense Fund to sue the Little Rock School District to obtain equal pay for a black school teacher. Though Jones died before the completion of the case, Marshall gained victory in court. Scipio Jones died in Little Rock and is interred there at Haven of Rest Cemetery.


Honors and legacy

*In 1905, he received an honorary doctorate from ? *The premiere segregated high school for black teenagers in the Little Rock area, Scipio Jones High School in
North Little Rock North Little Rock is a city in Pulaski County, Arkansas, across the Arkansas from Little Rock in the central part of the state. The population was 64,591 at the 2020 census. In 2019 the estimated population was 65,903, making it the seventh-mo ...
, was named for him during his lifetime.Hanley, Steven G. and Ray Hanley. ''Around Little Rock: A Postcard History''. Arcadia Publishing, June 1, 1998. , 9780738568676. p
118
It was built on land originally owned by Eddie Wood Sr., his former business colleague. *S.A. Jones Drive in North Little Rock, Arkansas is named in his honor. * Jones's house in Little Rock is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.


See also

* List of African-American Republicans * Black conservatism in the United States


References


External links


Biography at Arkansas Black Lawyers

reference for Fred A Isgrig denunciation of the Klan and the calls for the Klan's removal from the Democratic Party


Further reading

* Cortner, Richard C., ''A Mob Intent On Death'', * Dillard, Tom W., "Scipio A. Jones," ''Arkansas Historical Quarterly'' 31 (Autumn 1972): 201-219 * Stockley, Grif, ''Blood in their Eyes: The Elaine Race Massacres of 1919''. Fayetteville: University of Arkansas Press, 2001.
Stockley, Grif, “ Elaine Massacre,” in Encyclopedia of Arkansas History and Culture
* Stockley, Grif and Jeannie M. Whayne, "Federal Troops and the Elaine Massacres: A Colloquy," ''Arkansas Historical Quarterly'' 61 (Autumn 2002): 272-283 * Whayne, Jeannie M., "Low Villains in Wickedness in High Places: Race and Class in the Elaine Riots," ''Arkansas Historical Quarterly'' 58 (Autumn 1999): 285-313 * Woodruff, Nan Elizabeth, ''American Congo: The African American Freedom Struggle in the Delta''. Cambridge: Harvard University, 2003 * Carmichael, J. H. "The Story of a Little Negro Boy," in Coke, Octavius, editor-in-chief. ''The Scrapbook of Arkansas Literature, an Anthology for the General Reader''. American Caxton Society Press, 1939: 312–314. * Whitaker, Robert. ''On the Laps of Gods: The Red Summer of 1919 and the Struggle for Justice That Remade a Nation.'' New York: Random House, Inc., 2008. (0-307-33982-3) {{DEFAULTSORT:Jones, Scipio Africanus 1863 births 1943 deaths African-American people in Arkansas politics Activists for African-American civil rights Arkansas lawyers African-American lawyers People from Dallas County, Arkansas Politicians from Little Rock, Arkansas Arkansas Republicans American lawyers admitted to the practice of law by reading law Burials in Arkansas 19th-century American lawyers 20th-century American lawyers 20th-century African-American people People born in the Confederate States