Nathaniel R. Jones facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Nathaniel R. Jones
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| Senior Judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit | |
| In office May 13, 1995 – March 30, 2002 |
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| Judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit | |
| In office October 5, 1979 – May 13, 1995 |
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| Appointed by | Jimmy Carter |
| Preceded by | John Weld Peck II |
| Succeeded by | R. Guy Cole Jr. |
| Personal details | |
| Born |
Nathaniel Raphael Jones
May 12, 1926 Youngstown, Ohio, U.S. |
| Died | January 26, 2020 (aged 93) Cincinnati, Ohio, U.S. |
| Education | Youngstown State University (AB, LLB) |
Nathaniel Raphael Jones (born May 12, 1926 – died January 26, 2020) was an important American lawyer, judge, and law professor. He worked hard to end school segregation, especially in the northern United States, while serving as the main lawyer for the NAACP. From 1979 to 1995, he was a judge on the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit. He later became a senior judge and retired in 2002 to work as a private lawyer again.
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Early Life and Education
Nathaniel Jones was born in 1926 in a neighborhood called Smoky Hollow in Youngstown, Ohio. This was just a few blocks from a federal courthouse that is now named after him. Even though he lived in a neighborhood where different races lived together and went to a mixed high school, his mother took him to the local YMCA, which was only for Black people. There, he met and heard from important leaders of the civil rights movement.
His mother also introduced him to J. Maynard Dickerson, a lawyer and publisher of a Black newspaper called The Buckeye Review. Dickerson became a mentor to young Nathaniel. Jones joined the local NAACP's youth group. He successfully organized a protest against a roller skating rink that only allowed Black people to skate on Monday nights.
Serving in the Military
After finishing high school in 1945, Jones joined the U.S. Army because World War II was still happening. He was surprised to find that the training facility at Camp Atterbury, Indiana, was segregated. He remembered that Italian prisoners of war were treated better than Black soldiers. Despite this, Jones served in the United States Army Air Corps.
College and Law School
After the war, Jones used the GI Bill, which helped soldiers pay for college. He went to Youngstown College, which is now Youngstown State University. He continued to work with the NAACP there. He saw future Supreme Court justice Thurgood Marshall in action when a nearby town tried to stop Black people from using their swimming pool.
Jones earned his first degree in 1951. He then went to law school at night. During the day, he directed Youngstown's Fair Employment Practices Commission. This group worked to make sure people were hired fairly, no matter their race. He earned his law degree in 1956.
A Career Fighting for Civil Rights
Jones became a lawyer in 1957 and started his own law practice. In 1961, Attorney General Robert Kennedy chose him to be an Assistant United States Attorney in Cleveland. This made him the first African American to hold that job in that area. He worked there until 1967.
Working with the Kerner Commission
In 1967, President Lyndon B. Johnson appointed Jones to the National Advisory Commission on Civil Disorders, also known as the Kerner Commission. This commission studied the causes of race riots that were happening in cities across the U.S. After his time with the commission, Jones returned to private law practice in Youngstown.
Leading the NAACP's Legal Team
In 1969, Roy Wilkins, the leader of the NAACP, asked Jones to become the organization's main lawyer. The next year, over 600 important people honored Jones at an NAACP event in Youngstown. In his speech, he said that African Americans "still live in the basement of the great society. We must keep plodding until we get what we are striving for."
For the next nine years, Jones led all of the NAACP's lawsuits. He argued several cases himself in the U.S. Supreme Court. He also organized national efforts to end school segregation in the northern states. He worked to defend affirmative action, which aims to give equal opportunities to groups that have faced discrimination. He also looked into discrimination against Black soldiers in the U.S. military.
Jones successfully defended the NAACP in a Mississippi Boycott case, using the First Amendment (freedom of speech). He also won the case of Reed v. Rhodes, which helped desegregate schools in the Cleveland area. However, he was the lawyer who lost the case of Milliken v. Bradley. This ruling made it harder to desegregate schools between cities and their suburbs.
Judicial Career and Later Years
On August 28, 1979, President Jimmy Carter nominated Nathaniel Jones to be a judge on the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit. The United States Senate approved his nomination on October 4, 1979. He officially became a judge on October 15, 1979.
He became a senior judge on May 13, 1995, which means he took on a reduced workload. He fully retired from the court on March 30, 2002.
Beyond the Courtroom
While he was a federal judge, Jones also taught law at Harvard Law School and the University of Cincinnati College of Law. He traveled many times to South Africa. There, he spoke out against apartheid, which was a system of racial segregation and discrimination. He was an observer for South Africa's first democratic elections in 1993. Later, he advised the people who were writing the new South African constitution.
After retiring, Jones became a Senior Counsel at a law firm called Blank Rome LLP in Cincinnati. He also worked as their Chief Diversity and Inclusion officer, helping the firm be more welcoming to people from all backgrounds.
In 2016, he wrote a book about his life called Answering the Call: An Autobiography of the Modern Struggle to End Racial Discrimination in America.
Honors and Recognition
On May 6, 2003, a federal courthouse in his hometown of Youngstown, Ohio, was named in his honor. Former U.S. Representative Louis B. Stokes said at the ceremony, "This building, which will forever carry your name, will be a testament to outstanding public service by a local boy made good."
In 2016, Jones received the NAACP's Spingarn Medal, which is their highest honor. In 2019, the University of Cincinnati named its Center for Race, Gender, and Social Justice after Judge Jones. He also received 19 honorary degrees from different universities.
Personal Life
Nathaniel Jones was married to Lillian Graham Jones, who passed away before him. They had five children: Stephanie J. Jones, William L. Hawthorne, Ricky B. Hawthorne, Marc D. Hawthorne, and Pamela L. Velez. Jones was a Prince Hall Freemason and a member of the Kappa Alpha Psi fraternity. He passed away on January 26, 2020, at the age of 93, due to congestive heart failure.
