Editor’s Note: During the observation of Black History Month, people from across the country are honored for their contributions. Among those are several with Southeast Arkansas ties such as Scipio Jones.
Scipio Africanus Jones was was born in 1863 to a slave mother, but the Dallas County native overcame his humble beginnings and wound up as one of the nation’s most respected attorneys.
Before the Civil War and emancipation, literacy was forbidden among slaves. As Jones came of age, he was able to attend a segregated black school in Tulip. But he had to pick cotton to help support himself while acquiring his early education.
In 1883, Jones migrated to Little Rock and began taking classes at what is now Philander Smith College. Two years later, he earned a degree in North Little Rock at what is now Shorter College.
Jones then taught public school in Pulaski County for four years while studying law on his own. Familiar with physical labor from his experiences as a plantation worker, Jones swapped his services as a janitor to two judges and an attorney so he could read law books in their offices.
Independent reporting for Pine Bluff & Jefferson County since 1879.
Becoming an apprentice under a third judge, Jones passed the Arkansas Bar exam in 1899.
Jones developed into a force within the state Republican Party, twice serving as a delegate to the Republican National Convention. He also blossomed into a successful businessman and civic leader, and would gain appreciation for his philanthropy.
As an attorney, Jones garnered a reputation as a champion for the downtrodden in their quests for social justice. Along the way, he won the admiration and friendship of assorted white leaders, including Gov. George Donaghey.
In 1915, Jones became the state’s first black to be appointed as a special judge. Nine years later, he was elected to a Pulaski County Chancery Court judgeship.
Jones’ national reputation, however, largely resulted from his involvement in the defense of 12 black men charged with murder in what became known as the Elaine Massacre of 1919. One white man was shot and killed while another was wounded in a shootout between whites and blacks there after differing opinions on farm practices in the area were expressed at a Phillips County public meeting.
By the next morning, up to 1,000 armed whites — mostly from surrounding Arkansas counties and also Mississippi — armed themselves and flocked to the Elaine area to put down what had been declared an “insurrection.”
Gov. Charles Brough authorized 500 soldiers from the Army’s Camp Pike near Little Rock to oversee the state’s response.
Confrontations erupted and four more whites were killed while “hundreds” of blacks lost their lives. Nearly 300 blacks were detained and an eventual 122 were arrested and charged with offences ranging from night riding to murder.
When the first 12 suspects were convicted of murder and sentenced to death in the electric chair, 65 others began plea-bargaining and accepted terms of up to 21 years for second-degree murder. Charges against the others were dropped.
Jones immediately joined the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People of New York in protesting the arrests and punishments. He would soon take a lead position in the effort.
Through a series of legal maneuvers, the convicted dozen were spared from execution and freed from prison within six years. The remaining defendants were pardoned by Gov. Thomas McRae.
Jones died in Little Rock in 1943, a year after he joined with future U.S. Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall in commencing a successful legal challenge to secure equal pay for a black Little Rock public school teacher.
After the death of his first wife, Jones had married Lillie M. Jackson of Pine Bluff in 1917.
(Information sources for this article included the Encyclopedia of Arkansas History and Culture and the University of Arkansas.)