Editing Scipio Africanus Jones (section)

{{citations needed|date=March 2025}}
{{Short description|American lawyer and politician (1863–1943)}}
{{Infobox person
| name               = Scipio Africanus Jones
| image              = Scipio Africanus Jones.jpg
| caption            = 
| birth_date         = {{birth date|1863|8|3}}
| birth_place        = Near [[Tulip, Arkansas]]
| death_date         = {{death date and age|1943|3|2|1863|8|3}}
| death_place        = [[Little Rock, Arkansas]], U.S.
| resting_place      = Haven of Rest Cemetery in Little Rock
| occupation         = [[Lawyer]], [[Judge]], [[Business]]man, [[Philanthropist]]
| party              = [[Republican Party (United States)|Republican]]
| alma_mater         = [[Philander Smith College]]<br />
[[Shorter College (Arkansas)|Shorter College]]
| spouse             = 
| parents            = Jemima Jones (mother)<br />
Dr. Sanford Reamey (father)
| children           = 
}}
'''Scipio Africanus Jones''' (August 3, 1863 &ndash; March 2, 1943) was an American [[educator]], [[lawyer]], [[judge]], [[philanthropist]], and [[United States Republican Party|Republican]] [[politician]] from the state of [[Arkansas]].<ref>{{Cite web|date=2020-10-28|title=Black History Month - Scipio Africanus Jones|url=https://hardwicke.co.uk/black-history-month-scipio-africanus-jones/|access-date=2021-01-15|website=Hardwicke}}</ref> 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 white people were prosecuted by the state. The case was appealed to the [[United States Supreme Court]], which in ''[[Moore v. Dempsey]]'' (1923) set a precedent of reviewing the conduct of state criminal trials against the [[Due Process Clause]] of the [[Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution]].

Born into [[slavery in the United States|slavery]] in Smith Township near Tulip in [[Dallas County, Arkansas|Dallas County]] in south Arkansas, Jones became a successful and powerful businessman. Jones was the first lawyer in Arkansas to raise the question why African Americans were not permitted to serve on [[grand juries]] 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 African American, as were the witnesses and attorneys except the city attorney, who supported having an African American judge preside at this particular trial. Jones also represented the [[Prince Hall Freemasonry|Prince Hall]] Shriners as part of a successful defense against efforts to keep them from using the name and paraphernalia of the white [[Shriners]] organization.