Editing Scipio Africanus Jones (section)

==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]], an organization founded by [[John E. Bush (Mosaic Templars of America)|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 of North America, South America, Europe, Asia, Africa and Australia|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 African Americans, as were the witnesses and attorneys except Hale, Hale thought it proper to have a black judge preside at this particular trial. Jones was elected special judge.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://ulib.iupuidigital.org/cdm/error/errno/7|title=The Program of Digital Scholarship at IUPUI University Library|website=ulib.iupuidigital.org}}</ref>  The election of an African American 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 an African American. 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.{{citation needed|date=February 2016}}

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]], 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:

<blockquote>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.<ref>http://libsysdigi.library.uiuc.edu/OCA/Books2008-09/kukluxklaninamer00rice/kukluxklaninamer00rice_djvu.txt {{Bare URL plain text|date=March 2022}}</ref></blockquote>

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 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 (U.S. state)|Georgia]], many suits of injunction were brought in other states against the [[Prince Hall Freemasonry|Prince Hall]] Shriners to keep from using the name and paraphernalia of the white [[Shriners]] organization. Jones represented the Prince Hall 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]], against the Prince Hall Shriners. The white Shrine Temple had sold its paraphernalia to the Prince Hall Shrine Temple, and then enjoined the Prince Hall Shriners from using the paraphernalia. This case was carried to the U.S. Supreme Court where it ruled that the Prince Hall Shriners had the right to use the paraphernalia on the ground of "estoppel."