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Nathaniel Raphael Jones, son of Nathaniel B. and Lillian J. (Rafe) Jones, was born in Youngstown, Ohio on May 13, 1926. He began his education in the Youngstown public schools. After two years service in the United States Army Air Corps during World War II, he attended Youngstown State University, receiving his A. B. in 1951 and his LL.B. in 1956.
While an undergraduate and law student, Jones worked as a reporter on The Buckeye Review, an African-American weekly newspaper in Youngstown. At the age of 20, he became the editor of The Review and managed the Dickerson Printing Company for his mentor, Maynard Dickerson.
After earning his juris doctorate degree from Youngstown State University, Jones combined the knowledge he gained from his previous experiences, with those he gained as executive director of the Youngstown's Fair Employment Practices Commission (1956-1959) and as a member of the Mayor's Human Relations Commission to open a law practice in Youngstown, Ohio. During this period, he was also a member of the Mahoning County Welfare Advisory Board.
After a year in private practice, Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy appointed Jones as an Assistant United States Attorney for the Northern District of Ohio at Cleveland. In 1967, he was appointed by President Lyndon B. Johnson to serve as Assistant General Counsel to the National Advisory Commission on Civil Disorders, better known as the Kerner Commission.1
Upon completion of the Commission's report, Jones returned to practice law in Youngstown and helped found the law firm of Goldberg and Jones. In 1969, the distinguished civil rights leader, Roy Wilkins, executive director of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) with whom Jones had been associated in his work on the Kerner Commission, invited him to New York to assume the responsibility as chief general counsel of the NAACP. He became the fourth chief counsel for that organization since its founding in 1909. As national general counsel, Jones supervised the legal staff and programs of the organization that had chapters in 1,700 cities of the fifty states. In addition to serving as legal advisor to the various departments within the organization and to local branches, he directed all litigation in which the NAACP engaged.
In his capacity as general counsel, Judge Jones coordinated the attack against northern school segregation and twice argued the Detroit school case, Bradley v. Milliken2 in the United States Supreme Court. In addition, he had the responsibility for successfully organizing the presentation to the Supreme Court in the cases of Dayton Board of Education v. Brinkman3 and Columbus Board of Education v. Penick.4 During Jones's tenure as NAACP general counsel, he directed the national response to the attacks against affirmative action, led an inquiry into discrimination against black servicemen in the military, and supervised the NAACP's defense in the Mississippi Boycott case, which led to a landmark Supreme Court decision that declared the right of individuals and organizations to engage in protests under the First Amendment.
| On May 17, 1979, at a White House ceremony, President Jimmy Carter announced his appointment of Jones to the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit. After Senate confirmation, he took the oath of office on October 15, 1979. In 1983, Judge Jones was a member of the first all black panel to sit in the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals. Circuit Judge Damon Keith and District Judge Anna Diggs Taylor were the other members of the panel. |
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While on the federal bench, Judge Jones served on the Judicial Conference Committees on Codes and Conduct and International Judicial Relations. He also served as a former coordinator of the Death Penalty Task Force for the Sixth Circuit. He is a master of the Potter Stewart American Inns of Court and former member of the Board of Directors of the John W. Peck Chapter of the Federal Bar Association in Cincinnati. After sixteen years on the court, Judge Jones stepped down and became Senior United States Circuit Judge on May 13, 1995. On March 31, 2002, Judge Jones retired and closed his chambers at the Potter Stewart U. S. Courthouse in Cincinnati. After a short vacation, Judge Jones joined the law firm Blank Rome as of counsel. He practices in their Cincinnati, Washington, D. C. and New York offices.5
In addition to his judicial duties, Judge Jones participates in a variety of activities, including those related to legal education. He is adjunct professor at the University of Cincinnati College of Law, an instructor in the trial advocacy program at Harvard Law School and adjunct professor at the Criminal Law Institute of Atlanta University. He is currently serving as a member on the Board of Visitors at the University of Cincinnati College of Law; the Indiana University School of Law and the Salmon P. Chase College of Law of Northern Kentucky State University. Additionally, he lectures and judges moot court competitions on campuses across the country.6 He is a former member of the Board of Visitors at Case Western Reserve University Law School in Cleveland and currently serves as a member of the Board of Governors of Nova University Law Center and as a member of the Board of Trustees at Thomas More College. Judge Jones has received many honorary doctorate of law degrees from area universities.7
Throughout Judge Jones' professional life he has served on a number of committees and special bodies. He was co-chairman of the Task Force on Administration of Military Justice, Department of Defense (1972-1973); trustee of the Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights (1975-1979); and a former member of the Task Force on Veterans' Benefits. He was also a charter member of the Youngstown Area Development Corporation, and holds membership in the Elks, the Masons, the Urban League, and a life membership in the NAACP.
A member of the American Bar Association ( 1969-1979), Judge Jones has served as co-chairman of the Constitutional Rights Committee in 1976, as a member of the ABA Committee on Law Schools Accreditation, and as a member of the ABA Criminal Section (1971-1973). Jones is also a member of the Black Lawyers Association of Cincinnati, Cincinnati Bar Association, Federal Bar Association, the American Arbitration Association, the Ohio State Bar Association, the Mahoning County Bar Association, the Houston Law Club, Kappa Alpha Psi and Sigma Pi Phi Fraternity (former president of the Alpha Delta Boule chapter). He is a former co-chairman of "The Roundtable" an organization sponsored by the Cincinnati Bar Association and The Black Lawyers Association of Cincinnati whose aim is to broaden the involvement of minorities in the legal profession.
Judge Jones' dedication to basic human rights has taken him to different countries around the world. In early August, 1985, he attended a trial of 16 South Africans accused of terrorism, as an observer for the Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights Under Law. While visiting one of the townships, access to which he later discovered was officially restricted, he and others were briefly detained by government authorities. Judge Jones returned to South Africa the following year, where he lectured at a symposium held for thirty South African judges. In November, 1986, Judge Jones was part of a four-person team that went to the Soviet Union to meet with Soviet officials and Jewish Refuseniks to discuss human rights issues. And in June of 1987, he chaired a conference in Washington, D.C. on "Children, The Law and Repression in South Africa."
In June, 1989, Judge Jones returned to Africa as part of a visiting delegation to monitor the election process that led to the independence of Namibia and returned to South Africa in April, 1994, to monitor the national election what concluded with the election of Nelson Mandala as president. Judge Jones also serves as a member of the Board of Directors of the Southern Africa Legal Services and Legal Education Project (SALSLEP). He is a member of several other human rights organizations, such as, the advisory committee of the University of Cincinnati Urban Morgan International Human Rights Institute and trustee of Interrights, USA. He is a member of the Board of Directors for the Black Jewish Coalition and a trustee of the National Conference of Christians and Jews, where in 1987 he served as chairman of the Cincinnati Region.
In 1994, Judge Jones was the second recipient of the Peace of the City Award from the Jewish Community Relations Council of Cincinnati. The National Bar Association conferred its Equal Justice Award on him in 1978 and the Judicial Council Chairman's Leadership Award in 1991. He was the recipient of the United Way & Community Chest's 1997 Joseph A. Hall Award for fostering positive support of diversity; the Great Living Cincinnatian Award for outstanding leadership, community service, business and civic attainment, and awareness of others' needs from the Greater Cincinnati Chamber of Commerce; and the Urban League of Greater Cincinnati Heritage Award for his dedication to community improvement.
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