"Scipio Jones"(8-28-1863)

Was born near Tulip,Arkansas.His father was Dr.Sanford Reamey,a white man and the owner of Scipio mother Jemmima.He attended schools for African American in the Tulip area and later moved to Little Rock,attending Walden Seminary.He then attended Bethel Institute. (now Shorter College) where he received a bachelor's degree in 1885.During the next four years,Scipio taught public school while studying law on his time.On June 15,1889,he passed the bar.The Supreme Court of Arkansas accepted his credentials in 1900 and by the U.S. Supreme Court in 1905.He practiced law in Little Rock Arkansas for the rest of his life.Scipio frequently represented indigent citizens and worked to correct abuse and injustice in Arkansas's penal system;he twice served in temporary capacity as a judge.The most significant case in which he was involved was the defense of twelve African American men arrested during the Elaine Massacre.Between November 3 and 17,1919,twelve men were tried,convicted,and sentenced to death for murder in their roles in a supposed African American uprising;the trials were marked by weak evidence,a lack of cross-examination witnesses,and short deliberations by the local jurie.Scipio was hired by African American citizens of Little Rock to work with the firm of George W.Murphy,an attorney hired by the NAACP.By January 14,1925,all twelve defenders had been released.In one legal brief,Scipio described his case as "the greatest against peonage and mob law ever fought in the land."He is also recognized as responsible for preventing a repeat of the Elaine Massacre.He and other community leaders persuaded African American citizens to avoid confrontation amidst the mob violence surrounding the lynching of John Carter on May 4,1927.Scipio was at time,criticized for his non-confrontation approach to race relations.He counted many leading white citizens of Arkansas among his friends.When the leaders of the Republicans Party in Arkansas sought to exclude African American from the workings of the party,he resisted.Scipio ran for the Little Rock school board in 1902he was defeated by a vote of 2,202 to 181 after the Arkansas Gazette published warnings about the danger of having an African-American seated on the school board.In 1920,he helped to organize a separate party convention for African American voters after the Pulaski County convention was moved without advance notice being given to African Americans,the state and national party conventions refused to seat African American delegates.In 1924,the Republican state committee to include two positions reserved for African Americans.On May 1,1928,Scipio was chosen as a delegate from Arkansas to the Republican National Convention.He also served in this position in 1940.In 1930,he was among a group of African American lawyers who sued (unsuccessfully) the Democratic Party in Arkansas to reverse rules that prevented African American citizens from voting in the Democratic state primary elections.Scipio is said to have owned roughly ten houses in Little Rock around 1907,including a "splendid" house in which he and his family lived at 1808 Ringo Street.He was a major stockholder in the Arkansas Reality and investment Company and was also heavily invested in the People's Ice and Fuel Company of Little Rock,which succeeded for a time but failed during the depression.He was married twice.His first wife,Carrie Edwards Jones,was twenty-five when they were married on March 14,1896.They had a daughter,Hazel who died as a young adult.After the death of Carrie,Scipio married Lillie M.Jackson in 1917.The couple had no children.Scipio was a member of Bethel AME Church in Little Rock for fifty years.Scipio was a successful and powerful businessman as well.He was the founder and owner of People's Ice & Fuel Company,which had the distinction of being both the only frican-American owned and African American operated fuel company in the U.S.He also founded the Arkansas Negro Business League,an affiliate of Booker T.Washington's National Negro Business League (NNBL).Additionally,he joined the Prince Hall Masons.He died in his home in Little Rock Arkansas.