"Scipio Africanus Jones" (August 3,1863-March 2,1943)

He was born near Tulip,Arkansas.His daddy was Dr.Sanford Reamey,a white man and the owner of Scipio mamaJemmima.He attended schools for African Americans in the Tulip area and later moved to Little Rock,attending Walden Seminary.Scipio then attended Bethel Institute (now Shorter College) where he received a bachelor's degree in 1885.During the next four years,he taught public  school while studying law on his own time.On June 15,1889,Scipio 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 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 Scipio was involved was the 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 nurder in their roles in a suppose African American uprising;the trials were marked by weak evidence, a lack of cross-examination of witnesses,and short deliberations by the local juries.He 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 defendants had been released in one legal brief,he described his case as "the greatest case against peonage and mob law ever ever fought in the land." Scipio is also recognized as responsible for preventing a repeat of the Elaine Massacre.Scipio 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.He was a times,criticized for his non-confrontational approach to race relations.Scipio counted many leading white citizens of Arkansas among his friends.Whewn the leaders of the Republican Party in Arkansas sought to exclude African Americans from the workings of the party,he resisted.He himself ran for the Little Rock school board in 1902 Scipio was defeated by a vote of 2,202 to 181 after the Arkansas Gazette published warnings about the danger of having a black man seated on the school board.In 1920,Scipio helped to organize a separate party convention for African Americans voters after the Pulaski County convention was moved without advance advance notice being given to African Americans,but the state and national party conventions refused to seat the black delegates.In 1924,the Republicans 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,Scipio was among a group of African American lawyers who sued (unsuccessfully) the Democratic Party in Arkansas to reserve rules that prevented African American citizens from voting in the Democratic state primary elections.Scipio is said to have owned roughly twn houses in Little Rock Arkansas around 1907,including a "splendid" house in which he and his family lived in at 1808 Ringo Street.He was a major stockholder in the Arkansas Realty Investment Company and was also elected president of the company.The corportation failed and was dissolved on June 19,1911.Scipio was also heavily invested in the People's Ice and Fuel Company of Little Rock,which was succeeded for a time but failed during the Depression.He Scipio was married twice.His first wife,Carrie Edwards 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,he married Lillie M.Jackson in 1917.They had no children.Scipio was a member of Bethel AME Church in Little Rock for over fifty years.He died at his home in Little Rock.