[Congressional Record Volume 153, Number 21 (Monday, February 5, 2007)]
[House]
[Pages H1176-H1177]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                        HONORING SCIPIO A. JONES

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from Arkansas (Mr. Snyder) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. SNYDER. People throughout America, Madam Speaker, celebrate our 
heroes of the Civil Rights Movement. Every American knows of the great 
contributions of Martin Luther King. No Arkansan celebrates these 
heroes without celebrating the Little Rock Nine. No Arkansan remembers 
these heroes without remember Daisy Bates.
  I recently introduced a bill to remember another noteworthy Arkansan 
who is not as well known as he deserves to be, Scipio A. Jones. Scipio 
A. Jones contributed to moving Arkansas and our Nation forward, and I 
am pleased that earlier today the House adopted this measure, H.R. 433, 
to designate the facility at 1700 Main Street in Little Rock as the 
Scipio A. Jones Post Office Building.
  His is the life of which movies should be made, Madam Speaker. Scipio 
Africanus Jones was born a slave in Dallas County, Arkansas in 1863. He 
moved to Little Rock, Arkansas in the 1880s, took preparatory courses 
at Philander Smith College and graduated from North Little Rock's 
Bethel University, now Shorter College, with a Bachelor's Degree in 
1887.
  Jones apprenticed to practicing attorneys and was accepted into the 
Arkansas Bar in 1889. He was admitted to the Supreme Court of Arkansas 
in 1900, to the U.S. District Court for the Western Division of the 
Eastern District of Arkansas and the U.S. Circuit Court for Arkansas in 
1901, the U.S. Supreme Court in 1905 and the U.S. Court of Appeals in 
1914.
  In 1915 and 1924, Jones was appointed as a special judge to preside 
over cases when the regular judge had been incapacitated.
  He was the National Attorney General for the Mosaic Templars of 
America, an international fraternal organization headquartered in 
Little Rock, Arkansas which provided services to African Americans in 
an era when discrimination resulted in few basic services being readily 
available. The location of the Post Office we will designate is less 
than a mile away from the Mosaic Templars headquarters.
  On a visit to Little Rock, Arkansas by Treasury Secretary W.G. McAdoo 
during World War I, Scipio A. Jones personally wrote a check to 
purchase $50,000 worth of Liberty bonds to support the Allied cause in 
World War I, and soon thereafter raised another $50,000 for this 
effort.
  He was honored by President Woodrow Wilson, who appointed him to the 
National Advisory Board to the Liberty Bond effort.
  He opposed and helped defeat grandfather clause legislation that some 
southerners were seeking to add to the Arkansas Constitution to 
disenfranchise and prevent African American voter participation.
  In the aftermath of the Elaine Massacre of 1919, which resulted in 
the deaths of five Caucasians and an estimated 856 African Americans, 
Scipio A. Jones garnered national attention with the successful defense 
of 12 sharecroppers who had been condemned to death and by securing the 
release of nearly 100 other Elaine defendants who had been sent to 
prison.
  The legal work of Jones ultimately resulted in the case of Moore v. 
Dempsey being argued before the United States Supreme Court, which 
found that mob-dominated trials were a violation of the due process 
clause of the 14th amendment to the Constitution.
  He was widely respected by people of all races in the central 
Arkansas community. He died on March 28, 1943 and is buried at Haven of 
Rest Cemetery in Little Rock.

[[Page H1177]]

                              {time}  2015

  I am pleased that this designation will acknowledge the lifelong 
service of Scipio A. Jones as a civic leader, talented lawyer, skillful 
jurist and civil rights leader and for his remarkable courage and 
notable contributions to the advancement of social justice.
  I would like to thank Chairman Waxman of the Oversight and Government 
Reform Committee for bringing H.R. 433 to the floor, and Denise Wilson 
of that committee for assistance in moving it forward. I also thank 
Representative Lynch and Representative Shays for the kind words they 
offered during debate on the bill today, as well as James Savage, of my 
staff, for his work on this legislation.

                          ____________________