Judge Nathaniel Jones, local civil rights leader, dead at 93

YOUNGSTOWN — Youngstown native Nathaniel R. Jones, a 23-year federal appellate judge and civil rights activist, died Sunday morning at his Cincinnatti home. He was 93.

Jones grew up on the city's South Side during the Great Depression, according to a 2016 release from Youngstown State University. He attended South High School and served as president of the city's youth chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People.

Jones received bachelor's and law degrees from Youngstown College in the 1950s. During his studies, Jones worked as a printer and editor for the Buckeye Review.

Not long after Jones received his law degree, then-Attorney General Robert Kennedy named Jones an Assistant U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Ohio in Cleveland, making him the first black man in Ohio to hold that position.

Jones served as general counsel for the NAACP for 10 years, arguing in cases against "separate but equal" before the U.S. Supreme Court and leading litigation to stop racial discrimination in the military, end school segregation and defend affirmative action.

Jones was later appointed by President Jimmy Carter to the U.S. Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals bench, which he held for 23 years until his retirement in 2002. The federal bankruptcy court along Commerce Street in Youngstown was named the Nathaniel R. Jones Federal Building and U.S. Courthouse in 2003.

In 2016, Jones received the NAACP's highest honor, the Spingarn Medal, during an association convention in Cincinnati. Previous Spingarn recipients include George Washington Carver, Rosa Parks, Thurgood Marshall, Jackie Robinson, Maya Angelou, Colin Powell, Sidney Poitier and the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

"Today we lost a giant," said U.S. Rep. Tim Ryan of Howland, D-13th, in a statement Sunday. "My thoughts and prayers are with [Jones'] family. He will be sorely missed, but his legacy will not be forgotten."

Mayor Jamael Tito Brown called Jones "a great leader in our community."

"It was such a pleasure to meet and get to know such a gentleman," Brown said Sunday. "Honorable Judge Nathaniel Jones will truly be missed. I thank him for paving the road for me and future generations.

"His boldness and courage [are] what allowed a young man like myself to become the 51st mayor of Youngstown."

This story was originally published January 26, 2020 at 6:20 PM with the headline "Judge Nathaniel Jones, local civil rights leader, dead at 93."