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Scipio Africanus Jones, An American Hero
He Defended Those Charged In The Elaine Massacre
The name, Scipio Africanus Jones, interested me when a reader asked me if I’d ever heard of him. I was totally unfamiliar with him as I was neither of the Roman generals carrying the name Scipio Africanus (there was an Elder and Younger though not related). Someone else can tell their stories; my focus is on Scipio Africanus Jones, born into enslavement in 1863; he went on to become a successful businessman and self-taught lawyer.
I didn’t know there was such a thing as a self-taught lawyer, but it was more common among early Black lawyers than you might imagine. Arkansas had no law school that would accept Black students. Black wannabe lawyers typically read law books at established white firms, hoping to acquire enough knowledge to pass the bar exam. Scipio volunteered to work as a janitor for free at the law offices of U.S. District Judge Henry C. Caldwell, Judge T.B. Martin, and Atty. S.A. Kilgore. He later apprenticed under Circuit Judge Robert J. Lea. He passed the bar in 1889.
I should mention that Scipio Africanus Jones was the product of the esteemed Dr. Sanford Reamey raping his 14-year-old enslaved girl Jemmina Jones. Dr. Reamey is credited with seven children from his wife, Aletha “Lethe” Eaton. Scipio isn’t listed among his…
