Scipio Africanus Jones - Early Life and Education

Early Life and Education

Jones' mother, Jemmina Jones, was 15 years old when Jones was born. She was the former slave, and best friend, of 14-year-old Thresa Jones whose parents, Dr. Adolphus and Carolyn Jones, died when she was 9 years old. Scipio Jones' father was Dr. Sanford Reamey, Thresa's uncle.

Jones attended black schools near his hometown. In 1883 he moved to Little Rock at the age of 20 and took preparatory courses at Philander Smith College. Jones went on to earn a bachelor's degree from North Little Rock's Bethel University (now Shorter College) in 1885. He received an honorary doctorate degree from Morris Brown College in Atlanta, Georgia in 1905.

Jones worked as a school teacher in Big Rock District Two from 1885 until 1887. He was a tenant of James Lawson, a white man, who was a prominent member of a pioneer family of Little Rock. It was at this time that he also befriended three prominent Black business owners: Ed Wood Sr., owner of the largest Black-owned plantation in the state; John Bush, a powerful Black merchant; and Chester Keatts.

One source Ovington (1927) claims Jones was denied admittance to the University of Arkansas School of Law due to his race. However, the current law school did not exist until 1924. A year after Jones passed the Arkansas Bar in 1889, an earlier law school was founded; it was closed by 1913. Jones offered to work for free as a janitor at the law offices of U.S. District Judge Henry C. Caldwell, Judge T.B. Martin, and Atty. S.A. Kilgore. While there, he began to read law books during his free time. He also became an apprentice-in-law, reading law under Circuit Judge Robert J. Lea.