Scipio Africanus Jones - Political Life

Political Life

Jones became a prominent black Republican in Arkansas. He unsuccessfully ran for state representative in 1892, and was a delegate to the Republican National Convention several times. Jones was offered the positions of Recorder of Deeds in the District of Columbia and Ambassador to the Republic of Haiti, but declined both appointments to concentrate on local affairs.

Jones was deeply rooted in the struggle between the Lily Whites and the Black and Tans within the Republican Party. In 1902, Jones helped organize a slate of Negro Republicans to challenge the Lily Whites and Democrats in the Little Rock general election. The struggle reached a breaking point in 1920 when the Negroes took an unprecedented course of nominating a Negro candidate, J.H. Blount, for Governor. In that year, Jones was selected as the Black and Tan contender for the Arkansas Republican National Committee. Four years later, Jones, J. H. Blunt, N. R. Parker and J. Hibbler helped organize a Black and Tan protest meeting in Little Rock in which a list of demands for equal political treatment was presented to the Lily Whites. Eventually, a compromise was reached that guaranteed Negro representation on the State Republican Central Committee.