George Washington Jones (1859-1908)

• Year: 2024
• Citation: Vol. 93 No. 6 Pg. 40
• Pages: 40
• Date: 01 December 2024

George Washington Jones (1859-1908) No. 93 J. Kan. Bar Assn 6, 40 (2024) Kansas Bar Journal December, 2024

November, 2024

"George W Jones, colored: You are hereby notified to leave Grenada, never return, within (5) days. Many Citizens, Who mean what they say."^[1]

George Washington Jones was born into slavery on April 15, 1857, in Coffeeville, Yalobusha County, Mississippi, about 90 miles south of Memphis.^[2] His father was Roland Ward Jones, a white plantation owner who had several children by his slaves. Liza, one of Rolands slaves, was Jones' mother and the mother of five of his full siblings.^[3]

We do not know much about his early years, but we do know that he went to Holly Springs, Mississippi to obtain his education. He attended Rust College, which was established in Holly Springs in 1866. It was a private, historically black college, originally founded by the Freedmans Aid Society of the Methodist Episcopal Church.^[4]e JonesJ Jones took a Job as a teacher during that time.^[5]

In the Spring of 1875, Jones moved to Sardis, Mississippi and started the study of law under Josiah T. Settle, a Black attorney who received his law degree in 1875 from Howard University in Washington, D.C.^[6] Jones was subsequently admitted to practice law in Mississippi and shortly thereafter moved to Grenada, Mississippi where he had a very successful career.^[7] In 1884, he was chosen as a presidential elector, a rare honor for a Black man, on the Blaine and Logan ticket.^[8]

Family lore has it that Jones successfully represented a Black man in federal court against a white man over some sort of civil dispute. Jones was able to successfully obtain a monetary recovery for his client. Within days, he received the above quoted note in the mail. He promptly sent the ominous note to the local newspaper accompanied by the following letter to the editor:

The above warning I received on Thursday morning by mail, regularly stamped from this office. In view of scenes, which I in common with all good citizens regret both in their cause and effect, it may mean something more than a threat. My citizenship is here and has been for several years, and it has been sustained by respectful deportment, good morals, and paid-up taxation. In my business as a lawyer, I have never violated professional courtesy or obligation and in my association with the citizens I have always observed the customs of the country, the laws of the municipality, and the statutes of the State, and trust my rights and liberties, although a colored man, to the good people amongst whom I live. — George W. Jones^[9]

Even still, Jones apparently didn't want to take any chances. So, in 1885, he took his wife and two young children, Perle and George, Jr., and went to Memphis where he sought out his old friend Josiah T. Settle. He told Settle "he was going to remain there a while," and Settle helped arrange his admittance to the local courts.^[10]

Jones also took a Job as a writer and traveling correspondent for the Memphis Watchman, a Black newspaper.^[11] In 1887, Jones was sent to Kansas to tour and report back on the state's treatment of Blacks and the opportunities opening for them there.^[12] Just six years earlier, when federal troops were removed from the Southern states, a mass migration of poor, Black, former slaves left the South and headed for Kansas. Estimates vary, but some authors suggest that as many as 60,000 of these "Exodusters" came through Kansas, increasing its Black population significantly. The refugees set up settlements around the State, the most famous of which was Nicodemus.

"Arriving in Nicodemus, Jones met nearly a hundred Black people who owned their own farms, which they valued at anywhere from one to five thousand dollars each."^[13] He wrote about store owners that had become so prosperous they were opening more stores. In fact, he was hired on the spot by a local businessman to be his attorney. Jones was so surprised by the respectful interactions between Black and white residents that he decided to take his family to Kansas immediately.^[14] They came to Graham County in 1887 and settled in Hill City the following year.

In 1889, the Indianapolis Freeman, reported that George W. Jones had a "large lucrative commercial practice" in Graham County, serving as counsel for the Equitable Mortgage Company whose capital was $2,000,000, Although residents asked him to run for county attorney, he initially declined.^[15]He did eventually serve two terms as Graham County Attorney, elected by a fusion ticket^[16] of the Populist party, and served from 1896-1900. He was also responsible for the appointment of the next two county attorneys...