Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, The New York Public Library
Cornelius J. Jones (Issaquena County)
State House: 1890-1891
Born: August 13, 1858 in Vicksburg, MS Died: March 16, 1931 in Oklahoma
Lawyer. Son of Cornelius and Hannah Jones. Graduate of Alcorn University.
Jones represented Henry Williams in the Williams v. Mississippi case that went before the Supreme Court and maintained that Williams’ conviction could not stand because Mississippi’s electoral laws meant that only white people could be on the jury. The Supreme Court ruled unanimously that Mississippi’s suffrage provisions were not discriminatory. In the early 1900s, Jones moved to Muskogee, Oklahoma, where he continued to be involved in law and politics.
Listed on the 1900 census as a lodger in Washington, D. C. Listed on the 1920 census in Muskogee with wife Maggie (m. September 3, 1919).
The Schomburg Center at New York Public Library holds the Jones-Sadler family papers, a collection of materials related to Jones, his sister, Sarah Jones Sadler, and her family.
Vicksburg Evening Post, March 13, 1890Weekly Democrat-Times, Sep 8, 1894Jones campaign broadside, 1896Daily Commercial Herald, Dec 9, 1896Vicksburg Dispatch, November 9, 1898Natchez Democrat, March 22, 1899Clarion Ledger, September 26, 1899Vicksburg Evening Post, Sep 20, 1900Vicksburg Herald, May 10, 1903Letter to Zusa, October 15, 1904Muskogee Daily Phoenix, Dec 15, 1904Vicksburg Herald, September 27, 1906Times-Democrat, October 19, 1906Tulsa Democrat, November 16, 1906New-State Tribune, February 14, 1907Times-Democrat, March 26, 1909Vicksburg Herald, November 21, 1915Muskogee Tattler, December 16, 1916Vicksburg Herald, September 27, 1917Muskogee Daily Phoenix, Aug 28, 1919Muskogee Daily Phoenix, Sep 5, 1919Letter to Sister Sarah, May 9, 1927Letter to Sister Sarah, June 11, 1927Letter to Sister Sarah, September 28, 1928Letter to Sister Sarah, January 21, 1929Obituary of Cornelius J. Jones