Education
Jones graduated from Saint John"s University and from Saint John"s University School of Law.
Jones graduated from Saint John"s University and from Saint John"s University School of Law.
He was admitted to the bar in 1938. As a first lieutenant he participated in the Normandy invasion in 1944. Upon returning to New York, Jones became chief council for the local National Association for the Advancement of Colored People branch, mainly involved in cases of police brutality.
The United States Supreme Court declined to hear their appeal.
In 1980, Jones delivered a speech in Beijing about the case and the American legal system. In November 1964, he was elected to the New York City Civil Court, and in November 1967 to the New York Supreme Court.
Jones worked with United States. Senator Robert F. Kennedy in an effort to improve squalor conditions in ghettos and slums in New New York Underestimating Kennedy"s genuine desire to help, and mindful that many other outsiders had come to Bedford–Stuyvesant, examined conditions there, then left without doing anything to help, Jones said cynically,
I"m weary of study, Senator.
Weary of speeches, weary of promises that aren"t kept.
The Negro people are angry, Senator, and, judge that I am, I"m angry, too. Number one is helping us. Jones became the first president of Kennedy"s bipartisan grassroots community effort, one of two restoration companies (one for community leaders and one for businessmen) that Kennedy helped found for Bedford–Stuyvesant.
The objective was to build health clinics, redevelop housing, build parks and playgrounds, spur commercial activity and investment, and increase employment and political participation amongst the residents.
In 1967, Jones helped found the Bedford–Stuyvesant Restoration Corporation, which grew out of the initial Kennedy effort. The assassination of Kennedy devastated Jones, and led him to focus more on his judicial career instead of community rebuilding.
Jones retired from the bench in 1985. Jones was portrayed by actor Ving Rhames in the 2002 television movie Robert F. Kennedy.
He worked as an activist in anti-fascism, and in 1941 enlisted in the United States. Army.
In 1955, Jones defended three Chinese immigrant workers who had been convicted and sentenced to prison for sedition for "helping Communist China" because they had been sending money home to relatives there.
Jones was a Democratic member of the New York State Assembly (Kings County, 10th District) in 1963 and 1964.