Mark Curnutte

For The Enquirer

As a teenager in his native Youngstown, Ohio, Nathaniel Jones first heard the call of the NAACP.

He answered then and never wavered in his commitment to civil rights over the next eight decades, friends and admirers say. Jones' commitment to the organization culminated in 2016 when the NAACP presented him its highest honor, the Spingarn Medal.

"Being a lawyer was my calling, and that calling is the work for equal opportunity and justice for all our nation's citizens," he said from prepared remarks that July night during the national NAACP's Freedom Fund Dinner at the Duke Energy Convention Center.

Jones, who had a 23-year career on the federal appeals court bench in Cincinnati, died of congestive heart failure early Sunday morning at his home in East Walnut Hills, said his daughter Stephanie Jones.

He was 93 and had been hospitalized for much of the past month.

More:Local leaders remember Judge Nathaniel Jones: 'Legendary litigator,' 'thoughtful,' 'principled'

More:Judge Nathaniel Jones 'changed the world'

A prolific public speaker, Jones gave his final formal comments Nov. 14. That night, during a ceremony at the National Underground Railroad Freedom Center, the University of Cincinnati College of Law renamed and relaunched its Nathaniel R. Jones Center for Race, Gender, and Social Justice. Jones was a center co-founder in 2010.

He spoke in a labored voice from prepared remarks for 13 minutes. Jones quoted from Langston Hughes’ poem “Dream of Freedom,” emphasizing the important work of the center, saying, “To ensure more people will enjoy the bounty of liberty and freedom.”

Devotion to NAACP

Jones' eight decades in the the civil rights organization started as a youth council member in Youngstown.

He served for 10 years, from 1969 through 1979, as the NAACP's general counsel. NAACP Executive Director Roy Wilkins asked Jones to take the position

Over the next decade, Jones directed all of the organization's litigation to end northern school desegregation, defend affirmative action and question discrimination against African Americans serving in the U.S. military. He personally argued several cases in the U.S. Supreme Court.

"At every point when his country needed him, Nathaniel Jones answered the call," said Anthony Foxx, former U.S. Secretary of Transportation and a one-time Jones law clerk. ”Perhaps his greatest legacy is mentoring dozens of law clerks. Because he answered the call, we can answer the call.”

In addition to turning 90 and being honored in 2016 by the NAACP, the National Underground Railroad Freedom Center – which Jones supported from its inception – made him the 12th recipient of its ultimate prize, the International Freedom Conductor Award. He joined the company of Rosa Parks, Bishop Desmond Tutu, Presidents Bill Clinton and George H.W. Bush, Lech Walesa and Mandela. The award recognizes people who "exemplify the values of freedom and human rights worldwide."

That night, under the guise it was a surprise birthday party for Jones, former Procter & Gamble CEO John Pepper and former Freedom Center President Clarence G. Newsome thanked Jones for his efforts to ensure the center would be built. Newsome said the center "celebrates freedom, and tonight we celebrate the life of a man who personifies freedom."

Pepper, on Sunday morning, upon learning of Jones’ death, said: “He was a person of unbounded courage and integrity, who shared with me an abundance of wisdom and common sense that made a profound impact on my life. He was a dear friend of mine and my entire family. We indeed regarded him as a family member.”

President Barack Obama sent 90th birthday greetings to Jones in 2016, writing, “For decades — from here to South Africa — you’ve helped advance the cause of justice.”

Memoir 10 years in making

Jones' 416-page memoir, "Answering the Call: An Autobiography of the Modern Struggle to End Racial Discrimination in America," was published in May 2016 by New Press. He said the book was 10 years in the making.

"I hope it is an informative and practical discussion," Jones said of the book. "I was intent on seeing things in real time and in context."

"Answering the Call" takes its title from Jones' almost lifelong involvement with the NAACP.

Born in 1926, 17 years after the founding of the NAACP, Jones wrote in his book that founders of the civil rights organization, white and black, chose the 1909 centennial of the birth of Abraham Lincoln to issue "The Call."

It implored all Americans to engage in the struggle for civil and political rights for black citizens. Jones answered, beginning as a youth under the tutelage of his mentor, Youngstown's NAACP leader, J. Maynard Dickerson.

In a 2012 Enquirer profile, he described his life's work and how he negotiated the perils of racism: "The key to prevailing as a minority in a segregated, oppressive society is to not let the prevailing stereotypes define who you are."

At the time of his death, Jones maintained an office as senior counsel at the Blank Rome law firm's Cincinnati office. He also kept a busy traveling and public speaking schedule well into his 90s.

Michael Cioffi, the managing partner of the Blank Rome in Cincinnati, was Jones’ law partner and friend for 20 years.

“Nate Jones was the kind of hero America needed that (Martin Luther) King described as ‘an extremist for justice’ in ‘Letter from Birmingham Jail,’” Cioffi said. “Nate’s unwavering commitment to justice, equality, and the rule of law made him a great lawyer and great man. His genuine humility and everyday kindness made him loved by all, including those on the other side of the political spectrum. His life is an important lesson and model to us all.”

Jones served in the U.S. Army Air Corps during World War II and returned home to earn his undergraduate degree from Youngstown State University in 1951. He went on to get his law degree there in 1956 and was admitted the following year to the bar.

In 1962, he was the first African-American appointed assistant U.S. attorney for the Northern District of Ohio. He went on to serve as assistant general counsel to President Lyndon B. Johnson's National Advisory Commission on Civil Disorders (the Kerner Commission) in 1967-68.

Appointed to federal bench

After serving as NAACP general counsel, Jones was nominated by President Jimmy Carter in August 1979 to a seat on the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit. The Senate confirmed him October. He assumed senior status in 1995 and sat on the bench until his retirement in March 2002.

"When President Carter dared to appoint me to the court of appeals, I sought to do what I could as a judge to use the rule of law to be an instrument of change," Jones said.

In his more than two decades on the Sixth Circuit bench, Jones developed the reputation that Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes had on the Supreme Court of the early 20th century – that of the "great dissenter."

Jones stood in steadfast opposition to the death penalty. He vigorously defended personal liberty. He often was in the minority on appeals court decisions in which plaintiffs were asserting civil liberties or arguing that they had been subjected to discrimination. Jones sided with disabled people in workplace conflicts. Several times he cited Fourth Amendment protections against unreasonable search for the basis of his positions.

His was a career that could well have led to the pinnacle of his profession – a seat on the U.S. Supreme Court. Many believe that had Democrat Michael Dukakis defeated Republican George Bush in the 1988 presidential election, it would be the liberal, judicial activist from Cincinnati sitting in the Supreme Court seat vacated by his mentor, Thurgood Marshall, instead of the conservative Clarence Thomas.

A year after his retirement, in May 2003, the federal courthouse in Youngstown was named in his honor. Former U.S. Rep. Louis B. Stokes of Cleveland said at the dedication, "This building, which will forever carry your name, will be a testament to outstanding public service by a local boy made good."

Jones traveled three times to South Africa. In 1993, he and his wife, Lillian, had dinner with Nelson Mandela. Jones returned to serve as an official election observer and helped to craft the country's new constitution.

In 1996, when the University of Cincinnati College of Law received the repository of Jones' papers, Mandela – as president of South Africa – wrote a letter to the law school to mark the occasion.

"I would like to join you tonight ... to thank him for the important contribution he has made to the preservation and protection of human rights and in particular for the interest he has taken in our endeavours in South Africa," Mandela wrote of Jones. "He is held in high esteem by members of the legal profession in South Africa to whom he offered support during the difficult years of apartheid."

Jones is preceded in death by his wives Jean Graham Jones, who died in 1959; and Lillian Hawthorne Jones, who died in 2011; his parents, Nathaniel B. Jones and Lillian Brown Jones Rafe; a brother, Wellington Jones; and a sister, Eleanor Colclourght.

He is survived by a sister, Allie Jean Wooten, of Youngstown; daughters Stephanie Jones, of Washington, D.C., and East Walnut Hills, and Pamela Velez, of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania; sons Rick Hawthorne, of East Walnut Hills, and William Hawthorne and Marc Hawthorne, both of Atlanta, Georgia; brother-in-law and sister-in-law James and Lula Graham of Riverview, Florida; eight grandchildren, and numerous nieces, nephews and cousins.

No information on services or a memorial is available, the family said Sunday morning.