After 22 years on the federal bench and a lifetime of fighting for civil rights, Judge Nathaniel R. Jones is retiring from the U.S. Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals.

Judge Nathaniel R. Jones stands in the courtroom of the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. (Glenn Hartong photos) | ZOOM |

        A friend of presidents and advocate of the powerless, he will end a career that began as a young lawyer in the Kennedy Justice Department and took him to the federal bench, nominated by President Carter in 1979. It was a time when few blacks served on the nation's appeals courts.

        He leaves a legacy that is likely to echo for a long time.

        It will be heard every time a lonely and confused child in Cincinnati finds an adult mentor.

        It will be heard every time a young person walks into the National Underground Railroad Freedom Center and learns of a world that existed long ago and why it must never exist again.

        It will be heard, too, halfway around the world, every time a black man walks into a South African court and his rights as a citizen are affirmed.

        And it will not stop there.

        “I'm retiring from the bench, not from life in general,” the 75-year-old jurist said Friday.

        The judge went on “senior status” in 1995, but continued to handle a full load of cases.

        His last day of hearing cases will be Jan. 25, although he said the effective date of his retirement might not come for another month or two, to allow him to complete writing opinions and other court assignments.

        “It has been an honor to be here as long as I have been; and I hope I have made an impact,” Judge Jones said.

        He was sitting in his chambers at the Potter Stewart U.S. Courthouse in Cincinnati, surrounded by walls of plaques, photographs and paintings that bear silent witness to the fact that he did, in fact, make an impact.

Judge Jones looks through momentos from his 22 years on the federal bench. | ZOOM |

        There is an autographed photo of the judge with Bill Clinton and Jimmy Carter. It was then-President Carter who appointed him on Oct. 5, 1979 — the 25th anniversary of the U.S. Supreme Court's Brown v. Board of Education decision. That decision, which outlawed racial segregation in public schools, was a benchmark that Mr. Jones depended on in his years as general counsel of the NAACP.

        There is an autographed photo of Thurgood Marshall, who had held the NAACP job prior to Mr. Jones and who became the first African-American appointed to the U.S. Supreme Court.

        And there are pictures of Judge Jones with Nelson Mandela and Bishop Desmond Tutu, two friends he made on his many trips to South Africa — before and after apartheid.

        Also in the office: A bust of Frederick Douglass, the former slave who campaigned for the liberation of his people; a miniature copy of Rodin's “The Thinker”; a print of Norman Rockwell's moving painting of a tiny black girl being escorted into a southern grade school by towering U.S. marshals.

        All reminders of the life he has lived.

        Judge Jones was a success even before he reached the federal bench, and he never slowed down once he got there.

        Consider his resume:

INFOGRAPHIC

• Judge Jones career at a glance

        • He was, as a young lawyer in 1961, the first black assistant U.S. attorney in the Northern District of Ohio.

        • He was, for 10 years before his appointment to the bench, the chief lawyer for the NAACP, arguing school desegregation suits filed against public schools in a host of American cities — Cleveland, Dayton, Columbus, Boston, Atlanta, San Francisco and Los Angeles.

        • In the 1980s, he traveled across Africa, assisting emerging nations in establishing judicial systems and — with no small danger to himself — ventured into apartheid South Africa, where he helped judicial leaders draft a constitution that would, for the first time, grant blacks rights under the law.

        • In Cincinnati, his adopted city, he became a tireless advocate for education as one of the founders of the Cincinnati Youth Collaborative and its mentoring program. He is a co-chairman of the National Underground Railroad Freedom Center.

        “By leaving the bench, I'll be able to devote even more time to these projects that I really believe in, things like the Freedom Center and the Youth Collaborative,” Judge Jones said. “They have been a great part of my life.”

        His is 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, Mr. Marshall, instead of the conservative Clarence Thomas.

        “I firmly believe he should have been the successor of Thurgood Marshall, but it wasn't in the cards with a Republican president,” said U.S. District Court Judge S. Arthur Spiegel, a longtime friend and colleague.

        Judge Jones is the son of a Depression-era family that lived in Youngstown. His father lost his job in the steel mills and worked as a janitor; his mother took domestic jobs to keep the family fed.

        Mr. Jones returned to Youngstown in 1946 after a stint in the Air Force, becoming active in the NAACP.

        In 1946, he recounts, he gave his first speech at an NAACP convention in Dayton, a nervous young veteran speaking on the subject of “What the Returning Black Veteran Expects.” He became even more nervous when he realized that, in the audience, was a young black lawyer he admired greatly — Theodore Berry, who went on to become a Cincinnati councilman and mayor.

        In Youngstown, a prominent black lawyer and friend of Mr. Berry's, J. Maynard Dickerson, took him under his wing.

        He earned his law degree from Youngstown State University in 1956; and, in 1961, won appointment from Robert F. Kennedy's Justice Department as assistant U.S. attorney.

        Eight years later, when the post of general counsel of the NAACP was offered him by civil rights leader Roy Wilkins, he hesitated, Judge Jones said. He had a thriving private practice, he said, and was happy doing what he was doing.

        It was a white federal judge in Youngstown, a close friend, who persuaded him to take the job.

        “He said, "You have no choice,'” the judge remembers. "“This is a call. And you never refuse a calling.' I have tried never to refuse a call.”

        Soon, Congress will act on legislation to name the new federal courthouse in his hometown after him and the late Judge Frank Battisti.

        Judge Jones recalled his first visit to Cincinnati to argue a court case, in 1963 as a young assistant U.S. attorney. While in Cincinnati, he encountered the prejudice he would spend his career fighting.

        He had forgotten his shaving kit; and called the barber shop in the Sheraton Gibson Hotel to see if he could get a shave before his court appearance.

        The young lawyer was told no appointment was necessary; just come on down.

        “I did, and there were 10 barbers standing around drinking coffee and reading newspapers,” Judge Jones said. “Nobody would serve me.”

        He bought a razor at a drug store nearby and shaved in the courthouse restroom.

        “It is a story that shows how things have changed,” he said. “There is a lot of history, a lot of baggage in this town. But you look now and see young black lawyers being aggressively sought after by the most prestigious law firms in town.”

        The Rev. Fred Shuttlesworth, civil rights leader and pastor of New Light Baptist Church, said Judge Jones is a model for young people to do what is right.

        “I just think he's a good man, a good American who served honorably and well in the positions he's had over the years,” the Rev. Mr. Shuttlesworth said.

        The judge is proud that he helped open up the legal profession to young blacks who would have been excluded a generation ago. Judge Jones and Judge Robert Black co-founded the Cincinnati Bar Association Roundtable, an organization aimed at increasing diversity in the ranks of lawyers and judges.

        “That may be one of his great legacies, opening up opportunities for others,” said newly elected Cincinnati Councilman David Pepper, who served as a law clerk to Judge Jones in 1999 and 2000.

        What impressed him most about the judge, Mr. Pepper said, was his “devotion to the law and to the court itself.”

        “A lot of judges are remote; they are wrapped in mystery,” Mr. Pepper said. “Judge Jones is very open. He wants to make the job of judge transparent. He never tires of explaining what he does and how the process works.”

        On the 6th Circuit bench, Judge Jones has the reputation that Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes had on the Supreme Court of the early 20th century — that of the “great dissenter.”

        “He was really a leader we all looked to, certainly a compassionate man,” Judge Spiegel said.

        Judge Spiegel said he believes some of Judge Jones's dissenting opinions on issues of civil rights, his steadfast opposition to the death penalty and his defense of personal liberty will be looked upon by future courts as the basis for new law.

        Judge Jones 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.

        “That wasn't the case when I first came here,” Judge Jones said. Later, though, as conservative Republican presidents came to office and the face of the appeals court changed, he found himself more and more a lone liberal voice.

        “It was a role I was more than happy to play,” Judge Jones said. “I hope that some day, like Holmes, I'll be found to have been right.”

        Vernon Jordan, Washington lawyer and former head of the Urban League, has known Judge Jones for more than 40 years.

        “He's a giant,” Mr. Jordan said.

        “He gave so much of his intellect and energy and time to the civil rights movement as counsel of the NAACP,” Mr. Jordan said. “He was rewarded by this judgeship. He had earned the right to this judgeship, and he deserved this privilege.”

        Judge Jones has also helped shape the legal systems that protect the rights of millions of others around the world, particularly in South Africa.

        Bert Lockwood, director of the Urban Morgan Institute for Human Rights at the University of Cincinnati Law School, accompanied the judge on many trips to South Africa.

        “He was an important figure in South Africa's transformation from apartheid to a democratic government,” Mr. Lockwood said.

        Before democracy, the courts in South Africa had no ability to strike down laws made by parliament. Judge Jones, Mr. Lockwood said, worked tirelessly with South African judicial officials to create a constitution that gave the courts the same powers of review that American courts have.

        He, along with Mr. Lockwood and Joseph Tomain, dean of the UC Law School, were official observers in the first democratic elections there in 1994.

        “Here's a guy who has done it from the local to the international level in civil rights, individual rights and liberties and certainly harmonious race relations,” Mr. Tomain said. “He's going to continue to be a very important public servant.”

        In 1996, South African president Nelson Mandela wrote that Judge Jones is “held in high esteem by members of the legal profession in South Africa to whom he offered support” during apartheid.

        Last year, Judge Jones, Mr. Lockwood and Mr. Tomain returned to South Africa to be observers at the United Nations conference on racism.

        Mr. Lockwood said that one night, he and the judge sat in a waterfront restaurant overlooking a South African beach and marvelled over how much the nation had changed.

        “He said that when he first came to this country, he couldn't eat in this restaurant or go to that beach,” Mr. Lockwood said. “And the amazing thing is, he helped change it.”

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