Nathaniel Raphael Jones (May 12, 1926 – January 26, 2020) was an American attorney, judge, and law professor. As general counsel of the NAACP, Jones fought to end school segregation, including in the northern United States. From 1979 until 1995, he served as a United States circuit judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit before assuming senior status, and in 2002 retired to resume a private legal practice.
Nathaniel Raphael Jones
Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals
Born 1926 in Youngstown, OH
Died 2020 in Cincinnati, OH
FJC ID: 1200
Career output and lasting influence
Opinions attributed per year · peak 27/year
Later decisions citing those opinions, per year · peak 1,130/year
Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals · 1979–2002
Both charts share the same year axis. Opinion counts include only opinions in our corpus attributed to this judge so far — a year at zero can mean an attribution gap, not judicial silence. Influence typically outlasts the career: citations keep climbing after the last opinion.
- Gender
- Male
- Race
- African American
Prior employment
- NAACPGeneral counsel · 1969–1979
- Private practice, Youngstown, Ohio1959–1961, 1968–1969
- National Advisory Commission on Civil DisordersAssistant general counsel · 1967–1968
Northern District of OhioAssistant U.S. attorney · 1961–1967- Fair Employment Practices Commission, Youngstown, OhioExecutive director · 1956–1959
- Buckeye ReviewEditor · 1956
Air CorpsU.S. Army · 1945–1946
Appointments
1979–2002 · Appointed by Jimmy Carter (Democratic)Term ended: Retirement
Education
- Youngstown University (now Youngstown State University)LL.B. · 1955
- Youngstown College (now Youngstown State University)A.B. · 1951