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“TRIBUTE TO NATHANIEL JONES” mentioning the U.S. Dept of State was published in the Senate section on pages S633 on Jan. 28, 2020.
The State Department is responsibly for international relations with a budget of more than $50 billion. Tenure at the State Dept. is increasingly tenuous and it's seen as an extension of the President's will, ambitions and flaws.
The publication is reproduced in full below:
TRIBUTE TO NATHANIEL JONES
Mr. PORTMAN. Mr. President, I rise to honor the memory of one of our country's great civil rights leaders and judges, the Honorable Nathaniel Jones, who passed away on January 26 at the age of 93.
Judge Jones was a native of Youngstown in my home State of Ohio, a veteran who served in the Air Force during World War II, and a tireless advocate for justice and equality. After his time in the military, he earned an undergraduate degree and a JD from Youngstown State University.
For much of the 1960s, Judge Jones was the assistant U.S. attorney for the Northern District of Ohio at the appointment of Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy. In 1969, he became the general counsel for the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, NAACP, where he argued numerous cases before the Supreme Court.
In 1979 he moved to the Cincinnati area upon being appointed as an appeals judge for the Sixth Circuit by President Carter, and he served admirably in that role for decades. With all of his experience, and his reputation for integrity and problem-solving, Judge Jones was an active member of the Cincinnati community and widely respected in legal circles. As an example, he was asked to deliver the inaugural Judge A. Leon Higginbotham Distinguished Memorial Lecture at Harvard Law School.
His work also included helping to end the apartheid regime in South Africa, working to promote a free and independent Namibia, participating in the U.S.-Egypt Judicial Exchange Program, and advocating for human rights within the Soviet Union. Among his many accomplishments, he received the Distinguished Service Citation from the National Conference for Community Justice and the State Department's Millennium International Volunteer Award. For all of his accomplishments, worked in the House of Representatives to write and pass legislation to rename the U.S. courthouse in Youngstown after Judge Jones--the courthouse stands only a few miles down the road from where he was raised as a child. It now bears the name of this proud son of Youngstown.
Back home in Cincinnati, Judge Jones was just as important a figure in the fight for a more equitable society, having taught law at the University of Cincinnati, among other schools. I was proud to work with him on launching the National Underground Railroad Museum, housed in my hometown of Cincinnati. It is there in large part because of the efforts of Judge Jones, who also served as a co-chair of the board of trustees for the museum. I was honored to work with him over the years to further its mission. Just last fall, the University of Cincinnati College of Law renamed its Center for Race, Gender, and Social Justice in his honor.
Judge Jones was a model public servant, working to better his community and his fellow man. I will remember him as a friend who brought people together to support racial healing, equality and to improve the community. His legacy of justice and equality before the law should inspire all of us to continue to seek positive change.
Today, my thoughts are with his family--his sister, Allie Jean, his daughters Stephanie and Pamela, his sons Rick, William, and Marc, and the many others whose lives he touched.
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