The celebration of Black History Month properly recognizes the contributions of those individuals who strove heroically for the cause of racial justice. Some were martyred for it. As time relentlessly moves on, others have passed silently into obscurity.

One such individual is Attorney Cornelius J. Jones of Mississippi, who in the late 19th century tenaciously battled for the rights of African Americans all the way to the United States Supreme Court, becoming the third such attorney to do so.