| John Clifford is a part of US Black history and has a Platinum Profile. Join: US Black Heritage Project Discuss: black_heritage |
John Robert "J.R." Clifford, free-born son of Isaac Clifford and Mary Satilpa Kent, was born September 13, 1848, at the home of his maternal grandparents in Williamsport, Hardy County, Virginia, where he was counted with them and his parents on the 1850 census.[2] His mother appears to have died c.1855. By 1860 his father appears to have remarried, and had moved them to their own place in Hardy County.[3] There were no schools for Black children there, so his father sent him to school in Chicago.[4]
In 1863, during the American Civil War, that part of Virginia broke away and became Williamsport, Grant county, part of the new state of West Virginia. In 1865 J.R., claiming to be 18 years of age but actually aged 16, enlisted in Company F of the 13th US Colored Heavy Artillery Regiment at Chicago, Illinois. At the time of his enlistment, he stated his occupation was hostler. He stood 5' 3 1/2" tall,[5] about 2.5 inches shorter than the average white soldier of the time.[6] During the rest of the war he saw service in Kentucky, Tennessee, and Eastern Virginia under General Ulysses S. Grant of the Union Army.[7] He served until the end of the war, having achieved the rank of corporal, and served afterward as a nurse.[4] After the war he returned to his grandmother's household, where he worked on her farm and was counted on the census in 1870. She was by then a widow, with four children and two other grandsons at home, including his brother David.[8] He then moved on to school in Wheeling, and then to Storer College in Harpers Ferry, West Virginia.
There he married Mary Elizabeth Franklin in 1876. They would have ten children.[4]
He got his degree in 1878, started his family in Martinsburg, and taught at the Sumner School. By 1880 he and Mary had two children.[9] He went on to become principal of Sumner, and studied law.[4]
In 1887 J.R. Clifford became the first African American attorney admitted to the West Virginia State Bar. According to an article in The Herald and Torch Light of Hagerstown, Washington County, Maryland, dated 28 Apr 1892:
CLIFFORD, J.R. of Martinsburg is the first colored lawyer admitted to practice before the Allegheny county bar and will defend Harry GREEN for the February 21st murder of Charles ROSS at Westernport.
The Pioneer Press was the first African-American newspaper published in West Virginia. J.R. Clifford served as both the owner and editor of the paper, which was published in Martinsburg, starting in 1882.[10]
He won a landmark civil rights and education case before the West Virginia Supreme Court of Appeals in 1898, the first ruling in U.S. history to determine that racial discrimination was illegal,[1] and a rare civil rights legal win some fifty years before the federal case of Brown v. Board of Education.[4] The win came two years after he lost his first legal challenge of the state's segregated school system to the court. That decision, Martin v. Board of Education, upheld the state's segregation policy, which was not overturned until the Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas decision by the U.S. Supreme Court in 1954.[1]
In 1900 he and Mary were living in Martinsburg, W. Virginia, with all ten of their children, from age 1 to 23. He was 52.[11]
From the West Virginia Archives and History website:
In the area of civil rights, Clifford worked with his friend, W. E. B. Du Bois, to found the Niagara Movement in 1905. The Niagara Movement developed to counter Booker T. Washington's philosophy of working within the existing system to achieve gradual civil rights advancement. For his conservative ideas, Washington had become popular with white politicians of the time and had been invited to the White House by President Theodore Roosevelt. Unlike Washington's followers, participants in the Niagara Movement wanted immediate change. Clifford arranged the organization's second annual meeting in August 1906, held on the grounds of Storer College in Harpers Ferry. Participants walked barefoot to John Brown's Fort in a morning vigil honoring Brown's attempt to evoke a slave uprising in 1859. Clifford broke with the Niagara Movement when it formed the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) in 1909. Among other disagreements, he objected to the use of the word "colored" in the organization's title.[1]
By 1910 his occupation was editor, and two children remained at home with him and Mary in Martinsburg;[12] only one remained with them by 1920.[13] In 1930 he and Mary had one granddaughter living with them in Martinsburg. [14]
He died at age 85 in West Virginia in 1933.[15] Originally buried at Mount Hope Cemetery in Martinsburg, West Virginia, his remains were reinterred in 1954 at Arlington National Cemetery.[16]
Attorney J.R. Clifford dies
Attorney John R. Clifford, 85, the only colored lawyer in Martinsburg, died in a hospital from a cerebral hemorrhage resulting from a fall at his home October 6th.
Lawyer Clifford was the first colored lawyer to practice law in West Virginia. He began practicing more than forty years ago. In earlier years he was prominent in Knights of Pythias and Masonic circles. He published a weekly newspaper in Martinsburg for several years.[17]
In 2009, Clifford was featured on a postage stamp, part of a series honoring twelve civil rights pioneers.[18]
Name | Sex | Age | Birthplace |
---|---|---|---|
Evan Kent | M | 66 | Virginia |
Priscilla Kent | F | 56 | Virginia |
Betsy Kent | F | 26 | Virginia |
Rebecca Kent | F | 23 | Virginia |
Mary A Kent | F | 20 | Virginia |
Artemisia Kent | F | 18 | Virginia |
James Kent | M | 17 | Virginia |
Hanson Kent | M | 14 | Virginia |
Isaac Clifford | M | 26 | Virginia |
Satilpa Clifford | F | 34 | Virginia |
Theodore Clifford | M | 5 | Virginia |
David Clifford | M | 3 | Virginia |
Jno R Clifford | M | 1 | Virginia |
Name | Sex | Age | Birthplace |
---|---|---|---|
Isaac Clifford | M | 36 | Virginia |
Elizabeth Clifford | F | 23 | Virginia |
Jacob E Clifford | M | 0 | Virginia |
Mary E Clifford | F | 3 | Virginia |
Theodore Clifford | M | 15 | Virginia |
John R Clifford | M | 10 | Virginia |
Name | Sex | Age | Birthplace |
---|---|---|---|
Porcelia Kent | F | 81 | Virginia |
Elizabeth Kent | F | 46 | Virginia |
Rebecca Kent | F | 43 | Virginia |
James Kent | M | 37 | Virginia |
David Clifford | M | 23 | Virginia |
John Clifford | M | 22 | Virginia |
Henry Redman | M | 12 | Virginia |
Name | Role | Sex | Age | Birthplace |
---|---|---|---|---|
John Clifford | Self | M | 29 | Virginia |
Mary Clifford | Wife | F | 20 | Virginia |
Albert Clifford | Son | M | 2 | West Virginia |
Maud Clifford | Daughter | F | 0 | West Virginia |
Name | Role | Sex | Age | Birthplace |
---|---|---|---|---|
John R Clifford | Head | M | 52 | West Virginia |
Mary Clifford | Wife | F | 41 | Virginia |
Albert Clifford | Son | M | 23 | West Virginia |
Maud Clifford | Daughter | F | 21 | West Virginia |
John P Clifford | Son | M | 19 | West Virginia |
Coraline Clifford | Daughter | F | 16 | West Virginia |
Hellen Clifford | Daughter | F | 15 | West Virginia |
Mary Clifford | Daughter | F | 12 | West Virginia |
William Clifford | Son | M | 13 | West Virginia |
Laurina Clifford | Daughter | F | 10 | West Virginia |
John R Clifford | Son | M | 7 | West Virginia |
Doratha Clifford | Daughter | F | 1 | West Virginia |
Name | Role | Sex | Age | Birthplace |
---|---|---|---|---|
John R Clifford | Head | M | 62 | West Virginia |
Mary F Clifford | Wife | F | 50 | West Virginia |
Albert F Clifford | Son | M | 30 | West Virginia |
Coraline R Clifford | Daughter | F | 24 | West Virginia |
John R Clifford Jr. | Son | M | 18 | West Virginia |
Name | Role | Sex | Age | Birthplace |
---|---|---|---|---|
John R Clifford, Sr | Head | M | 71 | West Virginia |
Mary F Clifford | Wife | F | 61 | Virginia |
John R Clifford, Jr | Son | M | 26 | West Virginia |
Name | Role | Sex | Age | Birthplace |
---|---|---|---|---|
John R Clifford | Head | M | 81 | West Virginia |
Mary F Clifford | Wife | F | 71 | Virginia |
Mable R Clifford | Gr-dau | F | 10 | West Virginia |
See Also:
Have you taken a DNA test? If so, login to add it. If not, see our friends at Ancestry DNA.
John is 27 degrees from Herbert Adair, 24 degrees from Richard Adams, 24 degrees from Mel Blanc, 28 degrees from Dick Bruna, 24 degrees from Bunny DeBarge, 37 degrees from Peter Dinklage, 23 degrees from Sam Edwards, 18 degrees from Ginnifer Goodwin, 25 degrees from Marty Krofft, 17 degrees from Junius Matthews, 18 degrees from Rachel Mellon and 24 degrees from Harold Warstler on our single family tree. Login to find your connection.
C > Clifford > John Robert Clifford
Categories: Knights of Pythias | Lawyers | United States, Civil Rights Leaders | Persons Appearing on US Postage Stamps | Editors | Educators | Arlington National Cemetery, Arlington, Virginia | Storer College | 13th Regiment, United States Colored Heavy Artillery, United States Civil War | Niagara Movement | Featured Connections Archive 2022 | US Black Heritage Project Managed Profiles | African-American Notables | Notables
We are featuring this profile in the Connection Finder this week. Between now and Wednesday is a good time to take a look at the sources and biography to see if there are updates and improvements that need made, especially those that will bring it up to WikiTree Style Guide standards. We know it's short notice, so don't fret too much. Just do what you can.
Thanks!
Abby