BP MARKOWITZ MOURNS STATE ASSEMBLYMAN AND COMMUNITY ACTIVIST JUSTICE THOMAS R. JONES

“Brooklyn mourns the passing of tireless civil rights fighter and community organizer Justice Thomas R. Jones, a first-generation American born in Brooklyn to Barbadian immigrants. Jones served as legal counsel to the Brooklyn branch of the NAACP before being elected to the State Assembly in 1962 and to the State Supreme Court in 1967.

Justice Jones founded the Bedford-Stuyvesant Restoration Corporation in 1967, a model of cooperation between the community, the private sector, and federal, state, and local governments dedicated to comprehensive redevelopment. Although he retired from public life in 1985, Jones continued to champion his community. Justice Jones was a true son of Brooklyn whose example will continue to inspire Brooklynites to devote themselves to the betterment of their individual lives, and of those all around them. He will be missed.”

—Borough President Marty Markowitz