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Rev. Leeland Newton Jones Jr.

Accomplished religious leader

The Rev. Leeland Newton Jones Jr. died on August 13, 2009 at the age of 87.  Born in Buffalo, he spent the first seven years of his life sleeping in the bed of his grandfather, a former slave who had fled from the South.  He was student body president and captain of the football and debate teams at Technical High School and president of the student government at the University at Buffalo. He also attended UB Law School. Rev. Jones' studies at UB were interrupted by Army service during World War II.  He served stateside after  becoming the only African American in his Officer Candidate School graduating class at Fort Monmouth, N. J.  He served with the 15th Signal Corps Regiment, where he was a cryptograph security officer.   He was a member of the famed Tuskegee Air Corps.   At UB, Rev. Jones played on the football team and, in 1941, he became the first black member of an integrated UB football team to play on a field south of the Mason-Dixon Line. (The night before the game, at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Mr. Jones stayed at the home of Carl J. Murphy, owner and publisher of the Afro American newspaper because hotels in the area wouldn't let him stay with his white teammates!)   Rev. Jones received many honors and awards during his life, including the 100 Most Outstanding Buffalonians of the Century.  He entered the ministry late in life and became an associate minister at Bethel AME Church.  Rev. Leeland Newton Jones Jr. is buried in section 31 in Forest Lawn.