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27-424: Youngstown's traditional downtown area fell into steep decline in the 1970s and early 1980s. Amid the departure of retail businesses along the main thoroughfare of West Federal Street, municipal officials made a decision to close the street to vehicle traffic in order to build a pedestrian-oriented shopping area. By the mid-1980s, most of the downtown area's department stores and movie theaters had closed up. Meanwhile,

54-710: A British ceramics manufacturer, has its U.S. headquarters based in Youngstown. Other companies with offices downtown include JPMorgan Chase , FNB Corporation , Huntington Bancshares , KeyBank , PNC Bank , InfoCision , and the Youngstown Business Incubator. The United States Postal Service has a distribution center downtown. The Youngstown Business Incubator (YBI), in the heart of downtown, houses several start-up technology companies that have received office space, furnishings, and access to utilities. Some Incubator-supported companies have earned recognition, and

81-526: A few are starting to outgrow their current space. Inc. Magazine rated one such company– Turning Technologies –as the fastest-growing privately held software company in the United States and 18th fastest-growing privately held company overall. To keep such companies downtown, the YBI secured approval to demolish a row of nearby vacant buildings to clear space for expansion. The Stambaugh building, which once housed

108-640: A memoir, ''Answering the Call: An Autobiography of the Modern Struggle to End Racial Discrimination in America'' (2016), with a foreword by Harvard professor Evelyn Brooks Higgenbotham . On May 6, 2003, the second federal courthouse established in his hometown of Youngstown, Ohio was named in honor of Jones. Former U.S. Representative Louis B. Stokes of Cleveland was on hand for the naming ceremony. "This building, which will forever carry your name, will be

135-494: A mix of single-family homes and row houses centered on the 2.41-acre (9,800 m ) Oak Park. Smoky Hollow borders present-day Youngstown State University , and several YSU facilities are located in the Hollow. One landmark of the "old neighborhood" remains, however. The Mahoning Valley Restaurant (usually shortened to the MVR), an Italian bar and restaurant, has operated in the Hollow since

162-606: A seat on the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit vacated by Judge John Weld Peck II . The United States Senate confirmed his nomination on October 4, 1979, and he received his commission on October 5, 1979. He took his judicial oath on October 15, 1979. He assumed senior status on May 13, 1995. His service terminated on March 30, 2002, when he retired. While on the federal bench, in addition to hearing cases, Judge Jones taught at Harvard Law School and at

189-510: A testament to outstanding public service by a local boy made good", Stokes said. Jones received the NAACP's Spingarn Medal in 2016, its highest honor. He received the Laurel Wreath, his fraternity Kappa Alpha Psi 's highest honor, in 2009. The University of Cincinnati named its Center for Race, Gender, and Social Justice to honor Judge Jones in 2019. He also received 19 honorary degrees. Jones

216-608: Is a neighborhood in Youngstown, Ohio . Located northeast of Youngstown's downtown , Smoky Hollow is now part of the campus of Youngstown State University . The district has long been in a state of decline, but plans are now underway to transform Smoky Hollow into a large field built to serve the University. The Smoky Hollow district runs along the west side of Crab Creek near the Mahoning River . The neighborhood's name derives from

243-465: The Covelli Centre and Ohio Seventh District Court of Appeals in 2006. In 2005, Federal Street, a major downtown thoroughfare that was closed off to create a pedestrian-oriented plaza, reopened to traffic. The downtown area has seen the razing of structurally unsound buildings and the expansion or restoration of others. New construction has dovetailed with efforts to cultivate business growth. One of

270-472: The Kerner Commission , Jones returned to private practice with the firm of Goldberg & Jones in Youngstown, the first integrated law firm in the city. In 1969, he was asked to serve as general counsel of the NAACP by executive director Roy Wilkins . The following year, Jones was honored by more than 600 dignitaries at an NAACP recognition banquet held in Youngstown. In a keynote address, he described

297-628: The University of Cincinnati College of Law . He also made many trips to South Africa . He spoke against the legal underpinnings of apartheid , became one of the observers for the first democratic elections in 1993, and later consulted with drafters of the South African constitution. After his retirement, Jones became a Senior Counsel in the Cincinnati office of Blank Rome LLP , also serving as its Chief Diversity and Inclusion officer. He also wrote

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324-595: The 1960s when it fell victim to suburban migration, university expansion, and real estate disinvestment . While most of Smoky Hollow was laid out on a grid, the far northern section became a development known as Oak Park. In 1910, a group of wealthy Youngstowners formed the Modem Homes Company of Youngstown to build homes for Youngstown's working class. Eventually over a two-and- a-half year period, 110 homes were built. These homes were built of concrete, block, and stucco with tile roofs and modern conveniences. They were

351-410: The NAACP, and when nearby Warren, Ohio tried to bar blacks from the local swimming pool, he saw future Supreme Court justice Thurgood Marshall in action. After receiving his Artium Baccalaureus degree in 1951, he enrolled in law school, studying at nights while serving as director of Youngstown's Fair Employment Practices Commission . He graduated in 1956, receiving a Bachelor of Laws degree. Jones

378-527: The United States military. He also successfully coordinated the NAACP's defense on First Amendment grounds in the Mississippi Boycott case and won Reed v. Rhodes, which desegregated Cleveland-area schools. He also argued on behalf of the NAACP in Milliken v. Bradley , a case that ultimately dealt a severe blow to desegregation efforts. President Jimmy Carter on August 28, 1979, nominated Jones, to

405-544: The Youngstown Sheet and Tube headquarters was renovated into a 4-star DoubleTree by Hilton hotel in 2018. 41°6′N 80°39′W  /  41.100°N 80.650°W  / 41.100; -80.650 Nathaniel R. Jones Nathaniel Raphael Jones (May 12, 1926 – January 26, 2020) was an American attorney, judge, and law professor. As general counsel of the NAACP , Jones fought to end school segregation, including in

432-508: The area's more successful business ventures in recent years has been the Youngstown Business Incubator. This nonprofit organization, based in a former downtown department store building, fosters the growth of fledgling technology-based companies. The incubator, which boasts more than a dozen business tenants, recently completed construction on the Taft Technology Center, where some of its largest tenants will locate their offices. While

459-409: The city has been less successful in drawing large retail businesses back to the downtown, older buildings are being refurbished for smaller businesses, while others have been razed to make way for new buildings. The downtown is currently the site of the Covelli Centre , which has given Youngstown a professional hockey team. Youngstown State University is the largest employer in the city. Steelite ,

486-580: The city's car dealerships relocated in the suburbs. By the early 1990s, the downtown had become a stark symbol of the community's economic decline. In the 2000s, additions included the Nathaniel R. Jones Federal Building and U.S. Courthouse in 2002 (which features an award-winning design by the architectural firm, Robert A. M. Stern Architects ), the Mahoning County Children's Services center and George Voinovich Government Center in 2004, and both

513-458: The fact that the area was often saturated with smoke from the nearby Mahoning Valley Iron Company. The area was originally owned by the James Wick family of Youngstown. By the late 1800s, however, immigrants begin building simple homes on this land, which was within walking distance of the mills that sat along Crab Creek. Smoky Hollow was a high-density housing neighborhood of immigrants from around

540-427: The late 1920s. Also located in the vicinity of Smoky Hollow is the central branch of the Youngstown and Mahoning County library system, which contains rare archival data. Several traditional homes remain in the neighborhood, but the population has fallen dramatically. Aside from the aforementioned, Smoky Hollow is a fairly vacant neighborhood, and its proximity to both a college campus and a central downtown area made it

567-469: The local segregated YMCA, where he heard and met national civil rights leaders. She also introduced him to J. Maynard Dickerson, a lawyer as well as publisher of the weekly black newspaper, The Buckeye Review, who became his mentor . Jones became active in the local NAACP's youth council and successfully organized a boycott of the local roller skating rink, which previously only allowed blacks to skate only on Monday nights. He graduated high school in 1945 and

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594-559: The northern United States. From 1979 until 1995, he served as a United States circuit judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit before assuming senior status, and in 2002 retired to resume a private legal practice. Jones was born in the Smoky Hollow district of Youngstown , Ohio , several blocks from a federal courthouse that now bears his name. Although he lived in an integrated neighborhood and attended an integrated public high school, his mother took him to

621-554: The situation of African Americans in the following terms: "We still live in the basement of the great society. We must keep plodding until we get what we are striving for". For the next nine years, Jones directed all NAACP litigation. In addition to personally arguing several cases in the United States Supreme Court , he coordinated national efforts to end northern school segregation, to defend affirmative action , and to inquire into discrimination against black servicemen in

648-509: The world. By the early 20th century, however, the neighborhood was dominated by Italian Americans . In 1910 there were 576 families living in the Hollow – a mix of Slovak, Irish , Italian , English , Jewish , German , and African-American . The area has produced many prominent residents, notably businessman and shopping mall pioneer Edward J. DeBartolo, Sr. , who was born in Smoky Hollow in 1919. The neighborhood remained viable into

675-694: Was admitted to the bar in 1957, setting up his own private practice. In 1961, Attorney General Robert Kennedy nominated him as Assistant United States Attorney for the Northern District of Ohio in Cleveland . Thus in 1962, he became the first African American to serve in that position in the district. He held that position until his 1967 appointment as Assistant General Counsel to President Lyndon B. Johnson 's National Advisory Commission on Civil Disorders (the Kerner Commission). Following his term with

702-572: Was inducted in the U.S. Army since World War II had not yet ended. He later recalled his shock at the segregated training facility at Camp Atterbury , Indiana, and those Italian prisoners of war received better treatment than black soldiers. Nonetheless, Jones served with the United States Army Air Corps . After the war, using the GI Bill, Jones entered Youngstown College (now Youngstown State University ). There, he continued working with

729-503: Was married to the late Jean Graham Jones, with whom he had a daughter, Stephanie J. Jones , and the late Lillian Hawthorne Jones (nee Graham), and had four stepchildren: Pamela L. Velez, William L. Hawthorne, Ricky B. Hawthorne, and Marc D. Hawthorne. Jones was a Prince Hall Freemason and a member of Kappa Alpha Psi fraternity. Jones died on January 26, 2020, at the age of 93 from congestive heart failure . Smoky Hollow (neighborhood) Smoky Hollow (also known as The Hollow )

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