JUDGE CLARANCE J. JONES
Connecticut Superior Court

Clarance J. Jones’ youth was spent in Montgomery, Alabama during the time of de jure segregation, the Montgomery Bus Boycott, and civil rights marches. He obtained his B.S. Degree in Political Science from Tuskegee Institute (University) in Tuskegee, Alabama, and his J.D. Degree from Howard University, Washington, DC.

Recruited by New Haven Legal Assistance Association, Inc., in Connecticut, Clarance Jones worked there from 1965 until 1968, then became Associate and later Executive Director of the New Haven NAACP Center for Advocacy Research & Planning (later Center for Advocacy Research and Planning) where as its principal litigator he was lead counsel in significant civil rights actions which resulted, inter alia, in a federal court order enforcing equal opportunity and affirmative treatment of minorities and women in the hiring, assignment, and promotion of officers in the New Haven Police Department (Title VII of Civil Rights Act); and in the area of housing, federal court orders prohibiting major realtors and their agents from steering minority prospective renters and home purchasers to predominantly minority neighborhoods and Caucasian renters and purchasers to predominantly Caucasian neighborhoods (Title VIII of Civil Rights Act). He also served as Chairperson of the Connecticut Commission on Human Rights and Opportunities.

Clarance Jones is a founding partner in the former law firm of Jones, Turner & Wright and former Counsel to the New Haven Connecticut Commission on Equal Opportunities. He was appointed a Judge of the Superior Court by the Connecticut Legislature in 1989, a position which he currently holds. The Connecticut Judicial Selection Commission has approved his certification for elevation to the Connecticut Appellate Court. Judge Jones is a Tutor in Clinical Studies for teaching Trial Practice at the Yale Law School, and a member of the Advisory Committee of the Legal Studies Program at the University of New Haven.

A founding director and Vice-President of the Amistad Academy, a nationally acclaimed non-profit public charter school in New Haven, Connecticut, dedicated to improving the education of disadvantaged children, Judge Jones also serves on the board of Achievement First, a non-profit charter school management organization that operates a growing network of high performing k-12 public charter schools in New York and Connecticut serving disadvantaged youth.

Judge Jones is President of the Connecticut Judges’ Association, and President/Moderator of the National Consortium for Racial and Ethnic Fairness in the Courts. He is the recipient of the Phi Beta Sigma Distinguished Service Award, Federal Judge Robert Zampano Excellence in Community Mediation Award, and the University’s Thurgood Marshall Award from the Black Law Students’ Association at the Quinnipiac University School of Law. He resides in Madison, Connecticut, with his wife, Maureen.
 

Updated July 24, 2008