Born in 1848 in Hardy County, J. R. Clifford was a Civil War veteran, a Storer College graduate, and a teacher and principal at the local Sumner School. In 1882 he published Pioneer Press, the first African American paper in the state. In 1887 he became the first of his race to pass the state bar exam and argued two race discrimination cases before the Supreme Court. He was a founder of the Niagra Movement, a predecessor of the NAACP, and of its 1906 Harpers Ferry meeting. He died in Martinsburg in 1933.
