Despite boundaries derived from racial discrimination, Clifford's accomplishments were great, reflecting his ability and determination.

In the early 1870s he enrolled in Harpers Ferry's newly formed Storer College, created to educate the region's African-American population.

After earning his degree in 1878, Clifford became a teacher at, and then the principal of, a segregated public school for African Americans in Martinsburg, West Virginia.

[2] In 1882, Clifford began to publish The Pioneer Press, a newspaper that was distributed nationally to a largely African American audience.

[4] J.R. Clifford was nearly forgotten to history until he was rediscovered by Dr. Connie Park Rice, the preeminent African American Historian, of West Virginia University.

[1] In 1898, Clifford won a landmark civil rights and education case before the West Virginia Supreme Court of Appeals.

In Williams v. Board of Education, Clifford argued against the Tucker County Board of Education's decision to shorten the school year for African-American school children from nine months to five months, keeping a full term for white students.

The Niagara Movement opposed what its members believed were policies of accommodation and conciliation promoted by African-American leaders such as Booker T.

[6] The Niagara Movement called for full civil rights for black Americans and an end to legalized segregation, and is recognized as the cornerstone of the 20th Century civil rights movement and the forerunner to the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP).

Clifford helped organize the movement's second meeting, the first to be held on U.S. soil, in Harpers Ferry, West Virginia, the site of abolitionist John Brown's 1859 raid.

The three-day gathering, from August 15 to 18, 1906, took place at the campus of Clifford's alma mater Storer College (now part of Harpers Ferry National Historical Park).

Attendees walked from Storer College to the nearby Murphy Family farm, the relocation site of the historic fort where John Brown's quest to end slavery reached its bloody climax.

Clifford was among twelve pioneers of civil rights commemorated in a United States Postal Service postage stamp series in 2009.