James Wormley Jones

"Neither can I individualize respecting the magnificent valor of the men of the company led by Captain Jones in this engagement, which Secretary Baker himself praised.

It may, perhaps, be best to let these boys and officers tell with their lips of the terrific, murderous shell, shrapnel, gas, and machine-gun fire that baptized them, only to make them the more hardened and intrepid warriors; of how they contended every inch; fought with marvelous valor, never for an instant faltering.

Of course, as a natural sequence to such a daring raid, there were casualties, but the black soldiers, heroes as they were, never flinched at death, and the wounded were too proud of their achievements even to murmur because of the pain they endured.

Jones was appointed as the first African-American special agent on November 19, 1919, by Bureau of Investigation director A. Bruce Bielaski.

Although he was seeking evidence of subversive activities during the "Red Scare" of 1919, Jones' work led to the arrest and trial of Garvey on mail fraud charges.

His access to UNIA correspondence and his position as Adjutant General in the African Legion were essential in enabling his information-gathering activities.

Eventually recognized as an ex-police officer, Jones was no longer an asset as a clandestine agent and he resigned from the Bureau on April 14, 1923.

On the February 10th, 2021, episode of The Daily Show with Trevor Noah, Roy Wood Jr. performed a comedy segment on James Wormley Jones accusing him of being a "black spy" who put Marcus Garvey in prison.