Grave Digger Jones
VERIFIED evidence grade — master store (canonical CSV)
Combined Graph record U-02049 · provenance: canonical master store (CSV), record CTL-W-0941. Master record source: CTL seed 2026-10-16 — UNVERIFIED, verify before public citation.
Harlem detective; half of the iconic duo
Answer summary · this record in brief, from its own record text
Harlem detective; half of the iconic duo
The record
- Also known as: portrayed by Godfrey Cambridge
- Work type: character
Relationships
- Cotton Comes to Harlem — featured in
STRONG EVIDENCE
Sources
- https://harvardfilmarchive.org/programs/cotton-comes-to-harlem (verification source · master store)
Evidence note (master store)
Grave Digger Jones is a Harlem police detective in the film Cotton Comes to Harlem (1970). Grave Digger Jones is performed by Godfrey Cambridge (Harvard Film Archive: 'Godfrey Cambridge and Raymond St. Jacques star as detectives "Gravedigger" Jones and "Coffin Ed" Johnson'; 'As Gravedigger, Cambridge...'). The character was created by Chester Himes in his series of Harlem crime novels (Harvard Film Archive), supporting the novel side of the stored creator credit; the film was directed by Ossie Davis.
More work records
Browse the full directory: all entity records
Record CTL-W-0941 · Combined Graph record U-02049 · CultureTechLens Knowledge Graph · 1 source · 1 mapped relationship.
Directory: all entity records · the knowledge graph
Researched and maintained by the CultureTechLens research program · CultureTechLens Combined Graph, Release 2026-11-04. Corrections are public: the corrections log.
Cite this record
Chicago: CultureTechLens. “Grave Digger Jones (CTL-W-0941).” CultureTechLens Combined Graph. Chicago, IL: CultureTechLens, 2026. https://culturetechlens.com/graph/entities/ctl-w-0941/
APA: CultureTechLens. (2026). Grave Digger Jones (CTL-W-0941) [Entity record]. CultureTechLens Combined Graph. https://culturetechlens.com/graph/entities/ctl-w-0941/
MLA: CultureTechLens. “Grave Digger Jones (CTL-W-0941).” CultureTechLens Combined Graph, 2026, https://culturetechlens.com/graph/entities/ctl-w-0941/
Citation guidance for teachers, journalists, and funders: How to Cite Us.
From the Archive
The archive in pictures
The people, places, and institutions this work documents. Photographs from the CultureTechLens research record — rights-cleared, credited, and cited like everything else here.



Trust & evidence
Evidence before authority. CultureTechLens publishes its methods, its limits, and its corrections alongside its findings. Claims carry grades — VERIFIED, SUPPORTED, PROVISIONAL, DISPUTED, UNRESOLVED — and unknowns are never reported as zero.
Every claim graded. Every source named. Every correction public — see the corrections log.