Barbara Ann Posey Jones

Barbara Ann Posey Jones
Born
Barbara Ann Posey

1943 (age 81–82)
Oklahoma City, OK
NationalityAmerican
CitizenshipUSA
Alma materUniversity of Oklahoma, A.B. 1963
University of Illinois, A.M. 1966
Georgia State University, PhD 1973
Known forleadership of sit-ins at lunch counters in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma in 1958-1959
SpouseMack H. Jones.
Children3, including Bomani Jones and Tayari Jones
Awards2021 Suzan Shown Harjo Systemic Social Justice Award
Scientific career
FieldsEconomics
InstitutionsClark College, Prairie View A&M, Alabama A&M University

Barbara Ann Posey Jones (born 1943) is an American economist who was a leader of the 1958 Katz Drug Store sit-in as a high school student.[1] Since 1971, she has been a professor of economics, department head, and Dean at several historically Black Colleges and Universities in the American South. She is a past president of the National Economic Association.[2]

In 2021, she was awarded the Suzan Shown Harjo Systemic Social Justice Award from the National Conference on Race and Ethnicity in Higher Education.[3] In 2024, the University of Oklahoma awarded her an honorary degree, noting that her "participation in the Oklahoma City sit-ins helped in the desegregation of many public establishments across the country."[4]

Early life, activism, and education

Jones joined the youth council of the Oklahoma City NAACP at the age of 14, and on a visit to a freedom rally in New York City, ate at a lunch counter for the first time. On her return home, she became one of the spokespeople for the youth Oklahoma lunch counter sit-ins of 1958–1959. The Chi Zeta Chapter of Zeta Phi Zeta Sorority named her "Girl of the Year" of 1958,[5] Datebook magazine published her article, "Why I Sit In"[6] in 1960, and she gave a speech entitled "My America" at the 51st Annual NAACP Convention in June 1960.[7] She graduated from the University of Oklahoma in 1963, and completed a master's degree in economics at the University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign in 1966. There, she met her husband, political scientist Mack Jones, at a 1962 NAACP meeting.[8] She completed a PhD in economics at Georgia State University in 1973.

Economics career

Jones began her career at Texas Southern University[9] and then continued work as an economics professor at Clark College (which became Clark Atlanta University), serving as department chair even before she finished her PhD.[1] She taught there from 1971 to 1987, winning numerous teaching awards. She joined Prairie View A&M as department chair in 1987, quickly becoming Dean of the College of Business from 1989 to 1997. In 1997, she became Dean of the School of Business at Alabama A&M University, where she served as a professor of Economics until her retirement in 2016.[10][11]

Research publications

  • Jones, Barbara AP. "Black women and labor force participation: An analysis of sluggish growth rates." The Review of Black Political Economy 14, no. 2-3 (1985): 11–31.
  • Jones, Barbara Ann Posey. The contributions of Black women to the incomes of Black families: an analysis of the labor force participation rates of Black wives. Georgia State University, 1973.

References

  1. ^ a b "They Ordered Cokes at a Lunch Counter and Changed Their Lives". Oklahoman.com. August 14, 1983. Retrieved September 24, 2020.
  2. ^ Reese, Linda W. (October 31, 2007). "BARBARA ANN POSEY JONES (1943- )". BlackPast.
  3. ^ "Pewewardy, Jones to receive NCORE's Suzan Shown Harjo Systemic Social Justice Award" (PDF). June 1, 2021. Archived (PDF) from the original on August 19, 2021.
  4. ^ "2023 Honorary Degree Recipients". www.ou.edu. Retrieved June 4, 2024.
  5. ^ "NAACP Civil rights program". Oakland, Calif : National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. West Coast Region. 1960 – via Edward Ross Roybal papers held in the Dept of Special Collections/UCLA Library.
  6. ^ Posey, Barbara Ann (1960). "Why I Sit In: The girl who started a nation-wide civil-rights movement tells how and why she sits and waits" (PDF). Datebook Magazine – via Civil Rights Movement Archive.
  7. ^ "The Girl Who Dared | Reading Fluency | Scholastic Scope Magazine". scope.scholastic.com. Retrieved September 24, 2020.
  8. ^ Myers, Marc (February 19, 2019). "Tayari Jones Became a Writer After a Trip to Mars and a Year in Africa". Wall Street Journal. ISSN 0099-9660. Retrieved September 24, 2020.
  9. ^ "2021 Honors Barbara Jones". www.ncore.ou.edu. Retrieved December 14, 2021.
  10. ^ "C.V. of Barbara A.P. Jones" (PDF). April 2016.
  11. ^ "Scenes from Retirement Celebration for Dr. Barbara A.P. Jones, Alabama A&M University, Saturday, October 22, 2016". www.facebook.com. Retrieved September 24, 2020.

Further reading