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]
Barbara Ann Posey Jones | |
---|---|
Born | Barbara Ann Posey 1943 (age 80–81) |
Nationality | American |
Citizenship | USA |
Alma mater | University of Oklahoma, A.B. 1963 University of Illinois, A.M. 1966 Georgia State University, PhD 1973 |
Known for | leadership of sit-ins at lunch counters in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma in 1958-1959 |
Spouse | Mack H. Jones. |
Children | 3, including Bomani Jones and Tayari Jones |
Awards | 2021 Suzan Shown Harjo Systemic Social Justice Award |
Scientific career | |
Fields | Economics |
Institutions | Clark College, Prairie View A&M, Alabama A&M University |
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
editJones 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
editJones 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
edit- 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
edit- ^ a b "They Ordered Cokes at a Lunch Counter and Changed Their Lives". Oklahoman.com. August 14, 1983. Retrieved September 24, 2020.
- ^ Reese, Linda W. (October 31, 2007). "BARBARA ANN POSEY JONES (1943- )". BlackPast.
- ^ "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.
- ^ "2023 Honorary Degree Recipients". www.ou.edu. Retrieved June 4, 2024.
- ^ "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.
- ^ 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.
- ^ "The Girl Who Dared | Reading Fluency | Scholastic Scope Magazine". scope.scholastic.com. Retrieved September 24, 2020.
- ^ 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.
- ^ "2021 Honors Barbara Jones". www.ncore.ou.edu. Retrieved December 14, 2021.
- ^ "C.V. of Barbara A.P. Jones" (PDF). April 2016.
- ^ "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
edit- Chapter 8 of Olson; Emami, Zohreh (2002). "Lourdes Benería". Engendering Economics: Conversations with Women Economists in the United States. Psychology Press. doi:10.4324/9780203103074-12. ISBN 978-0-203-10307-4.