Anna H. Jones
{{Short description|Canadian-born American suffragist (1855–1932)}}
{{Infobox person | name = Anna H. Jones | image = AnnaJones1902.tif | alt = | caption = Anna H. Jones in a 1902 publication | birth_name = Anna Holland Jones| birth_date = September 2, 1855 | birth_place = Chatham, Canada West | death_date = {{death_date and age|1932|3|7|1855|9|2}} | death_place = Monrovia, California, U.S. | nationality = Canadian American | alma_mater = Oberlin College | other_names = | occupation = Educator, Suffragist | years_active = | known_for = | notable_works = | spouse = }}
Anna H. Jones (September 2, 1855 – March 7, 1932) was a Canadian-born American clubwoman, suffragist, and educator based in later life in Kansas City, Missouri.
Early life
Anna Holland Jones was born on September 2, 1855,{{cite web|url=https://www.wgpfoundation.org/historic-markers/anna-h-jones/|title=Celebrate History {{!}} Historic Marker: Anna H. Jones|website=William G. Pomeroy Foundation|date=21 February 2022 |access-date=September 27, 2022}} in Chatham, Canada West, the daughter of Emily Francis Jones and James Monroe Jones.Gwen Robinson, [http://www.chathamdailynews.ca/2017/02/25/grandfather-arrived-in-north-carolina-aboard-slave-ship "Grandfather Arrived in North Carolina Aboard Slave Ship"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170302031200/http://www.chathamdailynews.ca/2017/02/25/grandfather-arrived-in-north-carolina-aboard-slave-ship |date=March 2, 2017 }}, Chatham Daily News (February 25, 2017). Her father was one of the first black graduates of Oberlin College, finishing in 1849.Steven Lubet, [https://books.google.com/books?id=AZ1rCgAAQBAJ&dq=Elias+Toussaint+Jones&pg=PA38 The "Colored Hero" of Harper's Ferry: John Anthony Copeland and the War against Slavery] (Cambridge University Press, 2015): 38, 102. {{ISBN|9781316352205}}. Her father was a gunsmith and engraver who, with his brother Elias Toussaint Jones, was involved with John Brown's Canadian abolition activities.Jacqueline L. Tobin, [https://books.google.com/books?id=rso589PvcAoC&dq=James+Monroe+Jones&pg=PA50 From Midnight to Dawn: The Last Tracks of the Underground Railroad] (Doubleday, 2007): 50. {{ISBN|9780385514316}}. Anna H. Jones attended university in Michigan,[https://www.newspapers.com/clip/9247031/anna_h_jones_teacher_in_kansas_city/ "A Shame"], Washington Bee (October 27, 1894): 2. via Newspapers.com.{{open access}} and graduated from Oberlin College in 1875.Roland M. Baumann, [https://books.google.com/books?id=CPFHBAAAQBAJ&dq=%22Anna+H.+Jones%22++Chatham+Ontario&pg=PT63 Constructing Black Education at Oberlin College: A Documentary History] (Ohio University Press, 2014). {{ISBN|9780821443637}}.
Her sister Sophia Bethena Jones (1857–1932) became a medical doctor, and "the first black faculty member at Spelman College" and founder of the school's nursing program.[http://www.spelman.edu/about-us/news-and-events/our-stories/stories/2016/04/01/sophia-b.-jones "Sophia B. Jones Charts a Course of Success for African-American Doctors"], Our Stories, Spelman College (April 2016). Her sister Fredericka Florence Jones (1860-–) also became a teacher.[https://www.newspapers.com/clip/9247671/fredericka_florence_jones_1905/ "An Appreciation"] Rising Son (March 17, 1905): 5. via Newspapers.com.{{open access}}
Career
Anna H. Jones taught elocution at Wilberforce University in Ohio from 1885 to 1892. She taught high school and was a school principal in Kansas City, Missouri, until 1916, when she retired from classroom work.
She was president of the Missouri Association of Colored Women's Clubs from 1903 to 1906. She raised the money to build a YMCA in Kansas City.[https://www.newspapers.com/clip/9247264/anna_h_jones_leads_ywca_fundraising/ "$4,000 More Needed to Furnish Y. M. C. A."] Kansas City Sun (October 10, 1914): 1. via Newspapers.com.{{open access}} She represented the Kansas City Colored Women's League in the talks that resulted in the creation of the National Association of Colored Women's Clubs.Charles Edward Coulter, [https://books.google.com/books?id=iXeRKb49l2UC&dq=Anna+H.+Jones&pg=PA39 Take Up the Black Man's Burden: Kansas City's African American Communities, 1865–1939] (University of Missouri Press 2006): 39-41. {{ISBN|9780826265180}}. She wrote three biographical sketches for Hallie Q. Brown's Homespun Heroines and Other Women of Distinction (1926).Hallie Q. Brown, [http://docsouth.unc.edu/neh/brownhal/brownhal.html Homespun Heroines and Other Women of Distinction] (Aldine Publishing, 1926): contents.
Jones traveled to London in 1900 for the First Pan-African Conference, in the company of Anna Julia Cooper, Fannie Barrier Williams, and Ella D. Barrier, among others. Jones and Cooper were the only two African-American women to address the Conference;Paul Finkelman, [https://books.google.com/books?id=6gbQHxb_P0QC&dq=Anna+H.+Jones&pg=RA4-PA246 Encyclopedia of African American History, 1896 to the Present] (Oxford University Press 2009): 246. {{ISBN|9780195167795}}. Jones presented a paper titled "The Preservation of Race Individuality."Vivian M. May, [https://books.google.com/books?id=ZIBNwzenmrMC&dq=Anna+H.+Jones&pg=PA28 Anna Julia Cooper, Visionary Black Feminist: A Critical Introduction] (Routledge 2012): 23–28. {{ISBN|9781135911553}} She later corresponded with W. E. B. DuBois.[http://credo.library.umass.edu/view/full/mums312-b006-i298 Letter from Anna H. Jones to W. E. B. Du Bois], December 18, 1911, W. E. B. DuBois Papers, University of Massachusetts. In 1905 her two-part essay "A Century's Progress for the American Colored Woman" appeared in consecutive issues of Voice of the Negro magazine.Anna H. Jones, "A Century's Progress for the American Colored Woman", Voice of the Negro (September 1905): 631–633 and (October 1905): 692–694. Her short essay "Women Suffrage and Social Reform" appeared in a 1915 issue of The Crisis.Dawn Keetley and John Pettegrew, eds, [https://books.google.com/books?id=s3H087kqzlUC&dq=Anna+H.+Jones&pg=PA194 Public Women, Public Words: A Documentary History of American Feminism: 1900 To 1960] (Rowman & Littlefield, 2005): 194–195. {{ISBN|9780742522251}}. Jones was a member of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority Incorporated. {{Cite journal |last=Alpha |first=Alpha Kappa |date=1921 |title=Lambda Chapter |journal=The Ivy Leaf |volume=1 |issue=1 |pages=40 |via=Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority Incorporated}}
Katherine D. Tillman wrote a poem about Jones, titled "My Queen"..Claudia Tate, ed., [https://books.google.com/books?id=gaU2w8tVBj0C&dq=Anna+H.+Jones&pg=PA35 The Works of Katherine Davis Chapman Tillman] (Oxford University Press, 1991): 35. {{ISBN|9780195062007}}.
Personal life
Jones moved to Monrovia, California, in 1921. She died there on March 7, 1932, aged 76. The Anna H. Jones Colored Women’s Club was organized in Monrovia in 1932, in her memory.Susie Ling, [http://www.monroviaweekly.com/current-news/community-life-south-of-the-tracks-blacks-in-monrovias-history/ "Community Life South Of the Tracks: Blacks in Monrovia’s History"], Monrovia Weekly (February 4, 2015).
References
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External links
- [http://dcollections.oberlin.edu/cdm/ref/collection/photos/id/360 A photograph of Anna H. Jones in later life], from the Oberlin University Archives.
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Category:African-American suffragists
Category:Suffragists from Missouri
Category:Canadian people of African-American descent