Barbara Ann Posey Jones
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1943 (age 82–83)
University of Illinois, A.M. 1966
Georgia State University, PhD 1973
Barbara Ann Posey Jones | |
|---|---|
| Born | Barbara Ann Posey 1943 (age 82–83) |
| 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 |
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]
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.