William R. Jones Papers, 1953-2009

Summary

Extent:: 138 Linear Feet 136 boxes, 2 items; 69 Linear Feet 69 boxes; 918 Cassettes 23 boxes; 5 Cassettes; 920 Cassettes 20 boxes; 5 Reels; 1188 items 13 boxes, 1 item; 3.5 Linear Feet 3 boxes, 1 item; 3 Linear Feet 2 boxes
Language:: English
Preferred citation:: [Title of Item], [Date of Item], [Box and Folder Number], William R. Jones Papers, Special Collections & Archives, Florida State University Libraries, Tallahassee, Florida. https://purl.lib.fsu.edu/fa/MSS_2020-001

Background

Scope and content:

Correspondence, subject files, publications, course materials, sound recordings, videocassettes, and digital media documenting the scholarship, instruction, and faculty service of Rev. Dr. William R. Jones. Major subjects include racism and oppression in the United States, Black liberation theology, and Florida State University units including the Department of Religion and the African American Studies program.

Select born-digital materials from this collection are available through PASS.

Select materials from the William R. Jones Papers have been digitized and are available through the FSU Digital Library.

Biographical / historical:

Rev. Dr. William Ronald "Bill" Jones (1933-2012) was an African American philosopher, scholar, and professor. His scholarly interests included philosophy, Blacks in the field of philosophy, racism, theodicy and Christian theism, Black theology, and especially the operation of oppressive structures in American society. Jones is well-known for his 1973 monograph Is God A White Racist?, as well as the oppression investigation tools the Jones Analytic Model (JAM) and Jones Oppression Grid (JOG).

Jones was born July 17, 1933 in Louisville, Kentucky. He was one of six children born to to Henry W. Jones and Lannie (Brogsdale) Jones.

Jones attended Howard University, where he initially majored in engineering before transferring to philosophy. He recieved a BA in philosophy, magna cum laude, from Howard in 1955. Jones earned a Masters of Divinity from Harvard University in 1958.

Jones was ordained by the Unitarian Society of Wellesley Hills, MA on June 15, 1958, and served from 1958-1960 as Assistant Minister and Director of Religious Education at the all-white First Unitarian Church in Providence, Rhode Island.

He was a visiting professor at Howard from 1964-1969 while concurrently working on a PhD in Religious Studies at Brown University, completed in 1969. Jones taught at Yale Divinity School from 1969-1977, and was coordinator of Black Studies there from 1974-1976.

He became Professor of Religion and the founding director of Black Studies at Florida State University (FSU) in 1977. He served as a community minister at FSU as well.

Jones authored articles regarding oppression and the church's role in social change. In 1973, Beacon Press published Jones's controversial piece, Is God A White Racist? A Preamble to Black Theology, and in 1978, he co-edited and contributed to the monograph Black Theology II.

Jones retired from Florida State University in 1999 as Professor Emeritus. He died in Tallahassee, Florida on Friday, July 13, 2012.

Jones was recipient of many awards, including: the African American Studies and Research Center Award for Outstanding Contribution to Philosophy and the African American Community from Purdue University; Distinguished Visiting Professor in Afro-American Studies at Lafayette College in 1983–84; first recipient of the William R. Jones Most Valuable Mentor Award, established by the Florida Endowment Fund for Higher Education to recognize the contribution of faculty members in the state of Florida university system to McKnight Black doctoral students; Florida State University Faculty Teaching Award in 1989 and 1994; state of Florida Ida S. Baker Black Distinguished Educator Recognition Award; Richard Allen Award from Yale Divinity School; Bragg Humanist of the Year; American Humanist Association Humanist Pioneer of the Year; and the first recipient of the Martin Luther King Jr. Distinguished Scholar Award. In 2008, at the Fifteenth Annual Philosophy Born of Struggle Conference, Jones received its first William R. Jones Award, established in his honor for a lifetime of achievement.

Sources:

American Philosophical Association. (Spring 2013). APA Newsletters. https://cdn.ymaws.com/www.apaonline.org/resource/collection/950518C1-3421-484C-8153-CDA6ED737182/V12n2Black.pdf

Harper, Daniel. "William R. Jones: a brief appreciation." https://www.danielharper.org/yauu/2012/08/william-r-jones-a-brief-appreciation/

Unitarian Universalist Ministers Association. "In Memory of . . . William R. Jones (1933-2012)." https://www.uuma.org/blogpost/569858/147952/In-Memory-of----William-R-Jones-1933-2012

Custodial history:

Moved by FSU Libraries and Meek-Eaton Black Archives from Jones home in Tallahassee to Meek-Eaton Black Archives Research Center and Museum November 29, 2013. Moved from Meek-Eaton to Strozier Library in October and November 2020.

Arrangement:

unarranged

Physical / technical requirements:

Content of sound recordings, videocassettes, and computer media may not be immediately accessible to researchers. For more information, please contact Special Collections & Archives staff at lib-specialcollections@fsu.edu.

Physical facet:

Total collection extent

Paper documents

VHS videocassettes. 420 cassettes are unlabeled.

VHS-C videocassettes

Compact audiocassettes. 297 cassettes are unlabeled.

1/4-inch audiotape

Computer media: 3.5 inch disks, 5.25 inch disks, Zip disks, external drives, WinBook laptop computer, iomega jaz disk, Colorado DT-250 minicassette, DVD-R, DC-2120 mini cartridge, adapters

plaques, framed items, keepsakes

Books

Dimensions:

7-inch reels

Rules or conventions:

Describing Archives: A Content Standard

Access and use

Restrictions:

Most paper files are still arranged as-received and difficult to handle routinely.

Collection