Jerry Jones is the fourth generation of his family to live in the white, two-story house that was built in 1870 in Glade Spring by his great-grandfather, who was a freed slave.
A longtime educator and author of three books, Jones doesn’t know a lot about his ancestor, Crockett Johnston, who was enslaved in Wythe County. He and his late mother, Mary Waugh Jones, who was Johnston’s granddaughter, often wondered why he built the house in the small Washington County town. They decided he must have known someone in that area.
Jones, who will be 77 on Nov. 24, was also curious where Johnston got the money for the house. He believes it would have taken about $500 at that time to buy the land and build the house, which is in the downtown area next to the railroad tracks.
A clue was revealed on the house’s original deed, which in addition to Johnston’s signature, contained the signature of another man, whose last name was Johnston’s first name, Crockett. That led them to believe the man may have provided the money, and raised other questions.
Another deed was found in the house, and it was dated 10 years later. Only Johnston’s signature appeared on that deed, a possible indication that he then owned it free and clear.
Between 80 and 90 years after the family home was built, Jones grew up there with his single mother during another challenging time for African Americans in this country, the era of the segregated South. He attended the school for Black students in Glade Spring from 1953 to 1960. When he graduated from the seventh grade, rather than go to the regular high school in town, he was bused to the Douglass School in Bristol, which was also for Black students.
One of his most vivid memories from those days was riding an old bus that had one heater during the winter that was placed up front near the driver. He usually wound up near the back, and he remembers his feet would feel like they were frozen by the time he got to school. Once his mother found out, she began warming a brick in the oven every morning and wrapping it in foil and placing it in a paper bag so he could place it on his feet for the 30-mile trip to Bristol. Given the state of the two-lane roads at that time and the number of stops to pick up students, that trip took up to an hour and a half each way.
Although he attended segregated schools and lived in an area where there were far fewer African Americans than white residents, Jones doesn’t believe he was subjected to racism or discrimination in his hometown or in the local schools. He lived in a neighborhood of poor Black and white families, and they got along and even remained friends decades later. Poverty is a great equalizer, he said.
His experience with racism came later and in other places.
After graduating from high school, he went to Virginia State University, a historically Black college near Petersburg, where he earned bachelor’s and master’s degrees in business education.
Jones attended his first four years of college with scholarship money that he didn’t have to pay back if he landed a teaching job in Virginia. Although he went on several interviews, including in Richmond, Alexandria and Roanoke, he was rejected and wound up having to pay back the money in installments. He doesn’t remember the exact amount, but he said it was probably around $1,000 per year, which was a lot for a student just starting his first job in 1969.
Sixty-five years later, he still thinks about why he didn’t get the jobs — and why they interviewed him in the first place. They had to have known he was Black, given where he went to college, he said. He didn’t understand why they would arrange an interview that required him to make long, hard trips just to tell him there were no jobs available.
Ultimately, he believes it was racism, although it seems painful for him to say so. He has settled on the explanation that in 1969 in Virginia, those school administrators were just not comfortable with a Black man teaching in predominantly white schools.
But Jones, who often uses laughter to soften what might be perceived as a negative comment or opinion, puts a positive spin on this story. Instead of teaching in his home state, he found his first job as a high school teacher in Baltimore, Maryland.
The job proved to be fortuitous because the school was teaching its teachers about computers so they could teach computer courses. So, he ended up with computer skills and knowledge much earlier than he would have otherwise.
Those skills led to his next two jobs, first at J. Sargeant Reynolds Community College in Richmond, where he taught computer courses from 1974 until 2001. It was while he was there that he wrote his first book, which was a textbook for teaching computer classes.
He ended up writing the book after he and other teachers complained about the textbook they were using to a representative for Prentice Hall, which was then a major educational publisher. It took him two years to write, but the book, “Structured Programming Logic,” was published in 1985 and used for years at the school and by others.
In 1979, he earned a doctorate in education from Virginia Tech.
In 2001, he returned home to take care of his elderly mother and went to work as a visiting professor at nearby Emory & Henry University in Washington County. He taught computer classes there until he retired in May 2021.
He wrote two additional books. In 2011, his second book, “Go and Come Again: Segregation, Tolerance and Reflection,” was published. It detailed his history of growing up in a small Southern town and attending an all-Black school during segregation.
The book, which is available on Amazon and has a 4.7 rating, led to a number of requests for speaking engagements, which continue to keep him busy in retirement.
At first, public speaking was difficult for Jones, who said he was a shy, introverted kid. He remembers going up to his room when company came so he wouldn’t have to participate in the conversation.
Jones said he knew he had to change his mind-set to be able to give speeches, and it worked. These days, he has become a leader and an in-demand speaker on Black history in Southwest Virginia. He has spoken to students in schools, and participated in workshops at colleges, including his participation in October in a three-day workshop on storytelling and vocation at King University. He has spoken at graduations and even speaks to jail inmates during Black History Month.
His most recent book, “They Included Me: A Five-Decade Teaching Career,” was published in 2023. In addition to delving into his lengthy career as an educator, Jones said he wrote it as a thank you to all the teachers who helped him throughout his life.
Recently, he learned that the book won a bronze award in the academic/educational category of the 2024 CIPA EVVY Awards. The annual competition, sponsored by the Colorado Independent Publishers Association along with the CIPA Education and Literacy Foundation, is for independent or self-published books.
Jones is also a musician who plays the piano beautifully by ear. He regularly plays for three local churches and for other events when asked.
Jones, who has no children, will be the last member of his family to live in his beloved family home. He’s grateful to his great-grandfather for building the house and for the fact that as long as he’s made it his home, he’s never had to worry about paying rent or paying off a mortgage. Although he is busy, he feels a seemingly sacred obligation to take care of the old house that holds so much family history and has sheltered him for so long.
