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Tuesday, March 19, 2024

Reggie Jones, a busy advocate for African Americans, dies at 81

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Everyone knew Reggie Jones, and Reggie Jones knew everyone. That’s what his friends liked to say. Were they exaggerating? Only slightly, if at all.

Jones, a community activist who advocated for African Americans in education, health and economics, died May 5. He was 81 years old.

Anthony Beverly was with Jones at lunch about a year ago at a fish place on the northeast side. They were standing in line when a man in front of them turned around and said he recognized Jones’ voice.

Reginald Jones receives an award as an elder surviving prostate cancer during a Kwanzaa celebration at Central Library. (Photo provided)

“I want to thank you,” Beverly remembers the man saying. “You got me my first job here.”

The man in the restaurant met Jones the way so many others did: through the Indianapolis Skills Center, a now-defunct program that offered job training and placement. Jones was executive director.

Though their friendship didn’t form until years later, Beverly first got to know Jones through Our Market, a supermarket on Indiana Avenue that Jones helped open in the 1980s.

Then, when Beverly started a program for youth called Stop the Violence Indianapolis, Jones was there again. He went on trips with them to Philadelphia, Chicago, New York; he sat in on parent meetings at schools.

“He was the senior elder,” Beverly said. “He was the one kids called grandpa, pops or whatever.”

Jones was also on the board of Community Action Against Poverty in the 1980s and was a delegate for the state of Indiana at the National Conference on Saving the Black Family, an initiative started by then-President Jimmy Carter. He served on the race relations board in the 1970s for three Indianapolis mayors.

Nichelle M. Hayes met Jones through the local NAACP branch, where they both served on the executive committee.

“He was a freedom fighter,” Hayes said. “He was a truth teller. He was a real advocate for people that don’t have a voice in the city.”

Jones lived with prostate cancer for more than 20 years and advocated for Black men to get cancer screenings.

In 2019, the NAACP Health Initiative joined the Indiana Commission on the Status of African-American Males and Indiana Black Expo to celebrate Jones at an event to raise awareness among Black men about the risk of prostate cancer.

Still, even some people who knew Jones for years didn’t learn about the cancer until later because it seemed like he was always doing something in the community.

John Loflin met Jones about 10 years ago and said laughter was like his medicine. Jones, who went to Crispus Attucks High School, and Loflin, who went to Harry E. Wood High School, used to tease each other about how the other’s team was never any good.

Jones loved a good story, Loflin said, like how his orchestra teacher made him play the cello.

“We always ended up doing a lot of laughing,” Loflin said.

Contact staff writer Tyler Fenwick at 317-762-7853 or email at tylerf@indyrecorder.com. Follow him on Twitter @Ty_Fenwick.

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