Brian Jones (activist)
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Brian P. Jones is an American educator, scholar, activist, and actor. He is the inaugural director of the Center for Educators and Schools of
The New York Public Library The New York Public Library (NYPL) is a public library system in New York City. With nearly 53 million items and 92 locations, the New York Public Library is the second-largest public library in the United States behind the Library of Congress a ...
, and formerly the associate director of Education at the
Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture The Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture is a research library of the New York Public Library (NYPL) and an archive repository for information on people of African descent worldwide. Located at 515 Malcolm X Boulevard (Lenox Avenue) be ...
, where he was also a scholar in residence. Jones earned a PhD in Urban Education from the CUNY Graduate Center and has contributed to several books on issues of racism, inequality, and Black education history, most recently to ''Black Lives Matter At School: An Uprising for Educational Justice''. He is the author of ''Black History Is for Everyone'' (September 2025, Haymarket Books), and his first book, ''The Tuskegee Student Uprising: A History'', won the 2023 Nonfiction Literary Award from the Black Caucus of the American Library Association. Jones is a long-time member of the board of directors of Voices of a People's History of the United States, founded by Anthony Arnove and
Howard Zinn Howard Zinn (August 24, 1922January 27, 2010) was an American historian and a veteran of World War II. He was chair of the history and social sciences department at Spelman College, and a political science professor at Boston University. Zinn ...
to organize and promote public performances of primary texts from radical American history. In addition to his role as a director, Jones also often serves as an educator and as a performer. Jones' collaboration with Arnove and Zinn dates back to his nationwide of tour of Zinn's one-man play ''
Marx in Soho ''Marx in Soho'' is a 1999 one-man play written by American historian Howard Zinn, about the life of 19th-century philosopher Karl Marx. Zinn wrote the play to "show Marx as few people knew him, as a family man, struggling to support his wife and ...
'', in which Jones played the title role. He has also lent his voice to other projects, such as The Flores Exhibits (a series of short videos amplifying the voices of children held in detention facilities at the U.S. / Mexico Border) and he has narrated more than twenty audiobooks, including ''Hegemony or Survival'', ''Detroit, I Do Mind Dying'', and ''Marx in Soho''. A teacher of elementary grades in the
New York City Public Schools The New York City Department of Education (NYCDOE) is the department of the government of New York City that manages the city's public school system. The City School District of the City of New York (more commonly known as New York City Publ ...
for 9 years, Jones has been a prominent critic of school privatization. He co-narrated the independent film ''The Inconvenient Truth Behind Waiting for Superman'', which challenged the ideas of the 2010 documentary ''Waiting for "Superman"''. In 2014, Jones ran for
Lieutenant Governor of New York The lieutenant governor of New York is a Constitution of New York, constitutional office in the executive branch of the Government of the State of New York. It is the second highest-ranking official in state government. The lieutenant governo ...
alongside
Howie Hawkins Howard Gresham Hawkins III (born December 8, 1952) is an American trade unionist and environmental activist. Co-founder of the Green Party of the United States, Hawkins was the party's presidential nominee in the 2020 presidential election. Hi ...
on the
Green Party of New York The Green Party of New York is the affiliate of the Green Party of the United States in the U.S. state of New York. It was founded in 1992 and is a part of the Green Party movement. The Party has had ballot access at various points in its hi ...
ticket. They received 184,419 votes (4.86%), which was more than enough for the party to retain statewide recognition. Jones was a member of the
International Socialist Organization The International Socialist Organization (ISO) was a Trotskyist group active primarily on college campuses in the United States that was founded in 1976 and dissolved in 2019. The organization held Leninist positions on imperialism and the role ...
, which dissolved in early 2019. Jones has been published in a wide variety of media including ''
The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...
'', ''
The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in Manchester in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'' and changed its name in 1959, followed by a move to London. Along with its sister paper, ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardi ...
'', ''
Socialist Worker ''Socialist Worker'' is the name of several newspapers currently or formerly associated with the International Socialist Tendency (IST). It is a weekly newspaper published by the Socialist Workers Party (SWP) in the United Kingdom since 1968, a ...
,'' ''
Jacobin The Society of the Friends of the Constitution (), renamed the Society of the Jacobins, Friends of Freedom and Equality () after 1792 and commonly known as the Jacobin Club () or simply the Jacobins (; ), was the most influential political cl ...
,'' and ''
Chalkbeat Chalkbeat is a non-profit news organization that covers education in several American communities. Its mission is to "inform the decisions and actions that lead to better outcomes for children and families by providing deep, local coverage of ed ...
''. He is married to theatre, television, and film actor Susan Pourfar.


References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Jones, Brian Year of birth missing (living people) Living people CUNY Graduate Center alumni Writers from New York (state) African-American schoolteachers African-American male actors American male actors Members of the International Socialist Organization New York (state) Greens Schoolteachers from New York (state) Place of birth missing (living people) 21st-century African-American writers