On Monday, Reverends Irene Monroe and Emmett G. Price III called in to Boston Public Radio, where they reflected on the life and legacy of local civil rights activist Mimi Jones.
Jones, a longtime Roxbury resident, died on Sunday at age 73. She is most widely recognized for a protest she took part in in 1964, when she and other protesters swam in a motel pool in St. Augustine, Fla., reserved for whites, only to have the motel's manager pour acid into the water next to them.
"She was someone who was such an inspiring encourager,” Price said, remembering how Jones “took so much care and trained up all of us who are activists, who are advocates. And it didn’t matter what your concern was, or even what your belief was.”
"She really exuded what it meant to treat others as you would have them treat you,” he said.
Watch: The Moment That Made Mimi Jones A Civil Rights Icon
Monroe agreed with Price, calling Jones “just amazing,” and listed her as one of many unsung female players from the Civil Rights era.
"The interesting thing about the women in the Civil Rights movement, so many of them are really the unsung icons. … There’s Ella Baker, there’s Fannie Lou Hamer, who said, 'I'm sick and tired of being sick and tired,'" Monroe said.
"[Jones] was just so loving, and that’s what [was] exuded and drew people to her,” Price said. "And then she never sought the spotlight – she never sought the spotlight."
Monroe is a syndicated religion columnist, the Boston voice for Detour’s African American Heritage Trail and a visiting researcher in the Religion and Conflict Transformation Program at Boston University School of Theology. Price is professor of worship, church & culture and founding executive director of the Institute for the Study of the Black Christian Experience at Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary.
Together they host the All Rev’d Up podcast, produced by WGBH.
