What’s Up? with Merlene

A couple of hours after the shock of Michael Jackson’s death began encircling the world on June 26, Marvin Benjamin Jones, 78, quietly slipped away from this life at the Veterans Administration Hospital off Cooper Drive in Lexington.
Jones, the former editor and publisher of Town Meeting, a monthly magazine that focused on local, national and international issues, succumbed to a myriad of physical problems that forced him to be hospitalized since August, 2008.
His claim to fame was a sincere desire to help the downtrodden, to empower the hopeless, and to work towards those goals with all his being.
That’s not the stuff that commands a televised memorial with hundreds of thousands of fans watching. But it is the stuff that can organize communities and embolden ordinary citizens to take control of their political destinies.
“Marvin was one of those kinds of persons who are deeply committed to making the world a better place,” said Frank Gulley, retired dean of the Vanderbilt University Divinity School. “In many ways he did succeed. He was probably disappointed he couldn’t do more.”
Gulley and Jones grew up together in Lexington and both elected to enter the ministry; Gulley choosing the United Methodist denomination and Jones chose the Presbyterians.
Prior to that, after graduating Lafayette High School, Jones joined the U.S. Marines for a year and then switched to the Army ROTC at the University of Kentucky.
Jones earned a bachelor’s degree in political science and the rank of 1st Lieutenant.
Long-time friend Chris Huestis said Jones had always been interested in politics. “I remember him telling me he’d be making a speech on his own, in the neighborhood, about people rising up and getting rid of prejudice and (advocating) for the civil rights of black people,” he said. “He just spoke out. He was able to do that.”
But the calling to the ministry was stronger than the one to politics, at least for a while.
Jones entered the McCormick Theological Seminary in Chicago and was ordained at Second Presbyterian Church in Lexington.
Although he worked a churches in Indiana and Illinois, Jones abandoned a full-time position in a pulpit for the streets of financially-strapped communities.
Huestis said Jones organized tutoring programs for underprivileged youth in Bloomington, Ind., using Indiana University students. He also directed programs in three Indiana counties for Community Action that were funded by the War on Poverty initiative.
Throughout it all, though, said Huestis, who first met Jones while he was in Bloomington, the need to empower the people politically never died.
Tomilea Allison of Bloomington, said she first met Jones when she volunteered at the Christian center there as a tutor.
She said Jones worked diligently to get low income people involved in politics so they could have more control of their lives. “He wanted to help people change their lives and not just work in social services,” she said. “I remember working very hard during that time. We learned politics. We went from there to the peace campaigns to end the Vietnam War.”
Allison said she believed in what he was teaching so much she eventually was appointed to the city council in Bloomington and later was elected mayor.
“The thing about it is we became a force here in Bloomington,” she said. “We had people in every precinct. It was grassroots. We got out and worked.”
Jones also directed and worked on a few local and national campaigns in Indiana and Chicago with some success. During that time he became very interested in ward or citizens assemblies in which the people decide the political directions of their communities. It is a concept embraced by Thomas Jefferson and Tecumseh, a Native American leader who united tribes from Canada to the Gulf of Mexico in the early 1800s.
Jones began writing a book about ward assemblies before he died, but was unable to complete it. Huestis said he and other friends hope to finish it for him.
Jones eventually returned to Lexington in 1992 to be with his elderly mother and soon after started Town Meeting.
In Lexington, one fight he took on was the closing of Vine Street between the Civic Center and Triangle Park.
The Urban County Council voted in May 2001 to close that section of the road in order to enlarge the park and encourage more foot traffic downtown.
Once Jones heard about it, he circulated petitions and protests which led, a month later to the reversal of that vote and abandoning the idea all together.
“He believed closing the streets choked downtown,” Huestis said. “He saw downtown as a social organizing thing. It is a public place where people become citizens, where they learn how to be grown-ups.
“There was very little time,” Huestis recalled. “Marvin used his organizing experience and incredible energy to focus on what is important. He fought City Hall and won.”
Huestis said a memorial will be held for Jones on July 11, at The Arboretum from 12:30 to 2:30 p.m. There will be tributes from friends, music, artwork and a potluck picnic.
That evening, at Silks Lounge, 125 North Mill Street, another memorial will be held from 7 to 8 p.m.
“He was a magnificent character,” said James Allison, who along with his wife Tomilea, was a friend since his younger years. “You could count on him to stand up for anyone who needed help, right, left or center (politically).”
In our rush to pay homage to Michael Jackson, we shouldn’t overlook people like Jones.