Jada Jones (Class of 2013)

Jada Jones is a public historian with the heart of a cultural anthropologist. She is committed to creating new bodies of knowledge that focus on underrepresented people and places. She strives to center humanity and seeks to find commonalities rather than differences. She practices reciprocity and holistic thinking, and respects the numerous ways human beings present and exist on this planet. Those lessons were learned in anthropology.

Since graduating from USA in 2013, Jada has earned a Master's degree with concentrations in Public History and American history with a focus on slavery. Jada served as LTA II at the Doy Leale McCall Rare Book and Manuscript Library and as Project Coordinator for the “Down The Bay” Oral History Project. She calso urated the “Remembering the Avenue” exhibit at the Historic Avenue Cultural Center which tells the story of the historic black community through the lens of pride, protest, and possibilities.

Jada currently serves as African American Heritage and Alabama Register Coordinator for the Alabama Historical Commission. She is working to expand the National Park Service Reconstruction Era Network and Underground Railroad Network to Freedom. As a born freedom seeker, Jada continues to study the Underground Railroad with evolving notions of freedom. Additionally, she is writing a chapter for the I-10 Mobile River Bridge Project on the resistance of black Mobilians as the city grew and changed over time. Jada recently served as a panelist for “Mapping the Black Information Future” through the University of Washington’s Calma Information School. Last but not least, Jada has launched a blog on her combined personal and professional musings entitled Preserve Black Alabama.