Jones speaks out

As Illinois State Senate President Emil Jones (D-14) prepared to step down after thirty plus years of service (1973-2009), he sat down in his downtown Chicago office for an exclusive interview with the Chicago Defender newspaper. Although there were pictures already taken down from the walls, his phone rang throughout the interview. Relaxed and clearly in charge, this king maker and institution builder laid it out for those seeking to enter politics and for those elected officials who may be a little too comfortable.

DEFENDER: Where did you live when you were growing up?
JONES: I grew up in Morgan Park on the far, far south side of Chicago on 113th and Aberdeen. Morgan Park was and still is a very clannish community. But yes, we lived out there, and there were a lot of professional people who lived there too.

DEFENDER: What did your parents do?
JONES: My mother was a homemaker, she didn’t work. My father drove a truck for many years, then he became a bailiff to one of the Black judges here in the city of Chicago.

DEFENDER: Really, that’s interesting. Now wasn’t your dad also a precinct captain?
JONES: Yes he was involved in politics as a precinct captain. He worked the old 19th Ward, which included Morgan Park and Beverly.

DEFENDER: Did you take an interest in politics at that time? Did you go door-to-door with him?

JONES: Well, he did all of that going door-to-door, organizing, helping people, etc., but I wasn’t interested in politics at that time. I was going to school. Tilden Technical High School at 47th and Union and then Loop and on to Roosevelt University. Then I went into the insurance business, and I did that for several years before I got involved in politics. I started with the 1960 presidential campaign of John F. Kennedy and I liked it so I stayed involved.

DEFENDER: What was it about that energy that struck you? What got your attention?
JONES: Well, I liked Kennedy simply because he had a common air about himself. He seemed to me to be a caring person. He cared about the working poor and the middle class and so I got started there but I stayed involved afterward. I was involved during the turbulent '60s, and it was really something you know. But I felt that government was a way in which we could solve many of the social ills our communities faced.

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