Celebrating A. Quinn Jones, HBCUs

The Matheson History Museum and the A. Quinn Jones Museum and Cultural Center will celebrate the life of the beloved late educator A. Quinn Jones and the continued impact of historically Black colleges and universities.  

“The A. Quinn Jones, Black Education and HBCUs" program will be held  at 7:30 p.m. Sept. 23 at the Matheson Museum at 513 E. University Ave. Setting the atmosphere will be a performance by the Richard E. Parker Alumni Band, which is made up of Eastside High School former band members who played under the tutelage of legendary and Eastside High School Band Director Richard E. Parker, who for 32 years was a band director in Alachua County — first at Mebane Middle School and for most of his career at Eastside.

The program will be offered in person but there is also a virtual option via ZOOM. For safety reasons, in-person capacity will be limited to 50 people and wearing masks will be required. Admission is free, but registration is required at https://bit.ly/3C36LaA

This will be the first event held in partnership between the Matheson Museum and the A. Quinn Jones Museum and Cultural Center, and it is designed to increase the reach of both museums in the community.

“This is the first event in what we hope will be an ongoing relationship,” said Carol Richardson, interim coordinator of the A. Quinn Jones Museum and Cultural Center.  

According to Gainesville Sun file story, Jones died at the age of 104 in 1997 after spending 76 years in Gainesville as a teacher and principal at Union Academy and Lincoln High School and a fighter for the advancement of the education of Blacks in the Gainesville.

Jones, who was born in Quincy and lived in Tallahassee before coming to Gainesville, graduated from what was then Florida A&M College in 1915 and received a master’s degree from what was called the Hampton Institute, now Hampton University. 

Once Jones arrived in Gainesville, he became Lincoln High’s first principal when the school opened in 1923. In his years here,  Jones became an icon of the school and of education in Gainesville. A strict disciplinarian as a math and science teacher and principal, Jones assisted in the construction of Lincoln High School, Gainesville’s first all-black accredited high school.

Lincoln High School, originally located at the current A. Quinn Jones Center site on NW Seventh Avenue, was the second Black high school to receive state accreditation in Florida.

During the Great Depression in the 1930s, with Gainesville schools facing cutbacks in the school year from eight to six months, Jones worked to organize for parents and teachers to work together to assist the teachers with the expenses of living without a paycheck.

In recognition of his accomplishments, the U.S. Secretary of the Interior listed the home of Jones at 1013 NW Seventh Ave. in the National Register of Historic Places in 2010, and the Gainesville Community Redevelopment Agency led the restoration and adaptive reuse of the former Jones homestead into the A. Quinn Jones Museum & Cultural Center, which was completed in February of 2017. The museum pays tribute to Jones' efforts to increase access to and improving the quality of the education available to the Black community in Florida, according to the A. Quinn Jones Museum and Cultural Center's website.

The program will be hosted by Ken Simmons, president of the Gainesville chapter of the Bethune-Cookman University Alumni Association. Featured speakers include John Dukes III, Wayne Fields, Dr. Desta Meghoo and Richardson. They will speak about the history Jones, discuss the history of Black education and provide an inside look at HBCUs. 

Dukes is the owner of Dr. Buggs, the first Black-owned pest control company certified minority vendor in Alachua County.  

Fields is the founder of Minority Business Listings, a non-profit corporation seeking to provide valuable exposure to minority—owned businesses in Alachua County. 

Meghoo is the chief curator and liaison to the African Union for the Ghana-based Diaspora African Forum (DAF). She is a writer and weekly contributor to Capital Newspaper in Ethiopia. She is also the co-curator of an upcoming exhibit at the A. Quinn Jones Museum and Cultural Center. 

Richardson has been a mainstay in the arts in Alachua County for more than 30 years, serving as chair of the Alachua County Arts Council, State of Florida Grants Panelist for Media Arts and Multidisciplinary programs and the National Endowment for the Arts Challenge America's programs. She received the city of Gainesville's Artist of the Year Award in 2001 and was recognized as a Santa Fe College Women of Distinction. She is the news public affairs director for WUBA 88.1 FM, a non commercial educational community radio station in High Springs.

“Our goal is to share the history of A. Quinn Jones, Black dducation and the need to preserve cultural and historical spaces,” Richardson said. “The Matheson History Museum has opened its space and we are pleased to partner with them to share the history of A. Quinn Jones and increase the cultural programs in the city of Gainesville to an audience which may not know of the programs at the A. Quinn Jones Museum and Cultural Center.” 

When asked what she hopes the people attending the program will take away from it, Richardson said, “A sense of pride for those who built Alachua County and the celebration of Black culture through education.”