When Eva Jones joined the District 87 school board more than half a century ago, it was a first — she was a first. Prior to 1971, no woman or person of color had served on the board.
Jones changed that. She brought a new voice to the mix during a period of increased racial tension and provided much-needed representation for the Black community.
“With Eva Jones, someone was now sitting at the table,” said Charles Alsberry of Normal, a Black community activist who considered Jones a political mentor.
As Black students were boycotting class in 1970 and a riot broke out between the Black and white students, Jones saw her opportunity to make change.
“That was the beginning of her getting involved,” said her son, Ronnie Jones.
While Eva’s 1970 bid for school board was unsuccessful, by the next year her influence couldn’t be denied. It was Jones who settled the fight between the students and school leaders. In 1976, she became the board president.
A pillar in the community at-large, and a political force, Jones broke another glass ceiling in 1979 when she became the first Black person elected to Bloomington City Council.
An outsider from Arkansas, Jones brought a new and different perspective to the table.
“She asked everyone to look at the community, look at the children, and then build on that. The community was stagnant, and she was an inspiration,” Alsberry said. “That’s why they got the 'first' in front of her name. It’s not the first because she was the first woman or the first African-American. She was the first to really inspire our community to do more unity together.”
Jones’ influence permeated throughout Bloomington-Normal and into her work volunteering with organizations that still exist today: YWCA McLean County, the League of Women Voters and the local chapter of United Way.
Bloomington’s west side can thank her for the baseball league she created there to help low-income families.
Outside of politics and civil service, Jones was also a wife, a mother of seven, and a career woman. She worked at Firestone Rubber and Tire Co.
Nicknamed “Pee Wee” as a child, Ronnie said Eva would acknowledge often that she was small in stature, but mighty in personality. That’s how she was as a mother, Ronnie added.
“It only takes a couple times for Eva Jones to have to tell you to straighten up,” he said.
Jones died of cancer in 1987 when she was 57. She’s been honored in the Evergreen Cemetery Walk and the Bloomington High School Hall of Fame.
Today, she’s even remembered for her trademark scarf, suit jacket, and skirt.
