Brian P. Jones is an American educator, scholar, activist, and actor. He is the inaugural director of th
Center for Educators and Schools
o
The New York Public Library
and formerly the associate director of Education at th
Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture
where he was also a scholar in residence. Jones earned a PhD i
Urban Education at the CUNY Graduate Center
and has contributed to several books on issues of racism, inequality, and Black education history, most recently t
''Black Lives Matter At School: An Uprising for Educational Justice''
He is the author of
The Tuskegee Student Uprising: A History
'
NYU Press Black Power Series
. Jones is a long time member of the board of directors o
Voices of a Peoples History of the United States
founded by Anthony Arnove and

Howard Zinn Howard Zinn (August 24, 1922January 27, 2010) was an American historian, playwright, philosopher, socialist thinker and World War II veteran. He was chair of the history and social sciences department at Spelman College, and a political scien ...

to organize and promote public performances of primary texts from radical American history. In addition to his role as a director, Jones also often serves as an educator and as a performer. Jones' collaboration with Arnove and Zinn dates back to his nationwide of tour of Zinn's one-man play '' Marx in Soho'', in which Jones played the title role. He has also lent his voice to other projects, such a
The Flores Exhibits
(a series of short videos amplifying the voices of children held in detention facilities at the U.S. / Mexico Border) and he has narrated more than twenty audiobooks, including ''Hegemony or Survival'', ''Detroit, I Do Mind Dying'', and ''Marx in Soho''. A teacher of elementary grades in the

New York City Public Schools The New York City Department of Education (NYCDOE) is the department of the government of New York City that manages the city's public school system. The City School District of the City of New York (or the New York City Public Schools) is t ...

for 9 years, Jones has been a prominent critic of school privatization. He co-narrated the independent film " The Inconvenient Truth Behind Waiting for Superman", which challenged the ideas of the 2010 documentary

Waiting for "Superman" ''Waiting for "Superman"'' is a 2010 American documentary film written and directed by Davis Guggenheim and produced by Lesley Chilcott. The film criticizes the American public education system by following several students as they strive to be ...

. In 2014, Jones ran for

Lieutenant Governor of New York The lieutenant governor of New York is a constitutional office in the executive branch of the Government of the State of New York. It is the second highest-ranking official in state government. The lieutenant governor is elected on a ticket wit ...

alongside

Howie Hawkins } Howard Gresham Hawkins III (born December 8, 1952) is an American trade unionist, environmental activist, and perennial candidate from New York. A co-founder of the Green Party of the United States, Hawkins was the party's presidential nominee ...

on the

Green Party of New York The Green Party of New York is the affiliate of the Green Party of the United States in the U.S. state of New York. It was founded in 1992 and is a part of the Green Party movement. The Party has had ballot access at various points in its histo ...

ticket. They received 184,419 votes (4.86%), which was more than enough for the party to retain statewide recognition. Jones was a member of the

International Socialist Organization The International Socialist Organization (ISO) was a Trotskyist group active primarily on college campuses in the United States that was founded in 1976 and dissolved in 2019. The organization held Leninist positions on imperialism and the role ...

, which dissolved in early 2019. Jones has been published in a wide variety of media including ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

'', ''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...

'', ''

Socialist Worker ''Socialist Worker'' is the name of several far-left newspapers currently or formerly associated with the International Socialist Tendency (IST). It is a weekly newspaper published by the Socialist Workers Party (SWP) in the United Kingdom since ...

,'' ''

Jacobin , logo = JacobinVignette03.jpg , logo_size = 180px , logo_caption = Seal of the Jacobin Club (1792–1794) , motto = "Live free or die"(french: Vivre libre ou mourir) , successor = Pa ...

,'' and ''

Chalkbeat Chalkbeat is a Non-profit journalism, non-profit news organization that covers education in several American communities. Its mission is to "inform the decisions and actions that lead to better outcomes for children and families by providing deep ...

''. He is married to theatre, television, and film actor Susan Pourfar.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Jones, Brian Year of birth missing (living people) Living people Graduate Center, CUNY alumni Writers from New York (state) African-American schoolteachers African-American male actors American male actors Members of the International Socialist Organization New York (state) Greens Schoolteachers from New York (state) Place of birth missing (living people)