Jones grew up on the South Side of Chicago, a block from the Ida B. Wells housing project. He was raised by his grandparents, Gus and June Jones, in the same house his family had lived in since the 1930s. He was a junior spokesperson for the No Dope Express Foundation, a youth education and anti-drug organization.[1]
At the age of 13, Jones and his friend Lloyd Newman created a radio documentary for NPR titled Ghetto Life 101.[2] Jones was contacted by David Isay, who was producing a piece on poverty for Chicago Public Radio station WBEZ. The documentary illustrated life in the South Side of Chicago in 1993. The recordings made by the duo centered around interviews with the boys' families, friends, and members of the community.[3] The broadcast was well received, and praised for its raw portrayal of life in the projects in Chicago. It won several awards, including the Sigma Delta Chi Award, and the Corporation for Public Broadcasting's Awards for Excellence in Documentary Radio and Special Achievement in Radio Programming.[3]
Jones and Newman made a second documentary in 1994, The 14 Stories of Eric Morse, which explored the backgrounds of the people involved with Eric Morse, a five-year-old boy who was tragically thrown from a fourteenth-story window in the Chicago projects by two older boys.[4] The documentary premiered on NPR's All Things Considered in 1996. It won the Robert F. Kennedy Journalism Award and a Peabody Award.[5]
The two documentaries and further footage from when Jones and Newman were nearing high school graduation were condensed into a book published in 1997 titled Our America: Life and Death on the South Side of Chicago.
Jones is the visionary for the Aspiring Youth Take A Student To your Employment (TASTE) Program. The Take A Student To your Employment Program was created after Jones spoke to Aspiring Youth students in Chicago. He thought that while it is helpful for students to hear from inspiring speakers, the students would benefit even more if they could visit workplaces to see why school is important and what they need to do with their education to get a good job someday. The TASTE Program has brought more than 13,500 students to workplaces nationwide.
An early May poll saw Jones taking 5% of the vote.[8] Following the controversy over Mark Kirk embellishing his military record, Jones saw a spike in his poll numbers.[9] A June survey made by Public Policy Polling saw Jones picking up 14% of the vote[10] behind Mark Kirk's 30% and Alexi Giannoulias with 31%.[11] Jones finished with 3.18% of the vote.[12]
2013 special election in Illinois's 2nd congressional district
On December 4, 2012, the Illinois Green Party nominated Jones as its candidate to represent the 2nd congressional district in the U.S. House. On December 17, 2012, the Illinois Green Party filed a lawsuit regarding the ballot access requirements necessary to be on the ballot in this election.[14]
Our America: Life and Death on the South Side of Chicago (with co-authors Lloyd Newman, David Isay and John Anthony Brooks) Simon and Schuster. 1998. ISBN978-0-671-00464-4
[permanent dead link] Jones v McGuffage, 12-cv-9997 in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois[permanent dead link] - PDF of the lawsuit filed by Jones, David Sacks, and the Illinois Green Party regarding ballot access in the 2013 special election for the Illinois 2nd congressional district