By Jynona Norwood
Washington Informer
Reprinted – by Texas Metro News
https://www.washingtoninformer.com/
In the 1970s, Jim Jones, cult leader and deceiver, was able to draw thousands of African Americans to his church from far and near. He used numerous tools to lure them: the Bible, Black gospel music and activism among false promises.
Our grandmother, Julia Gales, was Jones’ first Black member to join Peoples Temple in San Francisco. She recruited many families and friends from across the country. Later, it was our grandmother who identified — with unbearable screams — the names of our relatives when they scrolled down on the news. From that day to now, the Jones family and church members have caused our memorial services and efforts constant problems to give the innocent victims a dignified memorial.
I do not have the money, staff or time to fight a cult, but they do. Jim Jones is listed in honor at the gravesite of the babies he ordered murdered. Jones does not deserve to be honored on top of their sacred final resting place. It is like reliving a second Jonestown.
We were the first to hold a memorial service in San Francisco in May 1979 on Fillmore Street at the Queen Adah Hall. We are appreciative that last year Vice President Kamala Harris honored our 45th Jonestown Memorial with a recognition. It was healing for those who are still hurting.
We continued the memorial service this year on Monday, Nov. 18, with keynote speaker Dr. Amos Brown, at the Evergreen Cemetery in Oakland, California.
Jones’ family tried to get our grandmother to recruit new people after killing her only daughter, my mom, her daughter-in-law, seven grandchildren and a host of family and friends, with the youngest being our 2-month-old cousin, Charles Gary Henderson. How did Jones, a white man who posed as a Native American, get almost 1,000 people — mostly African American — to trust him into a snake- and mosquito-filled hot jungle?
He lied with a fully laid out plan just like Hitler. His plan succeeded because Blacks were tired of having their blood drench this land with little or nothing being done about it. America was built off the backs of their ancestors, yet they were experiencing inequality, injustice, murders, racial profiling and more.
He seized the Black community — both wealthy and struggling families — because he copied our greatest hero, the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.’s speeches and dreams. The world was reeling from the assassination of King, President John F. Kennedy and Sen. Robert Kennedy, which devastated our community. Here you have the perfect atmosphere: “JONESTOWN” with political leaders gracing his pulpit and news media praising him day and night. Jones lured everyone with pictures of happy children and letters in which parents were forced to lie by saying, “Everything is great over here. Come over. We have the land that flows with milk and honey.”
U.S. Rep. Leo Ryan of California traveled to Guyana in November 1978 with a media crew and a few concerned relatives to investigate rumors that people were being held there against their will. I missed the trip with Ryan and the concerned relatives only to live out my days honoring the wonderful people held at gunpoint in America and Jonestown. Many of those who got away were Jones’ family and personal henchmen who were in power to hurt and maim, according to the Rev. Richard Clark, who died mysteriously from food poisoning.
Jones’ favorite statement was, “You will never forget me.” Help us forget and remove him and remember the innocent victims, of which 300 were children. Forty infant caskets lay buried under Jim Jones’ name in Evergreen Cemetery.
They did not die willingly. They were murdered and surrounded by guards with crossbows and gunmen. First news reports stated with pictures that Jones had enough guns for a military coup and enough poison to kill multiplied thousands. No one drank the Kool-Aid, as the slogan goes. They were held at gunpoint and ordered to drink or be shot, and that included their children, their future, the jewel of their lives, with whom they trusted Jones, who is now honored alongside them. This should not be.
Pastor Jynona Norwood is founder of the official Jonestown Memorial Services.
