Uzuri Project recalls Jones’ contributions

People Helping Others Excel by Example recently received a donation of $2,500 from the Arvest Foundation to benefit its African-American history and youth leadership program, The Uzuri Project.

Dr. Edith Irby Jones, 91, who died Monday in Houston, was an early contributor to the organization, P.H.O.E.B.E. founder and CEO Cheryl Batts said.

Jones was one of The Uzuri Project’s first oral history contributors, telling of her experiences with Martin Luther King Jr. and as secretary to John Lee Webb. She was also a supporter of the restoration of the John Lee Webb House, Batts said.

The Uzuri Project “identifies, collects, documents, records, interprets, displays, researches and preserves cultural and historic resources relevant to the African-American experience in Hot Springs,” according to the organization’s website.

The local nonprofit has collected more than 1,500 donated photographs to date and interviewed more than 100 African-American seniors.

Youth involvement also plays a large part in The Uzuri Project in the form of its Youth Leadership Institute. Hot Springs School District students ages 12-18 are recruited to “actively practice Dr. Martin Luther King’s principles of non-violence,” according to the website.

The three-year program is designed to teach and encourage communication and interpersonal skills, anti-bullying, confidence, public speaking, as well as participation in community service projects and history recording and collection, Batts said.

“By the end, they know a lot more about the African-American contribution to Hot Springs,” she said

The check from the Arvest Foundation was presented to P.H.O.E.B.E. representatives directly in front of the Webb house at 403 Pleasant St. in April. The funds will be used to “save the John Lee Webb House” and for restorations of the structure, Batts said.

“The rich history of our town is not only fascinating, but central to our identity. The work these kids are doing to record our seniors’ experiences will have a lasting impact on what we know about Hot Springs history,” Don Gooch, community bank president for Arvest in southwest Arkansas, said in a news release.

“We are honored to be able to support this organization’s purpose.”

An article about Jones posted Tuesday on the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences College of Medicine’s website called her a “trailblazing medical pioneer” who was the first African-American to enroll in an

all-white medical school in the South, then went on to a “distinguished career as a doctor, educator and philanthropist.”

“After graduation, Jones opened a general practice in Hot Springs before moving to Houston, Texas, and became the first African-American woman intern at Baylor College of Medicine Affiliated Hospital. She maintained her practice in Houston’s ‘third ward’ for several decades, serving those who could not afford to go anywhere else for medical care,” the article states.

UAMS honored Jones in September with a month-long celebration of her life and career, the article noted.

“Dr. Edith Irby Jones was one of the first internationally well known Hot Springs Arkansans that donated to the P.H.O.E.B.E. and Uzuri Project at the beginning. She always showed such a love for community and children. In all communities, there is such a love between the elderly and the youth, and she displayed all that,” Batts said.

“She was so special to all of us. She holds a very, very dear place in our hearts and she will be dearly missed.”