RESOLUTION NO. ____________, SERIES 2022
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A RESOLUTION RECOGNIZING THE LEGACY OF ALBERTA JONES, A BLACK AMERICAN ATTORNEY AND CIVIL RIGHTS ICON, AND APPROVING THE NAMING OF A NEW PARK ON MAPLE STREET BETWEEN DR. W.J. HODGE AND 25TH STREET IN HER HONOR.
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SPONSORED BY: COUNCIL MEMBER JECOREY ARTHUR
WHEREAS, Alberta Jones was born on November 12, 1930 in Louisville, Kentucky;
WHEREAS, Ms. Jones graduated from Central High School, attended Louisville Municipal College for Negroes (formerly Simmons University and currently Simmons College), graduated third in her class, and eventually graduated fourth in her class from Howard University School of Law;
WHEREAS, Ms. Jones was one of the first Black women to pass the Kentucky Bar Exam and opened a practice in the West End of Louisville;
WHEREAS, Ms. Jones was hired by and negotiated the first contract for a young boxer named Cassius Clay who eventually changed his name to Muhammad Ali and became a three-time heavyweight boxing champion and global humanitarian;
WHEREAS, Ms. Jones was the first woman appointed as a city attorney in Jefferson County in February 1965, working as a prosecutor in the Louisville Domestic Relations Court to convict perpetrators of domestic violence;
WHEREAS, Ms. Jones was a civil rights activist in Louisville; she participated in the March on Washington, was a member of the NAACP, and worked with the Louisville Urban League;
WHEREAS, Ms. Jones formed the Independent Voters Association of Louisville, renting voting machines and teaching Black Louisvillians how to vote, resulting in 6,000 new voters that helped replace the mayor and other city officials;
WHEREAS, in August 1965, Jones was murdered, and her case remains unsolved, though the U.S. Department of Justice began investigating her murder in 2017 following the passage of the Emmett Till Unsolved Civil Rights Crime Act;
WHEREAS, the Parks Alliance of Louisville surveyed the Califo...
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