In 2020, Ella Jones became the first Black and first female mayor of Ferguson, Missouri, the St. Louis suburb that became the focal point for national protests following the murder of teenager Michael Brown by a Ferguson police officer. After completing high school in 1972, Jones attended St. Louis Community College, Florissant Valley for two years. She then transferred to the St. Louis campus of the University of Missouri where she earned a bachelor’s degree in chemistry in 1986.
After graduation Jones was certified by the American Chemical Society as a high-pressure liquid chromatographer (a chemist who separates compounds with exact precision). She completed training as a pharmacy technician and was employed at the Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis in the Bio-Chemistry Molecular Bio-Physics Department. She later was employed as an Analytical Chemist with the KV Pharmaceutical Company.
While working as a chemist Jones also was a Consultant and Sales Director for Mary Kay Cosmetics for thirty years. In addition, she was pastor of the local African Methodist Episcopal (AME) Church in Ferguson. Jones is the founder and Chair of Community Forward, a non-profit that promotes livable communities in the Greater St. Louis area.
On August 9, 2014 Black teenager, Michael Brown, was shot and killed in Ferguson by white police officer Darrin Wilson. The killing of 18-year-old Brown sparked protests, demonstrations, and riots in Ferguson and throughout the country. Clashes between police and demonstrators occurred for days in Ferguson. Brown’s killing was one impetus for the emergence of the Black Lives Matter movement which denounced police brutality and racially motivated violence against African Americans in Ferguson and throughout the United States.
The killing of Michael Brown politicized Ella Jones. She attended training in municipal leadership at the Sue Shear Institute for Women in Public Life at the University of Missouri, St. Louis. This intensive 7-day leadership development program was designed to inspire civic engagement and encourage women’s public sector leadership. Jones, a Democrat, then announced her candidacy for a position on the Ferguson city council and was elected to that body in 2015. She was the council’s first African American member even though the city was 67% Black. In 2017 she ran an unsuccessful campaign for mayor of Ferguson, receiving 42% of the vote.
Ella Jones was elected mayor on June 2, 2020, with 54% of the 2,790 votes cast, defeating fellow Democratic Council member Heather Robinette. She was sworn into office on June 17, 2020 replacing Republican James Knowles III. When asked to comment on her victory she stated, “This means I got work to do.” Jones later remarked “because when you’re the first African American woman, they require more of you than they require of my counterparts.” Ferguson is under a consent decree with the federal government to initiate changes in the police department after the Brown shooting. An investigation by the Department of Justice in 2015 found that Ferguson police targeted Black residents of Ferguson more than whites. As mayor Jones plans to continue to advance institutional change in the city offices and police department. She promotes public safety and neighborhood stabilization which includes funding for first time home buyers. She also encourages businesses to employ local Ferguson youth.
Ella Jones’ husband, Tim Jones, died in 2013. She has one daughter.
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“Ella Jones (B.A., ‘86)”, University of Missouri, https://www.umsl.edu/60/60for60/ella-jones.html
Brakkton Booker, “Ella Jones Elected first Black Mayor of Ferguson, Mo,” NPR.com, https://www.npr.org/2020/06/03/868512501/ella-jones-elected-first-black-mayor-of-ferguson-mo
Chris Walker, “Ella Jones Elected to Serve as Ferguson’s First Black Mayor,” Truthout.org https://truthout.org/articles/ella-jones-elected-to-serve-as-fergusons-first-black-mayor/
“Honorable Ella M. Jones,” Staff Directory, https://www.fergusoncity.com/directory.aspx?eid=139
