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Add Element Black History Month column: Dr. Richard W. Jones, Jr., founder of Amarillo NAACP
By Claudia Stravato
Special to the Amarillo Globe-News
Editor's note: This is the second in a series on key Amarillo area figures in honor of Black History Month. This provided column focuses on "Doc" Jones, who led and founded the Amarillo branch of the National Association of Colored People, otherwise known as the NAACP.
“Doc” Jones, as he was affectionately called, founded the local branch of the NAACP in 1947, when he came home from the Navy. The ship he served on had been torpedoed, but his life was spared. He served as president of the Amarillo Branch of the NAACP for many years until his death in 1979, when his first cousin, Roger Scott, took over the presidency.
Doc Jones had a sidekick, who was almost a shadow, Mr. Charley Wilson, longtime Treasurer of the Amarillo Branch. Jones and Mr. Wilson approached all the larger employers in Amarillo in the ‘60’s and ‘70’s to hire Blacks in their businesses. They were successful in getting among the first Blacks hired at Pantex, Johnnie Turner and Leroy Ragster, and getting two women clerks hired at Pioneer Gas, among several others.
More:Black History Month column: Mathew Bones Hooks (1867-1951): Black cowboy and civic leader
Born in Dallas in 1919, to Myrtle Scott, Doc Jones had deep roots in the Texas Panhandle. His grandmother, Mamie Scott, and her husband Walter, owned a restaurant on 3rd St. in Amarillo in what is called “the Flats.”
Doc Jones attended Meharry Medical College on the GI Bill and earned his dental degree. Located in Nashville, Tennessee, Meharry Medical College is one of the nation’s oldest and largest historically Black academic health science centers dedicated to educating physicians, dentists, researchers, and health policy experts.
Founded in 1876 as the Medical Department of Central Tennessee College, Meharry was the first medical school in the South for African Americans. It was chartered separately in 1915.
While at Meharry, Jones met his wife Hessie, who was a nurse. A professional in her own right, Hessie returned to Amarillo with him and later became the first Black head nurse of the then Amarillo Veteran’s Hospital.
“Doc” Jones practiced dentistry for a brief period of time and then lost his eyesight in one eye and went back to Meharry where he studied to become a psychiatrist. He was a Catholic and attended St. Martin Catholic Church on Jefferson St. in Amarillo. Fr. Crow, the priest at St. Martin’s, often accompanied Jones and Wilson in their advocacy work.
Doc Jones and Hessie raised his three daughters from a prior marriage, Myrle, Connie, and Linda. Doc Jones and Hessie had a home built in 1960 in the Heights, at 605 Arnold. His granddaughter, Demetriss Springer, daughter of Myrle, said Hessie kept Doc Jones’ office at his home pristine clean and read the newspapers to her grandfather every day. Ms. Springer of Plainview helped with information for this article, and her son, Will Mitchell, attended WTAMU and now works at Pantex.
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