Arthur C. Jones Papers

Arhtur C. Jones was born the youngest of four (4) children of Ferdinand and Esther Jones and grew up in the Bronx and Queens, New York. A quiet child who loved music, Arthur sung in chiors from an early age. As a teenager, Arthur attended Evander Childs High School and was a member of the All City High School Chorus. He graduated from Andrew Jackson High School in Queens, New York. Discouraged from studying music by his father, Arthur decided to attend Drew University in Madison, New Jersey where he eventually studied Psychology. As an African American man growing up in the 1960's, Arthur experienced first-hand many of the brutalities and injustices of institutional racism. As a college student Arthur was on the periphery of the Civil Rights Movement and actively participated in acts of civil disobedience and protest. A Danforth Foundation Fellowship recipient at the end of his undergraduate career, Arthur went on to attend graduate school at the University of Iowa in 1967. Opposed to the Vietnam War and wanting to avoid the Draft, Artheur received a commission as a United States Naval Officer in 1969. Taking a break from his studies at Iowa, Arthur served his commission on a naval ship based in Pearl Harbor. He later returned to Iowa University where he pursued his research on the relationship between psychological measures and the degree of difficulty in childbirth. He earned his Masters and PhD in Clinical Psychology. For his final clinical internship, Arthur relocated to Denver, CO where he interned at the Macolm X Center (later the Park Hill Mental Health Center) at the University of Colorado Medical School. He then moved to Springfield, Illinois to teach at the University of Illinois (then Sangamon State University). Arthur later returned to Colorado to join the faculty at the University of Colorado Health Sciences Center where he remaing for fie years. In 1983 Arthur transitioned from teaching to full-time private practice. With a strong commitment to serving the Black community, he structured the fees for his clinical practice on a sliding-scale basis; he wanted to ensure his services were as accessible as possible. Howerver, full-time private practice proved to be isolating, so in 1990 Arthur began adjunct teaching at the Graduate School of Professional Psychology (GSPP) at the Unversity of Denver (DU). Eventually hired as part-time and then full-time faculty, Arthur remained with the GSPP for eighteen (18) years not only instructing in the classroom, but also working to address issues of racism, equity, and social justice. It was during this time that Arthur began singing again. Singing with the Opera Colorado Chorus and as a soloist with the Colorado Springs Symphony Orchestra, he eventually found his way to singing Spirituals. To him, singing foundational African American music was the perfect synergy between music and African American mental health.