Matt Jones
WIN’s notice (WIN, Spring 2011) about the death (and life) of Matt Jones prompts me to pass along a story he told me.
I interviewed Matt in 1964 in Los Angeles while he was traveling for SNCC and the Council of Federated Organizations (conducting the Mississippi project of that year). Among the stories he told was one from his time in the Danville, VA jail following an arrest for his role in the freedom marches there.
Working on the dusty rock pile, he was accosted by two other prisoners and pushed to the ground; one held a sledgehammer above him. They demanded Matt say he would stop marching. He told me he had just looked up at the two without speaking.
The one dropped the sledgehammer and began beating Matt with his fists. When the surrounding dust had settled enough and they could be seen, guards came and took Matt and one of his assailants to the restriction cells. They were near enough to each other so they could converse.
After a day or two, they began talking. Matt told his attacker (I’ll use quotation marks, though these may not be the exact words Matt used long ago), “I forgive you for what you did. But I have to keep on demonstrating and marching for freedom.”
The other replied, “I don’t hate you, but you have to stop that marching.” After more of this, Matt asked, “What does it mean to you if we win our freedom?” The response: ‘If you get that freedom you’re marching for, it won’t mean anything to be white anymore.”
How their conversation went after that I do not recall Matt telling me. We passed to another story and other topics (as far as I know, the recording of our interview no longer exists).
I had not seen Matt or known of his activities since, until reading the notice in WIN. But I have thought of him and spoken of him many times, recalling and telling what he told me. To me his story represents the power, and even contagion, of the good will and courage that together challenge all oppression, internal and social, and show what lies beyond.
—Joe Maizlish, Los Angeles
