Civil Rights Memoirs Of A Pine Bluff, Arkansas Native

Vivian Carroll Jones is an Arkansas native born in Pine Bluff, Arkansas to Cortez and Victoria Carroll, the seventh of ten children. She grew up in the south when people of color were treated as second-class citizens. At a very early age Ms. Jones and three of her siblings participated in the struggle for Civil Rights and equality. Ms. Jones became involved with SNCC in Pine Bluff as a high school student. After high school she married and had three children.


In 1973, she became the first African American to be hired by the city attorney’s office. This was a bittersweet victory, however, and she quickly filed a complaint with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission due to discrimination in the workplace. This experience led her “to pursue higher education and entrepreneurship.”  She earned a degree in Social Studies from the University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff, a health sciences degree from the University of Arkansas at Little Rock, and a degree from the Agape School of World Evangelism. For over 25 years she worked as a nurse and health educator at South Central Career College, Aspen’s Career One, Jefferson Hospital and at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences.  


Experiencing the first 1963 March on Washington at 15 years of age, marching with the late civil rights leader, Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., incarcerated on five occasions for civil rights – these are the author’s first hand, personal experiences in the struggle for social changes.