Alberta O. Jones
Alberta O. Jones was a trailblazing Black lawyer and attorney. A graduate of Louisville Central High School and attended the Louisville Municipal College for Negroes. When the college was merged with the University of Louisville (U of L) during desegregation, Jones continued her education at U of L. She was accepted into the University of Louisville Law School but transferred after the first year to Howard University School of Law, where she graduated fourth in her class.
Jones was a member of the American Bar Association, the Fall City Bar Association, and the Louisville Bar Association, serving as secretary of the latter. She was also a member of the Eta Zeta Chapter of Zeta Phi Beta Sorority, Incorporated and the Sigma Chapter of Iota Phi Lambda.
In 1959, Jones became one of the first Black women admitted to the Kentucky bar, and in 1965 became Louisville’s first woman prosecutor. She also helped to educate and register Black voters, and she negotiated a contract for boxer Cassius Clay, her neighbor, who would become Muhammad Ali.
The night she disappeared, August 4, 1965, Jones had received a call from a friend, according to Flora Shanklin, Jones’ sister. Although it was late, Jones agreed to meet her friend. Shanklin said their mother offered to go too, but Jones decided to go alone. She never came home.
In the morning, Shanklin said, the family reported her sister missing. Jones was found that day by two boys, who saw her body floating in the Ohio River. The car Jones had been driving was found a day later, several blocks away.
The case remains unresolved. In 2018, the FBI added Jones to its list of cold cases.
Alberta O. Jones Project Donations
The Finer Pearls Foundation, Inc. in collaboration with the family of Alberta O. Jones and Mr. Mike O'Connell are collecting donations for a statue in recognition of Louisville native Ms. Alberta O. Jones!
Checks can be mailed to: Finer Pearls Foundation, Inc., PO Box 685, Louisville, KY 40201. Please add Alberta Jones in the memo line.
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$25
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Flora Shanklin, sister of the late Alberta Jones, Louisville's first black woman prosecutor who was murdered 51 years ago this week in 1965, holds a portrait of Jones.
In unveiling a portrait of Ms. Jones in his office in October 2011, Jefferson County Attorney Mike O’Connell said that her brief but influential life was “a study in human potential, and what previously unattainable goals can be reached when we simply put our hearts and our minds in motion.”