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Mos Def
Mos Def at YBCA in San Francisco on December 31, 2008
Background information
Birth name	Dante Terrell Smith
Also known as	Yasiin Bey
Born	(1973-12-11) December 11, 1973 (age 38) Brooklyn, New York, U.S.
Genres	East Coast hip hop, alternative hip hop
Occupations	Rapper, actor, singer, activist
Years active	1996 – present
Labels	Rawkus, Priority, Geffen, Downtown, GOOD Music, DD172
Associated acts	Soulquarians, Black Star, Talib Kweli, Native Tongues Posse, Kanye West, Gorillaz, Massive Attack, Pharoahe Monch, Eminem, Blakroc, Robert Glasper Experiment

Dante Terrell Smith (born December 11, 1973) is an American actor and MC, known by the stage names Mos Def ( /ˌmoʊsˈdɛf/) and Yasiin Bey. He started his hip hop career in a group called Urban Thermo Dynamics, after which he appeared on albums by Da Bush Babees and De La Soul. With Talib Kweli, he formed the duo Black Star, which released the album Black Star in 1998. He was a major force in late 1990s underground hip hop while with Rawkus Records. As a solo artist he has released the albums Black on Both Sides in 1999, The New Danger in 2004, True Magic in 2006, and The Ecstatic in 2009.^[1]

Although he was initially recognized for his musical output, since the early 2000s, Mos Def's screen work has established him as one of only a handful of rappers who has garnered critical acclaim for his acting work. He is well known for his portrayal of Brother Sam in the American drama series Dexter. Mos Def has also been active in several social and political causes.

Early life[link]

He was born Dante Terrell Smith in Brooklyn, New York City, the son of Sheron Smith and Abdul Rahman.^[2] He was raised by his mother in Brooklyn; his father lived in New Jersey. While his father was initially a member of the Nation of Islam and later an active member in the community of Imam Warith Deen Mohammed, who merged into mainstream Islam from the Nation, Mos Def was not exposed to Islam until the age of 13. At 19, he took his shahada, the Muslim declaration of faith. He is friends with Ali Shaheed Muhammad and Q-Tip of A Tribe Called Quest.^[2]

Career[link]

Music[link]

In 1996, Mos Def emerged as a solo artist and worked with De La Soul and Da Bush Babees, before he released his own first single, "Universal Magnetic".

Mos Def in 1999

Mos Def signed with Rawkus Records and formed the group Black Star with Talib Kweli. They released an album, Mos Def & Talib Kweli are Black Star, in 1998.^[3] Mostly produced by Hi-Tek, the album featured the hit singles, "Respiration" and "Definition", which would go on to be featured in VH1's 100 Greatest Songs of Hip-Hop.^[4] Mos Def released his solo debut album Black on Both Sides in 1999, also through Rawkus.^[5] Around this time he also contributed to the Scritti Politti album Anomie & Bonhomie and Rawkus compilations Lyricist Lounge and Soundbombing.

Def performing at Rock the Bells (New York).

After the collapse of Rawkus, he signed to Interscope/Geffen Records, which released his second solo album The New Danger in 2004.^[6] The New Danger contained a mix of several musical genres, including soul, blues, and rock and roll, performed with his rock band Black Jack Johnson, which contained members of the bands Bad Brains and Living Colour. The singles included "Sex, Love & Money" and the B-side "Ghetto Rock"; the latter went on to receive several Grammy Award nominations in 2004.

Mos Def's final solo album for Geffen Records, True Magic, was released in 2006.

The song "Crime & Medicine" is essentially a cover of GZA's 1995 single "Liquid Swords", though it contains different verses. Also, the track "Undeniable" samples a version of the Barrett Strong/Norman Whitfield composition "Message from a Black Man". The song "Dollar Day" uses the same beat as Juvenile's "Nolia Clap".^[7]

On November 7, 2007, Mos Def performed live in San Francisco at a venue called The Mezzanine. This performance was recorded for an upcoming "Live in Concert" DVD. During this performance Mos Def announced that he would be releasing a new album to be called The Ecstatic. He sang a number of new tracks; in later shows, Def previewed tracks produced by Madlib and was rumored to be going to Kanye West for new material. Producer and fellow Def Poet Al Be Back stated that he would be producing as well.^[8] The album was released on June 9, 2009; upon its release, only Madlib's production had made the cut, along with tracks by Preservation, The Neptunes, Mr. Flash, Madlib's brother Oh No, a song by J. Dilla, and Georgia Anne Muldrow.

Mos Def appears alongside Kanye West on the track "Two Words" from The College Dropout album, the track "Drunk And Hot Girls" and the bonus track "Good Night" off West's third major album, Graduation. In 2002, he released the 12" single Fine, which was featured in the Brown Sugar Motion Picture Soundtrack.^[9]

Mos Def also appears on the debut album from fellow New Yorkers Apollo Heights on a track titled, "Concern." In October, he signed a deal with Downtown Records and appeared on a remix to the song "D.A.N.C.E." by Justice.^[10] Mos Def appeared on Stephen Marley's debut album Mind Control on the song "Hey Baby." In 2009, Mos Def worked together with Somali rapper K'naan to produce the track "America" for K'naan's album Troubadour.^[11]

In April 2008 he appeared on the title track for a new album by The Roots entitled Rising Down. The new single, Life In Marvelous Times, was made officially available through iTunes on November 4, 2008, and is available for stream on the Roots' website Okayplayer.

April 2009 saw him traveling to South Africa for the first time where he performed accompanied by The Robert Glasper Experiment at the renowned Cape Town International Jazz Festival. He enticed his bemused African following with an encore introduced by his own rendition of John Coltrane's "Love Supreme" followed by a sneak preview of the track "M.D. (Doctor)", much to the delight of the fans.^[12]

Mos Def also designed two pairs of limited edition Converse shoes. The shoes were released to Foot Locker stores on August 1, 2009 in very limited amounts.^[13]

In late 2009, Mos Def created a brand of clothing line with UNDRCRWN called the "Mos Def Cut & Sew Collection." All clothing items will be sold in select stores located around the U.S. and almost exclusively on the UNDRCRWN website.^[14] 2009 also found Mos Def among the MCs collaborating with the Black Keys on the first Blakroc album, a project headed by the Black Keys and Damon Dash. Mos Def appeared with Jim Jones and the Black Keys on the Late Show with David Letterman to perform the Blakroc track "Ain't Nothing Like You (Hoochie Coo)".

In March 2010, Mos Def's song Quiet Dog Bite Hard was featured in Palm's "Life moves fast. Don't miss a thing." campaign.^[15]

Mos Def features on the first single, "Stylo", from the third Gorillaz album, Plastic Beach, alongside soul legend Bobby Womack. He also appears on the track titled "Sweepstakes".

In September 2010, after appearing on Kanye West's G.O.O.D. Friday track "Lord Lord Lord", Mos Def confirmed his signing with GOOD Music.^[16]

Mos Def has been an active contributor to the recovery of the oil spill in the Gulf, performing concerts and raising money towards the repair of the damages. In June 2010, he recorded a cover of the classic New Orleans song originally by Smokey Johnson, "It Ain't My Fault" with the Preservation Hall Jazz Band, Lenny Kravitz and Trombone Shorty.

In September 2011, Mos Def announced that he planned to use the name Yasiin instead of Mos Def beginning in 2012.^[17]

In January 2012, it was reported that Mos Def and Talib Kweli had begun "to resurrect" Black Star.^[18]

Acting[link]

He began his professional acting career at the age of fourteen, appearing in the TV movie God Bless the Child, starring Mare Winningham. He then played the oldest child in the short-lived family sitcom, You Take the Kids, starring Nell Carter and Roger E. Mosley. His most notable acting role before his music career was that of Bill Cosby's sidekick on the short-lived detective show, The Cosby Mysteries. He also starred in a 1996 Visa check card commercial featuring Deion Sanders. In 1997 he had a small role alongside Michael Jackson in his short film and music video "Ghosts".

After brief appearances in Bamboozled^[19] and Monster's Ball,^[20] Mos re-invigorated his acting career with his performance as a talented rapper who is reluctant to sign to a major label in Brown Sugar.^[21] He was nominated for an Image Award and a Teen Choice Award.^[22]

In 2001, he took a supporting role to Beyoncé Knowles and Mehki Phifer in the MTV movie Carmen: A Hip Hopera as Lt. Miller, a crooked cop.

In 2002, he played the role of Booth in Suzan-Lori Parks' Topdog/Underdog, a Tony-nominated and Pulitzer-winning Broadway play. He and co-star Jeffrey Wright won a Special Award from the Outer Critics Circle Award for their joint performance.^[23] He also received positive notices as the quirky Left Ear in the blockbuster hit, The Italian Job in 2003.^[24] He also appeared in 2003 in the music video You Don't Know My Name of the song by Alicia Keys.

In television, Mos Def has appeared on NYPD Blue,^[25] on Comedy Central's Chappelle's Show,^[26] and has hosted the award-winning HBO spoken word show, Def Poetry since its inception.^[27] The show's sixth season aired in 2007. He also appeared on the sitcom My Wife And Kids as the disabled friend of Michael Kyle (Damon Wayans).

Mos Def won Best Actor, Independent Movie at the 2005 Black Reel Awards for his portrayal of Detective Sgt. Lucas in The Woodsman.^[28] For his portrayal of Vivien Thomas in HBO's film Something the Lord Made,^[29] he was nominated for an Emmy Award^[30] and a Golden Globe, and won the Image Award. He also played a bandleader in HBO's Lackawanna Blues. He then landed the role of Ford Prefect in the 2005 movie adaptation of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy.^[31]

Def and Bruce Willis on the set of 16 Blocks, filmed on location in Chinatown, Manhattan on Pell Street.

In 2006, Mos Def appeared in Dave Chappelle's Block Party alongside fellow Black Star companion Talib Kweli, while also contributing to the film's soundtrack.^[32] Also, Mos Def was featured as the black banjo player in the infamous "Pixie Sketch" from Chappelle's Show: The Lost Episodes. He was later edited out of it on the DVD. Additionally, Mos Def starred in the action film 16 Blocks alongside Bruce Willis and David Morse.^[33] He has a recurring guest role on Boondocks, starring as "Gangstalicious". He is also set to be in Toussaint, a film about Haitian revolutionary Toussaint Louverture, opposite Don Cheadle and Wesley Snipes. He made a cameo appearance — playing himself — in the movie Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby.^[34]

In 2007, Mos Def narrated the PBS-broadcast documentary Prince Among Slaves.

In 2008, Mos Def starred in the Michel Gondry movie Be Kind Rewind, playing a video rental store employee whose best friend is played by co-star Jack Black.^[35] He also portrayed Chuck Berry in the film Cadillac Records,^[36] for which he was nominated for a Black Reel Award and an Image Award.

In 2009, he appeared in the House episode entitled "Locked In" as a patient suffering from locked-in syndrome. His performance was well-received, with E! saying that Mos Def "delivers an Emmy-worthy performance."^[37] He was also in the 2009 film Next Day Air.

In 2010, he appeared on the children's show Yo Gabba Gabba! as Super Mr. Superhero. He also appeared in A Free Man of Color, John Guare's play at the Vivian Beaumont Theatre.^[38]

In 2011, he began a multi-episode appearance on the Showtime television series Dexter. He played Brother Sam, an ex-con who has supposedly found religion despite finding himself in violent situations.^[39]

Social and political views[link]

In 2000, Mos Def performed a benefit concert for death row inmate Mumia Abu-Jamal.^[40]

In September 2005, Mos Def released the single "Katrina Clap," renamed "Dollar Day" for True Magic, (utilizing the instrumental for New Orleans rappers UTP's "Nolia Clap"). The song is a criticism of the Bush administration's response to Hurricane Katrina. On the night of the MTV Video Music Awards, Mos Def pulled up in front of Radio City Music Hall on a flatbed truck and began performing the "Katrina Clap" single in front of a crowd that quickly gathered around him. He was subsequently arrested despite having a public performance permit in his possession.^[41]

On September 7, 2007, Mos Def appeared on Real Time with Bill Maher where he spoke about racism against African Americans, citing the government response to Hurricane Katrina, the Jena Six and the murder conviction of Mumia Abu-Jamal. He appeared on Real Time again on March 27, 2009, and spoke about the risk of nuclear weapons.^[42] Mos Def said that he did not listen to any of Osama Bin Laden's messages because he did not trust the translations.^[43]

Personal life[link]

In 1996, Def married Maria Yepes. After having two daughters, Chandani and Jauhara Smith, he filed for divorce in 2005.^[44]

In October 2006 Mos Def appeared on 4Real, a documentary television series.^[45] Appearing in the episode "City of God," he and the 4Real crew traveled to City of God, a slum in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, to meet Brazilian MC MV Bill and learn about the crime and social problems of the community.^[46]

Nominations[link]

• Black Movie Awards
  • 2006 Source Awards
• Black Reel Awards
  • 2008, Best Supporting Actor: Cadillac Records
  • 2003, Best Actor- Independent: Civil Brand
  • 2004, Best Supporting Actor: The Italian Job
  • 2005, Best Actor TV Movie/Mini-Series: Something the Lord Made
  • 2005, Best Indie Actor: The Woodsman (won)
• Emmy Award
  • 2004, Best Actor in a Television Movie or Mini-Series: Something the Lord Made
• Golden Globes
  • 2005, Best Actor in a Television Movie or Mini-Series: Something the Lord Made
• Grammy Awards
  • 2005, Best Urban/Alternative Performance: "Sex, Love & Money"
  • 2006, Best Urban/Alternative Performance: "Ghetto Rock"
  • 2007, Best Rap Solo Performance: "Undeniable"
  • 2010, Best Rap Solo Performance: "Casa Bey"
  • 2010, Best Rap Album: "The Ecstatic"
  • 2011, Best Short Form Music Video: "Stylo" (with Bobby Womack and Gorillaz)
• Image Awards
  • 2009, Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Motion Picture: Cadillac Records
  • 2003, Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Motion Picture: Brown Sugar
  • 2005, Outstanding Actor in a Television Movie or Mini-Series: Something the Lord Made

Discography[link]

• Black on Both Sides (1999)
• The New Danger (2004)
• True Magic (2006)
• The Ecstatic (2009)
• Yasiin Bey Presents (TBA)^[47]

Collaborations

• Mos Def & Talib Kweli are Black Star (1998) (with Talib Kweli as Black Star)
• Black Star Aretha (2012) (with Talib Kweli as Black Star)^[47]
• Cruel Summer (2012) (with GOOD Music)^[48]

Filmography[link]

References[link]

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Mos Def

• Mos Def / Dante Smith discographies at Discogs.
• Mos Def at Geffen Records.
• Mos Def at MTV
• Mos Def at the Internet Movie Database
• Mos Def at Emmys.com

Jim Jones
Born	James W. Jones (1931-05-13)May 13, 1931 Randolph County, Indiana, U.S.
Died	November 18, 1978(1978-11-18) (aged 47) Jonestown, Guyana
Occupation	Religious leader
Religion	Agnostic/Atheist[1]
Spouse	Marceline Baldwin Jones (1927 - 1978)
Children	Agnes Paulette Jones (1943 - 1978) Suzanne Jones Cartmell (1953 - 2006) Stephanie Jones (1954 - 1959) Lew Eric Jones (1956 - 1978) Jim Jon Prokes (1975 - 1978) Stephan Gandhi Jones (1958- ) James Warren Jones, Jr. (1961-)
Parents	James Thurman Jones (1887 - 1951) Lynetta Putnam Jones (1902 - 1977)

Reverend James Warren "Jim" Jones (May 13, 1931 – November 18, 1978) was the founder and leader of the Peoples Temple, which is best known for the November 18, 1978 mass suicide of 909 Temple members in Jonestown, Guyana along with the killings of five other people at a nearby airstrip. Over 200 children were murdered at Jonestown, almost all of whom were forcibly made to ingest cyanide by the elite Temple members.

Jones was born in Indiana and started the Temple in that state in the 1950s. Jones and the Temple later moved to California, and both gained notoriety with the move of the Temple's headquarters to San Francisco in the mid-1970s.

The incident in Guyana ranks among the largest mass suicides in history, though most likely it involved forced suicide and/or murder, and was the single greatest loss of American civilian life in a non-natural disaster until the events of September 11, 2001. Among the dead was Leo Ryan, who remains the only Congressman assassinated in the line of duty as a Congressman in the history of the United States.^[2]

Early life[link]

Jim Jones was born in a rural area of Randolph County near the Ohio border,^[3] to James Thurman Jones (May 31, 1887 – May 29, 1951), a World War I veteran, and Lynetta Putnam (April 16, 1902 – December 11, 1977).^[4] He was of Irish and Welsh descent.^[5] Jones would later claim partial Cherokee ancestry through his mother, though this was likely false according to his maternal second cousin Barbara Shaffer.^{[5][note 1]} Economic difficulties during the Great Depression necessitated that Jones' family move to nearby Lynn, Indiana, in 1934.^[6] Jim Jones and a childhood friend both claimed that Jones' father was associated with the Ku Klux Klan.^[6]

In interviews for the 2006 documentary Jonestown: The Life and Death of Peoples Temple, childhood acquaintances recalled Jones as being a "really weird kid" who was "obsessed with religion ... obsessed with death". They alleged that as a child, Jones frequently held funerals for small animals and had reportedly stabbed a cat to death.^[7]

Jones was a voracious reader as a child and studied Joseph Stalin, Karl Marx, Mahatma Gandhi and Adolf Hitler carefully,^[8] noting each of their strengths and weaknesses.^[8] After Jones' parents separated, he moved with his mother to Richmond, Indiana.^[9] He graduated from Richmond High School early and with honors in December 1948.^[10]

Jones married nurse Marceline Baldwin in 1949, and moved to Bloomington, Indiana.^[11] He attended Indiana University at Bloomington, where a speech by Eleanor Roosevelt about the plight of African Americans impressed him.^[11] Jones' sympathetic statements about communism offended Marceline's grandmother.^[11] In 1951, Jones moved to Indianapolis, where he attended night school at Butler University, earning a degree in secondary education in 1961.^[12]

Building the Temple[link]

Jim Jones' first church in Indianapolis, Indiana

Indiana beginnings[link]

In 1951, Jones became a member of the Communist Party USA, and began attending meetings and rallies in Indianapolis.^[13] He became flustered with harassment he received during the McCarthy Hearings,^[13] particularly regarding an event he attended with his mother focusing on Paul Robeson, after which she was harassed by the FBI in front of her co-workers for attending.^[14] He also became frustrated with ostracism of open communists in the United States, especially during the trial of Julius and Ethel Rosenberg.^[15] This frustration, among other things, provoked a seminal moment for Jones in which he asked himself "how can I demonstrate my Marxism? The thought was, infiltrate the church."^[13][14]

Jones' interest in religion began during his childhood, primarily because he found making friends difficult, though initially he vacillated on his church of choice.^[5] Jones was surprised when a Methodist superintendent helped him to get a start in the church even though he knew Jones to be a communist and Jones did not meet him through the Communist Party.^[15] In 1952, Jones became a student pastor in Sommerset Southside Methodist Church, but claims he left that church because its leaders barred him from integrating blacks into his congregation.^[13] Around this time, Jones witnessed a faith-healing service at the Seventh Day Baptist Church.^[13] He observed that it attracted people and their money and concluded that, with financial resources from such healings, he could help accomplish his social goals.^[13]

Jones then began his own church, which changed names until it became the Peoples Temple Christian Church Full Gospel.^[13] The People's Temple was initially made as an inter-racial mission.

Jones moved away from the Communist Party and Maoists when CPUSA members and Mao Zedong became critical of some of the policies of former Soviet leader Joseph Stalin.^[15]

Integrationist[link]

In 1960, Indianapolis Democratic Mayor Charles Boswell appointed Jones director of the Human Rights Commission.^[16] Jones ignored Boswell's advice to keep a low profile, finding new outlets for his views on local radio and television programs.^[16] When the mayor and other commissioners asked Jones to curtail his public actions, he resisted and was wildly cheered at a meeting of the NAACP and Urban League when he yelled for his audience to be more militant, and climaxed with "Let my people go!"^[17]

During this time, Jones also helped to integrate churches, restaurants, the telephone company, the police department, a theater, an amusement park, and the Methodist Hospital.^[13] After swastikas were painted on the homes of two African American families, Jones personally walked the neighborhood comforting African Americans and counseling white families not to move, in order to prevent white flight.^[18] He also set up stings to catch restaurants refusing to serve African American customers^[18] and wrote to American Nazi leaders then leaked their responses to the media.^[19] When Jones was accidentally placed in the black ward of a hospital after a collapse in 1961, he refused to be moved and began to make the beds, and empty the bed pans of black patients.^[20] Political pressures resulting from Jones' actions caused hospital officials to desegregate the wards.^[20]

Jones received considerable criticism in Indiana for his integrationist views.^[13] White-owned businesses and locals were critical of him.^[18] A swastika was placed on the Temple, a stick of dynamite was left in a Temple coal pile, and a dead cat was thrown at Jones' house after a threatening phone call.^[19] Other incidents occurred, though some suspect that Jones himself may have been involved in at least some of them.^[19]

Jones' "Rainbow Family"[link]

Brochure of the Peoples Temple, portraying leader Jim Jones as the father of the "Rainbow Family"

Jim and Marceline Jones adopted several children of at least partial non-Caucasian ancestry; he referred to the clan as his "rainbow family,"^[21] and stated: "Integration is a more personal thing with me now. It's a question of my son's future."^[22] Jones portrayed the Temple overall as a "rainbow family."

The couple adopted three children of Korean-American ancestry: Lew, Suzanne and Stephanie. Jones had been encouraging Temple members to adopt orphans from war ravaged Korea.^[23] Jones had long been critical of the United States' opposition to communist leader Kim Il-Sung's 1950 invasion of South Korea, calling it the "war of liberation" and stating that "the south is a living example of all that socialism in the north has overcome."^[24] In 1954, he and his wife also adopted Agnes Jones, who was partly of Native American descent.^[22][25] Agnes was 11 at the time of her adoption.^[26] Suzanne Jones was adopted at the age of six in 1959.^[26] In June 1959, the couple had their only biological child, Stephan Gandhi Jones.^[25]

Two years later, in 1961, the Joneses became the first white couple in Indiana to adopt a black child, James Warren Jones, Jr.^[27] Marceline was once spat upon while she carried Jim Jr.^[19]

The couple also adopted another son, who was white, named Tim.^[25] Tim Jones, whose birth mother was a member of the Peoples Temple, was originally named Timothy Glen Tupper.^[22]

Asylum[link]

Belo Horizonte

Rio de Janeiro

Jones' Brazilian locations

After a 1961 Temple speech about nuclear apocalypse,^[20] and a January 1962 Esquire Magazine article listing Belo Horizonte, Brazil, as a safe place in a nuclear war, Jones traveled with his family to the Brazilian city with the idea of setting up a new Temple location.^[28]

On his way to Brazil, Jones made his first trip into Guyana.^[29] After arriving in Belo Horizonte, the Joneses rented a modest three bedroom home.^[30] Jones studied the local economy and receptiveness of racial minorities to his message, though language remained a barrier.^[31] Jones was careful not to portray himself as a communist in a foreign territory, and spoke of an apostolic communal lifestyle rather than of Castro or Marx.^[32]

After becoming frustrated with the lack of resources in the locale, in mid-1963, the Joneses moved to Rio de Janeiro.^[33] There, they worked with the poor in Rio's slums.^[33] Jones also explored local Brazilian religion.^[34]

Jones was plagued by guilt for leaving behind the Indiana civil rights struggle and possibly losing what he had struggled to build there.^[33] When Jones' associate preachers in Indiana told him that the Temple was about to collapse without him, Jones returned.^[35]

California Eden[link]

Los Angeles

San Francisco

Ukiah

Bakersfield

Fresno

Sacramento

Santa Rosa

Some of the Peoples Temple's California locations

After Jones' return to Indiana from Brazil, in 1965, Jones claimed that the world would be engulfed in a nuclear war on July 15, 1967, that would then create a new socialist Eden on earth, and that the Temple must move to Northern California for safety.^[13][36] Accordingly, the Temple began moving to Redwood Valley, California, near Ukiah.^[13]

While Jones always spoke of the social gospel's virtues, before the late 1960s Jones chose to conceal that his gospel was actually communism.^[13] By the late 1960s, Jones began at least partially openly revealing in Temple sermons his "Apostolic Socialism" concept.^[13] Specifically, "those who remained drugged with the opiate of religion had to be brought to enlightenment — socialism."^[37] Jones often mixed those concepts, such as preaching that "If you're born in capitalist America, racist America, fascist America, then you're born in sin. But if you're born in socialism, you're not born in sin."^[38]

By the early 1970s, Jones began deriding traditional Christianity as "fly away religion," rejecting the Bible as being white men’s justification to subordinate women and subjugate people of color and stating that it spoke of a "Sky God" who was no God at all.^[13] Jones authored a booklet titled "The Letter Killeth," criticizing the King James Bible.^[39] Jones also began preaching that he was the reincarnation of Jesus of Nazareth, Mahatma Gandhi, Buddha, Vladimir Lenin, and Father Divine. In the documentary Jonestown: The Life and Death of Peoples Temple, former Temple member Hue Fortson, Jr. quoted Jones as saying, "What you need to believe in is what you can see ... If you see me as your friend, I'll be your friend. As you see me as your father, I'll be your father, for those of you that don't have a father ... If you see me as your savior, I'll be your savior. If you see me as your God, I'll be your God."^[7]

By the spring of 1976, Jones began openly admitting even to outsiders that he was an atheist.^[40] Despite the Temple's fear that the IRS was investigating its religious tax exemption, by 1977 Marceline Jones admitted to the New York Times that, as early as age 18 when he watched his then idol Mao Zedong overthrow the Chinese government, Jim Jones realized that the way to achieve social change through Marxism in the United States was to mobilize people through religion.^[36] She stated that "Jim used religion to try to get some people out of the opiate of religion," and had slammed the Bible on the table yelling "I've got to destroy this paper idol!"^[36] In one sermon, Jones said that, "You're gonna help yourself, or you'll get no help! There's only one hope of glory; that's within you! Nobody's gonna come out of the sky! There's no heaven up there! We'll have to make heaven down here!"^[7]

Move to San Francisco[link]

The move of Peoples Temple headquarters to San Francisco in 1975 invigorated Jones' political career. After the Temple served an important role in the mayoral election victory of George Moscone in 1975, Moscone appointed Jones as the Chairman of the San Francisco Housing Authority Commission.^[41]

Unlike most other figures deemed as cult leaders, Jones was able to gain public support and contact with prominent local and national United States politicians. For example, Jones and Moscone met privately with vice presidential candidate Walter Mondale on his campaign plane days before the 1976 election and Mondale publicly praised the Temple.^[42][43] First Lady Rosalynn Carter also personally met with Jones on multiple occasions, corresponded with him about Cuba, and spoke with him at the grand opening of the San Francisco Democratic Party Headquarters where Jones garnered louder applause than Mrs. Carter.^[42][44][45]

In September 1976, Willie Brown served as master of ceremonies at a large testimonial dinner for Jones attended by Governor Jerry Brown and Lieutenant Governor Mervyn Dymally and other political figures.^[46] At that dinner, while introducing Jones, Willie Brown stated "Let me present to you what you should see every day when you look in the mirror in the early morning hours.... Let me present to you a combination of Martin King, Angela Davis, Albert Einstein... Chairman Mao."^[47] Harvey Milk, who spoke at political rallies at the Temple,^[48] and wrote to Jones after a visit to the Temple: "Rev Jim, It may take me many a day to come back down from the high that I reach today. I found something dear today. I found a sense of being that makes up for all the hours and energy placed in a fight. I found what you wanted me to find. I shall be back. For I can never leave."^[49][50]

In his San Francisco Temple apartment, Jones hosted San Francisco radical political figures such as Angela Davis for discussions.^[51] He spoke with friend and San Francisco Sun-Reporter publisher Dr. Carlton Goodlett about Jones' remorse regarding not being able to travel to socialist countries such as Peoples Republic of China and the Soviet Union, speculating that he could be Chief Dairyman of the Soviet Union.^[52] After his criticisms caused increased tensions with the Nation of Islam, Jones spoke at a huge rally healing the rift between the two groups in the Los Angeles Convention Center attended by many of Jones' closest political acquaintances.^[53] Jones also enjoyed a favorable relationship with Warith Deen Mohammed, son of Nation of Islam leader Elijah Muhammad.^{[citation needed]}

While Jones forged media alliances with key columnists and others at the San Francisco Chronicle and other media outlets,^[54] the move to San Francisco also brought increasing media scrutiny. After Chronicle reporter Marshall Kilduff encountered resistance to publishing an exposé, he brought his story to New West Magazine.^[55] In the summer of 1977, Jones and several hundred Temple members moved to the Temple's "Agricultural Project" in Guyana after they learned of the contents of Kilduff's article to be published in which former Temple members claimed they were physically, emotionally, and sexually abused.^[45][56] Jones named the settlement Jonestown after himself.

Jonestown's formation and operation[link]

Jonestown

Georgetown

Kaituma

Peoples Temple Agricultural Project ("Jonestown", Guyana)

Jones had first started building Jonestown in 1970 as a means to create both a "socialist paradise" and a "sanctuary" from the media scrutiny which had started in 1972.^[57] Here they also established a cooperative called the "People's Temple Agricultural Project". Regarding the former goal, Jones purported to establish Jonestown as a benevolent model communist community stating, "I believe we’re the purest communists there are."^[58] In that regard, like the restrictive emigration policies of the then Soviet Union, Cuba, North Korea and other communist states, Jones did not permit members to leave Jonestown.^[59]

Religious scholar Mary McCormick Maaga argues that Jones' authority decreased after he moved to the isolated commune, because he was not needed for recruitment and he could not hide his drug addiction from rank and file members.^[60] In spite of the allegations prior to Jones' departure to Jonestown, the leader was still respected by some for setting up a racially mixed church which helped the disadvantaged; 68 percent of Jonestown's residents were black.^[61] Jonestown was where Jones began his belief called "Translation" where he and his followers would all die together and move to another planet and live blissfully.

New children[link]

Jim Jones claimed that he was the biological father of John Victor Stoen, although the birth certificate lists Grace and Timothy Stoen as the parents of the boy.^[62] The Temple repeatedly claimed that Jones fathered the child when, in 1971, Temple member Tim Stoen had requested that Jones have sex with Grace Stoen to keep her from defecting.^[63] After Grace Stoen later defected in 1976 and began divorce proceedings against Tim Stoen in 1977, in order to avoid potentially giving up the boy in a custody dispute with Grace, Jones ordered Tim to take John to Guyana in February 1977.^[64]

After purported father Tim Stoen defected from the Temple in June 1977, the Temple kept John Stoen in Jonestown.^[65] The custody dispute over John Stoen would become a linchpin of several battles between the Temple and the Concerned Relatives.^[66]

Jim Jones also fathered a son, Jim Jon (Kimo), with Carolyn Louise Moore Layton, a Temple member.^[67]

Pressure and waning political support[link]

Congressional Pictorial of Leo Ryan

While most of Jones' political allies broke ties after Jones' departure,^[68] some did not. As a show of support, Willie Brown spoke out against enemies at a rally at the Peoples Temple, also attended by Harvey Milk and Art Agnos.^[69] Most importantly for Jones and the Temple, Moscone's office shortly thereafter issued a press release saying that Jones had broken no laws.^[70]

In the Fall of 1977, Tim Stoen and other relatives in Jonestown formed a "Concerned Relatives" group.^[71] Stoen traveled to Washington D.C. in January 1978 to visit with Congressmen, including Leo Ryan and State Department officials, and wrote a "white paper" to Congress detailing the dispute and pressing for Congressional correspondence.^[72] Stoen's efforts aroused the curiosity of Ryan, who wrote a letter on Stoen's behalf to Guyanese Prime Minister Forbes Burnham.^[73]

Amidst growing pressure in the United States to investigate the Temple, on February 19, 1978, Harvey Milk wrote a letter of support for the Peoples Temple to President Jimmy Carter.^[74][75][76] Therein, Milk wrote that Jones was known "as a man of the highest character."^[76] Regarding the leader of those attempting to extricate relatives from Jonestown, Milk wrote he was "attempting to damage Rev. Jones reputation" with "apparent bold-faced lies."^[76]

On April 11, 1978, the Concerned Relatives distributed a packet of documents, including letters and affidavits, that they titled an "Accusation of Human Rights Violations by Rev. James Warren Jones" to the Peoples Temple, members of the press and members of Congress.^[77] In June 1978, escaped Temple member Deborah Layton provided the group with a further affidavit detailing alleged crimes by the Peoples Temple and substandard living conditions in Jonestown.^[78]

Facing increasing scrutiny, in the summer of 1978, Jones also hired noted JFK assassination conspiracy theorists Mark Lane and Donald Freed to help make the case of a "grand conspiracy" by intelligence agencies against the Peoples Temple.^[79] Jones told Lane he wanted to "pull an Eldridge Cleaver", referring to a fugitive Black Panther who was able to return to the United States after repairing his reputation.^[79]

Visit by Congressman Ryan, murders[link]

In November 1978, U.S. Congressman Leo Ryan led a fact-finding mission to Jonestown to investigate allegations of human rights abuses.^[80] Ryan's delegation included relatives of Temple members, Don Harris, an NBC network news reporter, an NBC cameraman and reporters for various newspapers.^[81] The group arrived in Georgetown on November 15.^[80] On November 17, Ryan's delegation traveled by airplane to Jonestown.^[82] The delegation left hurriedly the afternoon of November 18 after Temple member Don Sly attacked Ryan with a knife.^[83] The attack was thwarted, bringing the visit to an abrupt end.^[83] Congressman Ryan and his people succeeded in taking with them fifteen People's Temple members who had expressed a wish to leave.^[84] At that time, Jones made no attempt to prevent their departure.^[85]

Port Kaituma Airstrip shootings[link]

As members of Ryan's delegation boarded two planes at the airstrip, Jones' "Red Brigade" armed guards arrived in a tractor-pulled trailer and began shooting at the delegation.^[86] The guards killed Congressman Ryan and four others near a twin engine Otter aircraft.^[87] At the same time, one of the supposed defectors, Larry Layton, drew a weapon and began firing on members of the party that had already boarded a small Cessna.^[88] An NBC cameraman was able to capture footage of the first few seconds of the shooting at the Otter.^[87] The five killed at the airstrip were Congressman Ryan; Don Harris, a reporter from NBC; Bob Brown, a cameraman from NBC; San Francisco Examiner photographer Greg Robinson; and Temple member Patricia Parks.^[87] Surviving the attack were future Congresswoman Jackie Speier, then a staff member for Ryan; Richard Dwyer, the Deputy Chief of Mission from the U.S. Embassy at Georgetown; Bob Flick, a producer for NBC News; Steve Sung, an NBC sound engineer; Tim Reiterman, a San Francisco Examiner reporter; Ron Javers, a San Francisco Chronicle reporter; Charles Krause, a Washington Post reporter; and several defecting Temple members.^[87]

Deaths in Jonestown[link]

Later that same day, 909 inhabitants of Jonestown,^[89] 303 of them children, died of apparent cyanide poisoning, mostly in and around a pavilion.^[90] This resulted in the greatest single loss of American civilian life in a non-natural disaster until the September 11, 2001 attacks.^[91] No video was taken during the mass suicide, though the FBI did recover a 45 minute audio recording of the suicide in progress.^[92]

On that tape, Jones tells Temple members that the Soviet Union, with whom the Temple had been negotiating a potential exodus for months, would not take them after the Temple had murdered Ryan and four others at a nearby airstrip.^[92] The reason given by Jones to commit suicide was consistent with his previously stated conspiracy theories of intelligence organizations allegedly conspiring against the Temple, that men would "parachute in here on us," "shoot some of our innocent babies" and "they'll torture our children, they'll torture some of our people here, they'll torture our seniors."^[92] Parroting Jones' prior statements that hostile forces would convert captured children to fascism, one temple member states "the ones that they take captured, they're gonna just let them grow up and be dummies."^[92]

Given that reasoning, Jones and several members argued that the group should commit "revolutionary suicide" by drinking cyanide-laced grape flavored Flavor Aid (not Kool-Aid despite the popular phrase). However, later released video made to show the best of Jonestown shows Jones opening a storage container full of Kool-Aid in large quantities. This may have been what was used to mix the "potion" (as was referred to in several statements obtained by the FBI in the final tape recordings) along with a sedative.^[92] One member, Christine Miller, dissents toward the beginning of the tape.^[92] When members apparently cried, Jones counseled, "Stop this hysterics. This is not the way for people who are Socialists or Communists to die. No way for us to die. We must die with some dignity."^[92] Jones can be heard saying, "Don't be afraid to die," that death is "just stepping over into another plane" and that it's "a friend."^[92] At the end of the tape, Jones concludes: "We didn't commit suicide; we committed an act of revolutionary suicide protesting the conditions of an inhumane world."^[92] According to escaping Temple members, children were given the drink first and families were told to lie down together.^[93] Mass suicide had been previously discussed in simulated events called "White Nights" on a regular basis.^[78][94] During at least one such prior White Night, members drank liquid that Jones falsely told them was poison.^[78][94]

Jones was found dead in a deck chair with a gunshot wound to his head that Guyanese coroner Cyrill Mootoo stated was consistent with a self-inflicted gun wound.^[95] However, Jones' son Stephan believes his father may have directed someone else to shoot him.^[96] An autopsy of Jones' body also showed levels of the barbiturate Pentobarbital which may have been lethal to humans who had not developed physiological tolerance.^[97] Jones' drug usage (including LSD and marijuana) was confirmed by his son, Stephan, and Jones' doctor in San Francisco.

Other issues[link]

On December 13, 1973, Jones was arrested and charged with soliciting a man for sex in a movie theater bathroom known for homosexual activity, in MacArthur Park in Los Angeles.^[98] The man was an undercover Los Angeles Police Department vice officer. Jones is on record as later telling his followers that he was "the only true heterosexual", but at least one account exists of his sexual abuse of a male member of his congregation in front of the followers, ostensibly to prove the man's own homosexual tendencies.^[98]

While Jones banned sex among Temple members outside of marriage, he himself voraciously engaged in sexual relations with both male and female Temple members.^[99][100] Jones, however, claimed that he detested engaging in homosexual activity and did so only for the male temple adherents' own good, purportedly to connect them symbolically with him (Jones).^[99]

One of Jones' sources of inspiration was the controversial International Peace Mission movement leader Father Divine.^[101] Jones had borrowed the term "revolutionary suicide"^[102] from Black Panther leader and Peoples Temple supporter Huey Newton who had argued "the slow suicide of life in the ghetto" ought to be replaced by revolutionary struggle that would end only in victory (socialism and self determination) or revolutionary suicide (death).^{[citation needed]}

Family aftermath[link]

Marceline

Jim Jones' wife, Marceline, was found poisoned at the pavilion.^[103] On the final morning of Ryan's visit, Marceline had taken reporters on a tour of Jonestown.^[104]

Stephan, Jim Jr. and Tim Jones

Stephan, Jim Jr., and Tim Jones did not take part in the mass suicide because they were playing with the Peoples Temple basketball team against the Guyanese national team in Georgetown.^[25][102] At the time of events in Jonestown, Stephan and Tim were both nineteen and Jim Jones Jr. was eighteen.^[105] Tim's biological family, the Tuppers, which consisted of his three biological sisters,^{[106][107][108]} biological brother,^[109] and biological mother,^[110] all died at Jonestown. Three days before the tragedy, Stephan Jones refused, over the radio, to comply with an order by his father to return the team to Jonestown for Ryan's visit.^[111]

During the events at Jonestown, Stephan, Tim, and Jim Jones Jr. drove to the American Embassy in Guyana in an attempt to receive help. The Guyanese soldiers guarding the embassy refused to let them in after hearing about the shootings at the Port Kaituma airstrip.^[112] Later, the three returned to the Temple's headquarters in Georgetown to find the bodies of Sharon Amos and her three children.^[112] Guyanese soldiers kept the Jones brothers under house arrest for five days, interrogating them about the deaths in Georgetown.^[112] Stephan Jones was accused of being involved in the Georgetown deaths, and was placed in a Guyanese prison for three months.^[112] Tim Jones and Johnny Cobb, another member of the Peoples Temple basketball team, were asked to go to Jonestown and help identify the bodies of people who had died.^[112] After returning to the United States, Jim Jones Jr. was placed under police surveillance for several months while he lived with his older sister, Suzanne, who had previously turned against the Temple.^[112]

When Jonestown was first being established, Stephan Jones had originally avoided two attempts by his father to relocate to the settlement. He eventually moved to Jonestown after a third and final attempt. He has since said that he gave into his father's wishes to move to Jonestown because of his mother.^[113] Stephan Jones is now a businessman, and married with three daughters. He appeared in the documentary Jonestown: Paradise Lost which aired on the History Channel and Discovery Channel. He stated he will not watch the documentary and has never grieved for his father.^[114] Jim Jones Jr., who lost his wife and unborn child at Jonestown, returned to San Francisco. He remarried and has three sons from this marriage,^[102] including Rob Jones, a high-school basketball star who went on to play for the University of San Diego before transferring to Saint Mary's College of California.^[115]

Lew, Agnes and Suzanne Jones

Lew and Agnes Jones both died at Jonestown. Agnes Jones was thirty-five years old at the time of her death.^[116] Her husband^[117] and four children^{[118][119][120][121]} all died at Jonestown. Lew Jones, who was twenty-one years old at the time of his death, died alongside his wife Terry and son Chaeoke.^{[122][123][124]} Stephanie Jones had died at age five in a car accident.^[25]

Suzanne Jones married Mike Cartmell; both turned against the Temple and were not in Jonestown on November 18, 1978. After this decision to abandon the Temple, Jones referred to Suzanne openly as "my goddamned, no good for nothing daughter" and stated that she was not to be trusted.^[125] In a signed note found at the time of her death, Marceline Jones directed that the Jones' funds were to be given to the Communist Party of the Soviet Union and specified: "I especially request that none of these are allowed to get into the hands of my adopted daughter, Suzanne Jones Cartmell."^[126] Cartmell had two children and died of colon cancer in November 2006.^[127][128] Found near Marceline Jones' body was a signed and witnessed will leaving all bank accounts "in my name" to the Communist Party of the Soviet Union and writing that Suzanne Jones Cartmell should receive no assets.^[129]

John Stoen and Kimo

Specific references to Tim Stoen, the father of John Stoen, including the logistics of possibly murdering him, are made on the Temple's final "death tape," as well as a discussion over whether the Temple should include John Stoen among those committing "revolutionary suicide."^[92] At Jonestown, John Stoen was found poisoned in Jim Jones' cabin.^[130]

Both Jim Jon (Kimo) and his mother, Carolyn Louise Moore Layton, died during the events at Jonestown.^[131]

See also[link]

• Cult suicide
• Doomsday cult
• List of people who have claimed to be Jesus
• List of Buddha claimants

References[link]

Explanatory notes

Citations