Regina Jones

Regina Jones (née Nickerson; born 23 Sept 1942) is a publisher and writer, who was the co-owner of Soul.

Career

Regina Jones was born 23 September 1942 and grew up in South Los Angeles.[1][2] She married Ken Jones when she was 15,[2] after they'd met as students at Fremont High School in South Los Angeles.[3]

In 1965, Jones was working as a LAPD dispatcher. She later recalled taking distress calls from what would become known as the Watts riots.[4][5] It was while watching the riots on television that she and her husband decided they needed to do something for Black people, and founded Soul, a music newspaper celebrating Black music.[4] By 1967, Soul had gained popularity and Jones quit her LAPD job to work for the newspaper where she became editor-in-chief.[4] Due to her work on Soul, Jones received the NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Woman In Business in 1980.[2]

Soul was published by the Jones' bi-weekly, and in 1978 they followed it up with another publication focused on Black communities in Los Angeles, The Los Angeles Spirit. This was published weekly, and was printing 15,000 copies within its first 12 weeks,[6] but closed down within one year.[7]

After Soul closed in 1982, Jones became VP of publicity for Dick Griffey at SOLAR Records. She then founded Regina Jones & Associates, a PR firm whose clients included Geffen Records and Capitol Records.[4]

She was the subject of a documentary film Who in the Hell Is Regina Jones? co-directed by Billy Miossi and Soraya Sélène, released in 2024.[8][9] The film made its debut at the American Black Film Festival in June 2024,[10] and has been shown at other festivals since.[4]

In February 2025, Jones was awarded the Trailblazer Award by GreenLight Women for her work at Soul.[11]

References

  1. ^ Matney, William C., ed. (1978). Who's Who Among Black Americans: 1977-1978. Who's Who Among Black Americans Inc. p. 505. ISBN 0-915130-16-5.
  2. ^ a b c Lowe, Chelsee (11 December 2015). "Regina Jones' Got Soul". The Neighborhood News Online. Retrieved 2025-06-10.
  3. ^ Jack, Fisher (2016-08-16). "Special Edition: The Living Legends Series with Regina Jones". EURweb. Retrieved 2025-06-10.
  4. ^ a b c d e Mitchell, Gail (2025-02-28). "Regina Jones Talks Launching Groundbreaking 1960s Black Music Publication 'SOUL'". Billboard. Retrieved 2025-06-10.
  5. ^ Jones, Regina (1990-08-09). "A Distress Call From Watts : Anniversary: Regina Jones felt uneasy handling the first LAPD call from the riots 25 years ago. Her discomfort about happenings in her ex-neighborhood haven't eased since". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 2025-06-10.
  6. ^ Durant, Celeste (2 April 1979). "The Spirit Adding New Life to L.A. Black Press". Los Angeles Times. p. 13.
  7. ^ Oliver, Myrna (1993-05-18). "Ken Jones; L.A.'s 1st Black Anchorman". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 2025-06-10.
  8. ^ Amos, Rodd A. (2025-02-05). "Regina Jones Headlines Black History Month Luncheon at Ebell of L.A." Los Angeles Sentinel. Retrieved 2025-06-10.
  9. ^ Graham, Taylor. "Athena Film Festival review: 'Who in the Hell is Regina Jones?' answers its titular question". Columbia Daily Spectator. Retrieved 2025-06-10.
  10. ^ Jackson, Angelique (2024-04-24). "American Black Film Festival 2024 Lineup Includes Vivica A. Fox and Jussie Smollett-Starring Drama (EXCLUSIVE)". Variety. Retrieved 2025-06-10.
  11. ^ Jack, Fisher (2025-02-11). "Trailblazers in Media and Culture: Jayne Kennedy and Regina Jones to be Honored at GreenLight Women Black History Month Event". EURweb. Retrieved 2025-06-10.
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is available under Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 unless otherwise noted. Additional terms may apply for the media files.