The City of Ferguson Makes History as it Inaugurates its First African American and Female Mayor
FERGUSON, Mo., June 15, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- On?Wednesday, June 17, 2020, at 6:00 p.m.,?Mayor-Elect?Ella M. Jones?will be sworn in as the first African American and female Mayor of Ferguson after 126 years of the city's existence. The historic event will take place at the?Urban League's Ferguson Community Empowerment Center, located at 9420 West Florissant Ave.?
In 2014, Ferguson reached worldwide prominence and infamy following the controversial killing of Michael Brown at the hands of a Ferguson Police officer. At the time, Ferguson had a 66% African American population but only two African American City Councilmen out of 6, a Caucasian Mayor, a police chief, and a police department, which was only 6% African American. Today, African Americans in the City of Ferguson have made great strides towards equality with a majority in the City Council, a police chief, and a diverse police force.
More than 40 years ago, Ella M. Jones and her late husband Tim moved to Ferguson in search of quality educational opportunities for their daughter. Jones graduated from the University of Missouri at St. Louis with a Bachelor of Arts Degree in Chemistry. She was certified by the American Chemical Society as a high-pressure liquid chromatographer and completed training as a pharmacy technician. Ella's previous employers include Washington University School of Medicine, in the Biochemistry Molecular Biophysics Department as a Peptide Specialist, and KV Pharmaceutical Company as an Analytical Chemist. Ella also served many years as a Sales Director with Mary Kay Cosmetics. Since April 2015, she has served as a Ferguson City Councilwoman.
Mayor-Elect Jones' Historic Inauguration will be held at the near epicenter of the Ferguson civil unrest of 2014 in the parking lot of a building built on the grounds of the QuikTrip convenience store, which was burned down during the riots, The Ferguson Community Empowerment Center. Mayor-Elect Jones will be sworn in by?Missouri Supreme Court Chief Justice George W. Draper III, an iconic African American judge, and will be celebrated by?St. Louis Prosecuting Attorney Wesley Bell, Bishop James E. Jones, Pastor of Greater Grace Church, Rev. Edmund Lowe, Presiding Elder of the St. Louis-Cape Girardeau District of AME Church, noted St. Louis Songstress Denise Thimes ?and?Michael P. McMillan, President & CEO of the Urban League of Metropolitan St. Louis, Inc.?
SOURCE Ella M. Jones, Mayor-Elect
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