HALIFAX – After almost 50 years of social justice work, Burnley “Rocky” Jones has died. Family members say the 71-year-old was taken to hospital late Sunday night and died Monday. Jones had a history of heart problems.
Jones was one of the African Nova Scotian community’s biggest advocates. He was famously known for bringing the political group the Black Panthers Party to Canada in the 1970s. His role in the party garnered him a reputation as a radical, and Jones said he was monitored by police for the rest of his life. Nova Scotia’s Black United Front was an extension of the Black Panther Party and was founded by Jones in 1965.
Raised in Truro, N.S., Jones experienced discrimination at a young age. At a speech given in 2012, he recounts being shut out of pool hall and excluded from birthday parties in the predominantly white town.
After a brief stint in the Canadian military, Jones moved to Toronto in the 1960s. He has said his role with Students Union for Peace Action started his lifelong activism. According to Jones’ website, a turning point came in March 1965, with the rise of civil rights in the United States.
“I noticed all these white people carrying signs and organizing a sleep in,” Jones wrote. “When I asked them what they were talking about, they said that black people in Alabama didn’t have the right to vote and were being beaten. So I went home and told my wife that we had to go back to the demonstration because it was only white people fighting for black people. We arrived back at the consulate with my infant daughter and started parading around with the other protesters. Before I knew it, microphones were being pushed in my face and the media was asking for my opinion.”
The protest outside the American embassy earned Jones the reputation of “Canada’s Stokely Carmichael” and “Rocky the Revolutionary”.
Jones returned to Nova Scotia with his former wife, Joan, to start an anti-poverty organization. After graduating from Dalhousie University in 1992, he was integral in founding the school’s programs for Mi’kmaq and black law students. Jones also received a honourary doctorate of law from Ontario’s Guelph University.
Jones’ legal practice focused on human rights, disability rights and racial equality. In 2009, he represented three Halifax Regional Police officers in a racial discrimination case.
Early Tuesday morning, as news of Jones’ death was shared on social media, tributes began to pour in:
Halifax mayor Mike Savage recently saw Jones. He reflected Tuesday morning on Jones’ passing.
“Not only did he cause Halifax to change the way they looked at race, particularly at a volatile time, but he had lasting impacts, not only on the attitudes of people, but…on education.”
“He wasn’t one who was afraid to challenge comfortable viewpoints and to say, this isn’t right,” Savage said. “He always did what he thought was right and that’s a more rare quality than one might think.”
Louis Gannon, executive director of the Black Culture Centre for Nova Scotia has known Jones since 1972.
“On a personal note, he’s been quite the mentor to me. He’s been the main person who actually changed my life, who gave me opportunities regarding school,” Gannon said.
“For the community, it’s going to be a major loss. Rocky has been an advocate for African Nova Scotians for the last 40 to 50 years. It’s going to be hard to find someone to take up the cause the way Rocky did,” he said.
Irvine Carvery, president of the Africville Genealogy Society, says the 30th anniversary of the reunion will celebrate and remember Jones at the gala dinner and dance on Friday as well as the church service on Sunday.
Rocky Jones was a descendant of Jeremiah Alvin Jones, a World War One hero who was posthumously awarded the Canadian Forces Distinguished Service Medallion. The family is descended from American slaves who escaped to Canada.
Jones was honoured with the Order of Nova Scotia in 2010.
Details of Jones’ funeral have not yet been released.
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