Biography
Joseph John “Joe” Jones was a St. Louis painter and social realist whose work depicted labor and rural poverty. He painted murals at Commonwealth College showing the lives of Arkansas cotton workers. On June 5, 1936, he and novelist Josephine Johnson attended the trial of Workers Alliance organizer Dave Benson in Forrest City, Arkansas. After speaking with a Black sharecropper, they were arrested on suspicion of aiding the strikers and taken to an office for questioning. Officials searched their belongings and camera films. A reporter verified their identities, and they were released with a warning against discussing the union with sharecroppers.
The June 30, 1936 New Masses contributors note, printed page 30 / PDF page 36, says Joe Jones made the drawings accompanying Josephine Johnson’s Arkansas article during that Arkansas visit. It recalls his St. Louis unemployed-artists mural project, reported March 6, 1934 as Unemployed Artists Take the Courthouse. This adds documented artistic work to the already recorded visit and detention. The drawings on PDF pages 16–19 are artwork, not photographs of Jones or Johnson. Source: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/new-masses/1936/v20n01-jun-30-1936-NM.pdf#page=36
