This About Us page will regularly introduce Community Forum members who have played leading roles in developing and carrying out the projects, service activities, and political campaigns of the Community Forum for Economic Justice.
This first report shares the important contributions of Oletha Jones, who has provided critical leadership for our efforts to support and strengthen local educational opportunities for the children of our community.
Since the early years of the Community Forum, we have built valuable relationships with children, their parents and their teachers, providing support for their concerns, communicating those concerns at School Board meetings, and forming valuable relationships with education activists from other cities. Some of these concerns led to extended campaigns, usually in collaboration with other local organizations. Oletha was central to all these efforts
Our two most extensive efforts were
1. Saving Public Education from the threat of Privatization, and
2. The Fight for Educational Equity, equal access to quality educational opportunity for all students and end the School to Prison Pipeline!
Oletha brought to these efforts the experience and knowledge that she inherited from her father, Reverend Robert Derrickson, President of Derrickson and Sons Construction Company, Mr. Derrickson was a well-established Black business owner in Mishawaka, Indiana who served as Co-Founder and President of Consolidated Negro Contractors (CNC) in the late 1960’s. Reverend Derrickson later became Founder and Pastor of the Zion Hill Missionary Baptist Church until his death in 2005. CNC was the first and only organization of its kind to date in St. Joseph County. Its purpose was to build unity and solidarity amongst black business owners in South Bend, and its very existence challenged the status quo.
Oletha served one term as a SBCSC School Board Trustee from 2019-2022, and is currently serving her 16th year as the Education Chairperson for the South Bend NAACP. As Education Chairperson, she actively works to eliminatediscriminatory practices in public education, such as segregation; studies and investigates the disparities affecting minority groups in education; monitors the school system and board activity; strives to correct abuses or inequities wherever they are found; examines the effects of high-stakes test on minority students, works to eliminate policy that contribute to the school-to-prison pipeline; and serves as a resource for educating the community on racial issues in education.
Oletha’s work for the NAACP is in conjunction with her work for the Community Forum for Economic Justice. As Education Chair, her role is to lead the local committee in strategic action to ensure that every student has the opportunity to be successful in education.