Dr. Ida E. Jones serves as the Associate Director of Special Collections and University Archivist at Morgan State University. A noted professional archivist and historian, award-winning author, educator, and recognized leader in the field of African American women’s history. She graduated from Howard University. Her dedication to her alma mater and to the identification, preservation, and use of personal papers and organizational records, created by African Americans and African American organizations, prompted her to accept the coveted position of Assistant Curator of Manuscripts in Howard University’s Moorland Spingarn Research Center where she worked for 15 years. The Moorland Spingarn Research Center is “one of the world's largest and most comprehensive repositories for the documentation of the history and culture of people of African descent in Africa, in the Americas in other parts of the world.”
In her current position she oversees the university’s organizational records (archival repository), along with the institution’s holdings of rare books and manuscript collections. She successfully obtained three grants totaling $900,000.00 toward providing digital access to Morgan’s archival collections. One grant from the Institute for Museum and Library Services elevates the remarkable career of Morgan professor Dr. Ellen Irene Diggs a pioneering Anthropologist who worked closely with Dr. W.E.B. DuBois. Concurrently, Dr. Jones is providing archival consultation to on campus and community organizations to increase awareness about historical documentation. To demystify the archives/archival process, she provides biannual open-house gatherings in the Beulah M. Davis Special Collections Department at Morgan. Throughout her career she has remained committed to membership and involvement in professional associations. She has served in leadership positions within the: Association for the Study of African American Life and History; Association of Black Women Historians; the Society of American Archivists, National Collaborative of Women’s History Sites, and the Organization of American Historians. She is making connections in Maryland through affiliating with the Baltimore City Historical Society, the Maryland Women’s Heritage Center, the DuBois Circle, and Blacks on the Chesapeake. Currently, she is the National Vice President for Membership of ASALH; Co-Vice President of the Baltimore City Historical Society; Washington DC state coordinator for the National Votes for Women Trail; and a Board member of the National Collaborative of Women’s History Sites and the Maryland Women’s Heritage Center.
Her scholarship is evident in numerous publications, speaking engagements, and radio and television appearances. Her publications include numerous book reviews, a variety of encyclopedia entries, and an online exhibition for the National Women’s History Museum “Claiming Their Citizenship: African American Women From 1624-2009.” She is the author of four books: The Heart of the Race Problem: the Life of Kelly Miller; Mary McLeod Bethune in Washington, D.C.: Activism and Education in Logan Circle; William Henry Jernagin in Washington, D.C.: Faith in the Fight for Civil Rights; and Baltimore Civil Rights Leader Victorine Q. Adams the Power of the Ballot.
Dr. Jones is a consummate scholar who believes deeply in the words of Mrs. Mary McLeod Bethune who stated, “power must walk hand in hand with humility and the intellect must have a soul.”
