Jerry Jones, the owner of the Dallas Cowboys, referred to himself as a “curious kid” while talking about a 1957 photograph that came to light this week and showed him attempting to block Black students from entering his North Little Rock High School as part of a desegregation effort.
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The 80-year-old Cowboys owner spoke with reporters about the subject on Thursday after a Washington Post article describing Jones’ life was published. Jones, who was a sophomore at the time, was among a group of white students who tried to stop six black students from entering the school in 1957 as the story’s opening scene.
A 14-year-old Jones is seen in the enraged crowd in an Associated Press photo, which adds to the proof. The Little Rock Nine at Little Rock Central High School, only a few miles from Jones’ former high school, served as the face of an ongoing effort to desegregate schools in the South.
Jerry Jones says ‘Curiosity’ was the reason behind his contribution to the segregation effort
Jerry Jones claims that he was on the wrong side of a 1957 photograph depicting Arkansas school desegregation efforts because of his “curiosity.”
Jerry Jones on the photo from the Washington Post showing Jones at a protest of integrating schools in Arkansas pic.twitter.com/7XZLEFkchz
— Curtis Sheehan (@ChillinwitCurt) November 25, 2022
“Gosh, that was 65 years ago,” Jones told reporters, “I didn’t know at the time the historic event that was taking place. I’m so glad that has long since passed. That would serve as a reminder to keep doing everything we can to prevent such events.”
Jones claimed that a football coach had advised him not to take part in the racist demonstration, but he still chose to go, which ultimately resulted in him getting his “a**” kicked.
“Frankly, nobody there had any idea of what was going to happen,” according to Jones. “I have a tendency to put my nose in the wrong place at the wrong time,” Jerry added.
Jones took some time to think back on that period of his life and expressed regret for not doing more to make Black students feel more accepted in Little Rock.
