Matthew Jones, Freedom Singer, Dies

Matthew Jones, a member of SNCC Freedom Singers, died on 30 March after a lengthy illness. As a student at Tennessee State University, Jones joined the Nashville student movement in 1960. He later went on to do civil rights work in Danville, Virginia, where he founded a singing group called the Danville Freedom Singers.

The original Freedom Singers, founded in 1962 under the leadership of Cordell Reagan, travelled around the country raising funds for the movement, but disbanded in 1963. In 1964, SNCC executive secretary Jim Forman sent Jones to Atlanta to reorganize the group. Although he loved to sing, Jones always maintained: "We were organizers first, singers second."

Jones penned a number of protest songs, among them were "Odinga, Odinga" and "The Ballad of Medgar Evers."