James Warren Jones (May 13, 1931 – November 27, 1978) was an American preacher, and political activist, briefly member of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors.
He led the Peoples Temple, a new religious movement, between 1955 and 1978. Highly respected during his lifetime for his implication in the Civil Right Movement, even seen as a martyr per his followers after his assassination, the public opinion on Jones changed after his death and the discoveries of numerous abuses inside his cult. He remains a polarizing figure to this day.
As a child, Jones developed an affinity for charismatic Christian faith. Jones founded the organization that became the Peoples Temple in Indianapolis in 1955. The next year, Jones began to be influenced by Father Divine and the Peace Mission movement. Jones distinguished himself through heavy civil rights activism, founding the Temple as a fully integrated congregation, and promoting socialism. He opposed Jim Crow Laws, organized sit-in in segregated restaurants, and launched multiple actions to promote desegregation in Indiana hospitals.
This would put him and his church in jeopardy against conservatives and reactionaries elements of the society; culminating in death threats per the local antenna of the Ku Klux Klan.
This leftist engagement would be achieved per the Martin Luther King Jr. Humanitarian Award, granted among others civil rights figures in 1977.
In 1965, Jones moved the Temple to California. The group established its headquarters in San Francisco, where he became heavily involved in political and charitable activity throughout the 1970s. Jones developed connections with prominent California politicians and was appointed as chairman of the San Francisco Housing Authority Commission in 1975. His proximity with the mayor of the city, George Moscone and Harvey Milk, the first openly gay man to be elected to public office in California, was publicly known as fructuous.
Beginning in the late 1960s, reports of abuse began to surface as Jones became increasingly vocal in his rejection of traditional Christianity and began promoting a form of communism he called "Apostolic Socialism". Between closed doors, Jones became progressively more controlling of his followers in Peoples Temple, and making claims of his own divinity; like Father Divine used to. in his own cult. Many followers turned over all their income and property to Jones and Peoples Temple who directed all aspects of community life. He is for this fact, considered as the first guru, in the modern, pejorative acceptation of the term.
In 1974, rumours of abuse started to leak in the media. Because of his political connections, previous good press and personal praise per future First Lady Rosalyn Carter, Jones manage to avoid the scandal. He would, however, consider exile out of the United States. According to the testimony of former members of the Temple, the original plan was to build a socialist paradise free from the oppression of the US government.
Some members were sent abroad in a remote area in Guyana, to consider the operation.
Jones never went on with this plan, tho, dismissing this idea when journalists asked about it. In 1978, Jones ran for the 8th district of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors, claiming to want to help further the black community of the city. It seems now more likely that Jones searched political protection nearby his friend, the mayor George Moscone. According to papers found in Jones' office after his death, it appears that the preacher aimed for the post of mayor itself at the end of Moscone's tenure.
Jones won the district, even if rumours of large ballot fraud were spread afterwards.
In November 1978, United States Congress open an inquiry against the Temple, and member Leo Ryan was charged of the investigation. On 27 November, Jones' defeated rival for the 8th district, politician Dan White, managed to get into the city hall with a revolver, which he used against Jones and mayor Moscone. Both men were killed on spot and White was captured per the police. Supervisor Milk was elected acting mayor per the board overnight and would later became the first openly gay mayor of the city.
Ryan investigation proved that the majority of the abuse and mind control were factual. Tho, as no death nor physical injury ever occurred in the cult, none of Jones' lieutenants faced prison, and only the top members were fined at civil court.
To this day, Jones remains a disputed figure, praised for his efforts in civil rights, and equally seen as a psychological and financial abuser.
His church continues to this day, fighting for racial equality, Jones seen as martyr by the followers of the Temple.