“Keeping Up with the Joneses.” Late nineteenth-century English literature enthusiasts might ascribe the origin of the saying to Ernest J. Simmons's Memoirs of a Station Master and their description of mid-Victorian life. Early twentieth-century cartoon fanatics might attribute the phrase to the work of New York Globe comic Arthur “Pop” Momand, whose series is said to have detailed the life of a New York couple and their well-to-do neighbors. However, there is a high chance that Blacks and those of the African diaspora who resided in Chicago in between that same time crux associated the expression with none other than the infamous Jones Brothers and their mother Harriet Jones. Known for being the most successful policy queen in the city of Chicago, Harriet Jones, backed by her sons, Edward Jr., George, and McKissack, carved out a space of financial entrepreneurship and power that largely remained unrivaled. In their book Dream...
Dream Books and Gamblers: Black Women's Work in Chicago's Policy Game
JASMINE PORTER-RALLINS is a PhD candidate in the Education Policy, Organization, and Leadership Program at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign. Her research interests include the history of African American boarding schools, the evolution and impact of the Afrocentric school model, and the relationship between sense of belonging and academic achievement for Black students. Prior to coming to UIUC, Jasmine worked in education as a middle school science teacher in Boston Public Schools (MA) and Fulton County Public Schools (GA), as a program director for the federally funded Upward Bound Program, and as an adjunct professor at Tufts University and Northeastern Illinois University.
Jasmine Porter-Rallins; Dream Books and Gamblers: Black Women's Work in Chicago's Policy Game. Women, Gender, and Families of Color 1 April 2023; 11 (1): 113–117. doi: https://doi.org/10.5406/23260947.11.1.06
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