Rep. Jones, Jolanda "Jo"

Biography

JOLANDA "JO" JONES rose from a childhood of poverty and tragedy to membership in numerous Halls of Fame, a CNN Hero, a 4-time national track and field champion, a basketball All-American, a Rhodes Scholar nominee, a successful businesswoman, author, and an unapologetic human rights activist, a Houston City Council member and school board Trustee. This respected analyst has interviewed with Roland Martin, Tom Joyner, and Jacque Reid and is on the cover of Curve Magazine.

Today, Jolanda serves as a Texas State Representative for House District 147.

She has a proven track record of leadership, commitment, charitable work, and teamwork and is a highly sought-after public speaker. Jolanda was initiated into Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Incorporated, at the University of Houston’s Epsilon Lambda, in the Fall of 1987. She is a current dues-paying member of Mu Kappa Omega!

Her single mom raised Jolanda after her dad committed suicide in her presence. She was confronted with multiple evictions, houses burning down, bullying, rape, domestic violence, being shot at, seeing dead bodies, lack of food, gas, water, and electricity, and being bullied. She overcame the murder of her brother, aunt, and numerous cousins, the SIDS death of her niece, and survived death threats related to her legal practice.

Jolanda has distinguished herself legally, garnering prestigious legal awards. Her courtroom expertise helped shut down Houston Police Department’s Crime Lab that faked lab results that convicted innocents and allowed the guilty to go free. She defeated a powerful politician by reuniting an African mom with her child whom that politician had stolen. Her legal acumen has won multiple murder cases and serious felonies. Her business is 24 years old.

She has been the moral conscience and the voice of the disadvantaged and disenfranchised in every elected body she has served. She is a go-to person who fights for and stands up to those who seek to oppress. She grew up in a union household and believes in the invaluable power of unions.

Jolanda has and continues to improve the lives of her constituents and helps create jobs and opportunities for small and minority businesses. She is a different kind of businesswoman committed not only to business but to her family and humanity by bending the arc of the moral universe towards justice.

To date, Jolanda has saved five lives. One: a gunshot victim. Two: an SUV rollover victim who was ejected on the freeway. Three: a hit-and-run victim. Four: a victim passed out on a busy street. And her fifth and most notable save, for which she won a HERO Award, was that of a teenager whose car fell approximately 100 feet off of a freeway interchange, caught fire, and exploded seconds after Jolanda and her son extricated her. Jolanda ran to safety 50 meters with the teenager in her arms.

If someone is in danger and Jolanda is near, she will be the person who rushes in to save whoever needs saving. Jolanda feels compelled to save people due to the many times she was a victim of circumstance and in need of help, combined with her mother’s teachings that she must have the courage to do what is right when it’s easier to do wrong and that she must help people who, but for her help, would be helpless.

Jolanda is a TV personality on CBS’s Survivor Pa- Lau and was the star of WEtv’s Sisters in Law. Her second book, Owning My S.H.I.T! (Suffering Hardship Internalizing Trauma), is an Amazon bestseller. She also coauthored ScholAthlete’s Survival Guide ~ Essential Study Skills for the Scholar Athlete.

Jolanda is most proud of her amazing son, Jiovanni, who is a Dean’s List college graduate and lawyer.