Women's History: Juanita Jones

Juanita Jones is a McKenzie native now working to improve the lives of youth in Jackson with the ultimate goal of breaking generational cycles as founder and executive director of Keep My Hood Good.

A 1984 graduate of McKenzie High School, she attended the University of Tennessee at Martin to study criminal justice and psychology. During that time, she worked in dispatch at the McKenzie Police Department and directed traffic at schools in the morning.

After four years, she was nearing completion of her degree when some of her classes were delayed.

Unfortunately for Juanita, she had already enlisted and been sworn into the U.S. Marine Corps, so her education was put on hold.

She enlisted for eight years and served as a supply specialist, stationed in California, Hawaii, South Carolina and North Carolina.

“It was difficult to be a woman Marine. In boot camp, our drill instructors groomed us for what was to become of us when we got into the fleet world. I had to prove myself to male Marines that I was like them. Once I had shown that I could hold my own, it was nothing but love and respect.”

Juanita is now part of a Marine Corps detachment in Jackson with other retirees and honorably-discharged Marines.

Following her service, Juanita returned to McKenzie to be near her mother, whom she wanted to help with her own daughter. “I didn’t think I was mother material.”

She worked as a server at Hig’s Restaurant, held road construction signs for TDOT and was a volunteer firefighter.

She worked for Manpower in McKenzie before transferring to Jackson, where she became branch manager. She worked for Manpower for six years.

She then worked for four years as office manager at a Save-a-Lot warehouse. “That was one of the most boring jobs,” she said with a laugh. “I did not like to sit in the office environment. I needed to be out, so I found myself driving a forklift, pulling groceries.”

In 2006, Juanita opened a transportation business. She transported children to and from school and extracurricular activities and soon had contracts with five Jackson daycares and the Department of Children’s Services, facilitating visitation.

That business would set the stage for her true calling.

When Juanita would serve children and families in certain neighborhoods, she began to witness and experience troubling patterns and cycles.

In Parkway East, gang members would allow her into the neighborhood but would hinder her leaving. “This was three to four days a week. After about four months, one gang member walked up to my bus and asked who I was. He said they had been trying to scare me away. I told him I wasn’t the police, I wasn’t a threat to them. From then on, they allowed me in and out.

“I met a 40-year-old great-grandmother. I thought, wow, this is a generational cycle.

“I saw a mother bring a child to Lincoln Court and make them get out. She said, ‘Whoever makes your sister cry, you’ve got to make them cry.’ So that mom brought her child to fight another child. That’s another cycle I saw, children fighting.

“God placed it on my heart to help the children. For two years, I said ‘I’m not doing that. I don’t even like children.’ In those two years, I had a lot of rises and falls in life. Finances, vehicles, housing.

“So I surrendered in April 2009. It began on a corner in Lincoln Court. I offered free ice cream and a kickball game. I had four towels and a beach ball. I had no idea what I was going to do with the children, other than to teach them how to respect themselves and each other.

“I named it Keep My Hood Good.”

She soon decided she just wanted boys. “I thought, if I could get the boys straight, the girls would follow.”

She put up flyers for basketball, and soon found herself in a circle of young men. “I still didn’t know what I was doing. But as I was talking, one boy came and punched me in the arm and ran. Everyone laughed. Another came and hit me hard in the back. They laughed again. So I chased one down and caught him. I had him secured on his stomach, with his feet back to his head, and made him say he was sorry in front of all of those boys. Then I caught the other one and made him tell me he loved me and he was sorry. After that, there were no more problems.”

She moved on to other neighborhoods. Still without a center of operation, she would meet groups at laundromats, car washes and in people’s backyards.

“I taught them accountability, excellence, integrity and respect. I gave them three options after graduation. College or trade school, and I would help them enroll; the military, which I’ve had four enlist; or get a job where you can be self-sufficient. I encouraged them to get out of Jackson in order to break the generational cycle.”

Keep My Hood Good now has that central location, a center that opened eight years ago. Serving boys and girls ages 8-18, the center features a community garden.

“When I was walking the streets, I would get hungry. It was a food desert area, and the only grocery nearby had fruits and vegetables that were wilted. I know kids would use their EBT for chips, cookies and soda. Health is a concern, especially obesity, high blood pressure, hypertension. So we started the garden. I taught children that if they had no money, but they had a seed, they could grow their own food.”

During harvest, children distribute the food in their neighborhoods.

After shutting down her transportation company in 2013, Juanita waited tables on the weekends. At the time, she was receiving no grants or other money for Keep My Hood Good, so she was working to pay her bills and sustain the group.

Juanita also finally completed her education, graduating from UTM in 2017 with a degree in interdisciplinary studies with a focus in health, education and behavioral science.

The non-profit was finally able to start paying Juanita in 2022.

“In Keep My Hood Good, I teach them not to forget me, and they don’t. They come back to volunteer and help teach the children.”

Juanita estimates that at least 250 children have been in her program, noting that she’s had custody of four of them, now grown.

Juanita spoke about the influence of her mother, Avis Beatrice Dudley Jones, who died in February of last year.

“My mother was the opposite of me. She was never in a bad mood, even up to death. She said ‘God’s got my back.’ She was humble and gentle. I could see that Jesus and God had their arms wrapped around my mother. My greatest memory of my mother was that she said over and over, ‘Pray.’

“She taught me a whole lot. How to sit, how to eat, how to smile. Everything.”

Beatrice was the first black graduate of McKenzie High School, the only senior among the first group of black students to transfer from Webb School to MHS in 1966.

Juanita says she never really talked about that experience, other than one example. “I remember when my mother would walk me into school. She would tell me, ‘This is what I did. I walked with my head up and I just strutted into the school.’ And that’s what I did. Maybe that was her mentality. That’s what she had to do, don’t look back, just look straight ahead.”

Juanita offered this advice to younger generations of women. “Don’t stop. Keep searching from within. Don’t look to be a people pleaser. Look in that mirror. That’s your best friend. That mirror will be your guidance. Believe from your heart and not from what someone else has told you, because what works for one may not work for you. Jump ship if you have to, no need to look back.”