Sometime after the Annapolis Short Line came through the farmland surrounding Peter Jones’ store (near the current Park and Ride on Jones Station Road) in 1871, Jones opened as one of county’s first schools for African American children. It would remain an African American school for nearly 100 years.

Rosabel Landon began her 35-year tenure as Jone’s principal at the two-room school in 1930, when she was also its sole teacher. Landon was proud when Jones was awarded a Certificate of Standardization in 1935. As the Supreme Court’s “separate but equal” ruling was being wrestled with all over the country, NAACP counsel ThurgoodMarshall met with the black teacher’s association in Annapolis and, in 1940, helped secure equal salaries for African American teachers in Anne Arundel Country.

The two-room school could barely contain its 74 students by 1952, and the Board of Education rented the Church Hall next door to relieve overcrowding. Consolidation of the area from Earleigh Heights Road to the Bay Bridge brought a new brick school with eight classrooms to the property across the street from the church, which was deeded to the Board of Education for ten dollars by community-member Arthur White. In 1957, the new Jones opened its doors to 301 enrolled African American students.

Jones was integrated peacefully in 1966, twelve years after Thurgood Marshall won unanimous support for school integration from the Supreme Court in the “Brown vs. the Board of Education” decision. The school was unique now not only for its African American heritage, but for its small size, which made it vulnerable to a Board of Education bid to close Jones in 1981.

An empassioned outcry arose from the community. A report to the BOE by a citizen’s group led by Paul Spiecker declared, “The small school is a family…each child has a much greater chance to achieve the essential feeling of belonging.” It was agreed that Jones would stay open.

The community united again in the mid-1990’s to usher Jones through a renovation and redistricting process. Jones moved in with Oak Hill Elementary School for a year and a half and got a new principal in the spring of 1998. The staff and students returned in January 1999 to an enlarged state-of-the-art school, with a computer lab, media center, and art room. When the redistricted community of Manhattan Beach completed its move to Jones in the fall, the new Jones family was assembled for a dedication ceremony.

A tradition of community support and of excellence in staff and students stands strong at Jones; an African American heritage and historic smallness add unique value to a school that continues to enrich and be enriched by its community. Jones Elementary School enters the millennium with a bright future rooted securely in its past.