Oral history interview with Julia Virginia Jones, October 6, 1997
Subtitle: interview J-0072, Southern Oral History Program Collection (#4007)
Contributors: Friedman, Nancy Sara, interviewer; Southern Oral History Program; University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Documenting the American South (Project); University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Library
Edition: Electronic ed.
Publisher: University Library, UNC-Chapel Hill
Published: 2006
Place of publication: [Chapel Hill, N.C.]
Language: eng
Subjects: Interviews; Women judges; Women lawyers; Judges; Families; Social life and customs; Cancer; Biography; Patients; Queens College (Charlotte, N.C.)
Other titles: Interview J-0072, Southern Oral History Program Collection (#4007); Interview with Julia Virginia Jones, October 6, 1997; Oral histories of the American South.
Description: Julia Virginia Jones was born in rural Shelby County, North Carolina, in 1948. The civic and professional activism of her mother and grandmother weighed heavily on Jones' definition of femininity, and she points to her father's abrupt death as forming a defining moment in her perception of gender roles. Rather than assuming married life would offer her lifelong security, Jones came to realize that she needed to be able to support herself independently. Religion played a significant role in her family, as did Democratic politics. The religious lessons Jones learned included tolerance and the omnipresence of God. Given the changing racial climate of the 1960s rural South, Jones admits her disenchantment with her church. Jones purposefully chose an all-women's college, Queens College, to develop her academic and leadership skills. She married her husband immediately after her undergraduate graduation and decided to follow him along his career path. She worked as a teacher, which resulted in unhappiness, so she applied to law school, accepting a full scholarship at Wake Forest. After clerking two years for Judge Woodrow Wilson, she obtained an associate position with the Moore & Van Allen law firm. In 1990, she was elected district court judge. She was undergoing cancer treatment at the time of this interview: she affectionately labels her supportive friends and family as "Fighting Okra" because of okra's raw strength and tenacity, characteristics she sees in her supporters.
Notes: Title from menu page (viewed on October 24, 2007).

Interview participants: Julia Virginia Jones, interviewee; Nancy Sara Friedman, interviewer.

Duration: 02:55:18.

This electronic edition is part of the UNC-CH digital library, Documenting the American South.  It is a part of the collection Oral histories of the American South.

Text encoded by Mike Millner.  Sound recordings digitized by Aaron Smithers.

Text (HTML and XML/TEI source file) and audio (MP3); 2 files: ca. 161 kilobytes,  321 megabytes.

Original version: Southern Oral History Program Collection, (#4007), Series J, legal professions, interview J-0072, Manuscripts Department, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Original transcript: 101 p.

Funding from the Institute of Museum and Library Services supported the electronic publication of this interview.

Mode of access: World Wide Web.

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