There is no evidence to suggest that Jim Jones was anything but Caucasian. Nevertheless, the leader of Peoples Temple made it a hallmark of his ministry to identify with the African\u2013 and Native Americans in his congregations, and often described everyone in the Temple\u00a0 \u2013 himself included \u2013 as part of the nation\u2019s oppressed populations of blacks, browns, Indians, and Asians. To make his point \u2013 as figurative as it was \u2013 he often described himself and everyone who followed him as \u201cniggers\u201d to distinguish themselves from those who have power and make the rules.<\/p>\n
On numerous other occasions, though, he claimed to be literally black, oftentimes to make a similar point. \u201cWe who are black, we have seven times more blood pressure problems, six times more likelihood of getting heart disease, four times more likelihood of getting cancer,\u201d he said<\/a> in the spring of 1977. \u201cThere\u2019s no solidarity,\u201d he lamented<\/a> in Jonestown in April 1978, \u201cthis is same problem we have with we who are black and Indian.\u201d<\/p>\n Jones claimed Native heritage elsewhere too, although he embraced that for its exotic appeal as well. \u201cMy Indian spirit has certain acumen that you won\u2019t be able to find anywhere,\u201d he told<\/a> the Temple congregation in 1973. But \u2013 as with his claims to African heritage \u2013 he often included his Native background in a more political context<\/a>, as in June 1972. \u201cMy Indian relatives, the moment this state became California, half of my Indian population, my ancestors, were decimated<\/em>\u2026 I\u2019ve seen my people worshipping the Great Spirit, murdered<\/em> on the way to their religious festivals.\u201d<\/p>\n Finally, Jones sometimes talked about the struggles he faced as a youth \u2013 and finally breaking away from his father \u2013 because of the latter\u2019s association with the Ku Klux Klan.\u00a0 \u201cMy father was a Ku Klux Klan bandit, but I’m the greatest humanitarian, the greatest savior that this universe has ever known,\u201d he said<\/a> in 1973.<\/p>\n None of these claims was true.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" There is no evidence to suggest that Jim Jones was anything but Caucasian. Nevertheless, the leader of Peoples Temple made it a hallmark of his ministry to identify with the African\u2013 and Native Americans in his congregations, and often described everyone in the Temple\u00a0 \u2013 himself included \u2013 as part of the nation\u2019s oppressed populations […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":0,"parent":35361,"menu_order":4,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-35365","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/jonestown.sdsu.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/35365","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/jonestown.sdsu.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/jonestown.sdsu.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jonestown.sdsu.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jonestown.sdsu.edu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=35365"}],"version-history":[{"count":13,"href":"https:\/\/jonestown.sdsu.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/35365\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":123137,"href":"https:\/\/jonestown.sdsu.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/35365\/revisions\/123137"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jonestown.sdsu.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/35361"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/jonestown.sdsu.edu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=35365"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}