He is remembered for founding the fine arts program at Jackson State University in Mississippi. “Lawrence Arthur Jones came from a poor background to create a department of fine arts in a school mandated to instruct Black youth either in vocational skills or as teachers at what became Jackson State University. Though Jones subscribed to the views of fine art he was taught in art school in the north, he added a twist by focusing on Hispanic and, to a certain extent, African culture in the classes he introduced. African American youth of the mid-twentieth century in the south were barred from attending public art spaces. They were also not deemed to be in a high enough social class to receive training in fine arts. Lawrence Jones found innovative and original methods of overcoming such barriers.”

A contemporary of nationally renowned artists Charles White and Eldzier Cortor, Jones’ work can be found in the permanent collections of several major institutions and museums. His work is inspired, in part, by the “history of African-Americans in the United States,” particularly as it relates to the disparaging conditions such as slavery and poverty that they faced “across various time periods and geographic contexts.” These circumstances had direct connotations for Jones as his family reportedly claimed to be descendants of Sally Hemings, one of Thomas Jefferson’s slaves.

Jones rose above his family’s history of oppressive subjugation, finding solace in the arts. In 1927, the artist’s senior year of high school, met critically acclaimed Harlem Renaissance poet James Weldon Johnson who encouraged the artist to further his studies in art. In 1934, with the help of benefactors such as Virginia state senator Carter A. Glass, Jones enrolled at the Art Institute of Chicago. Jones also support himself in part by working as a WPA artist.

Jones’ friends and contemporaries the Institute included famed artists Charles White, Frank Neal, and Eldzier Cortor. In the 1930s Chicago “had a rapidly growing African-American arts community and Lawrence Jones was involved in creating the first black community art center in Chicago, the South Side Community Art Center.”

“In the summer of 1940 Jones went on to teach art at Dillard University in New Orleans, and won a Rosenwald Scholarship to study in Mexico, where he worked at the Taller Gráfica Popular. He had a long teaching career, working at Fort Valley State College in Georgia, and became head of the art department at Jackson State Teachers College. His prints are in the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the St. Louis Art Museum.”