Van Jones

Anthony Kapel "Van" Jones (born September 20, 1968) is an American political activist, commentator, author and attorney. He is a co-founder of several non profit organizations including the Dream Corps, a “social justice accelerator” which owns and operates three advocacy projects: #cut50, #YesWeCode and Green for All. He is the author of two New York Times bestselling books, The Green Collar Economy and Rebuild the Dream. He served as President Obama’s Special Advisor on Green Jobs, as an Associate Professor at Princeton University, and as a co-host of CNN’s political debate show Crossfire. He is currently President of Dream Corps and a regular CNN contributor.

In 2009 Time magazine named Jones one of the 100 most influential people in the world. In 2010 he was the recipient of the NAACP President’s award.

Early life

Jones and his twin sister Angela were born in 1968 in Jackson, Tennessee. Their mother was a teacher at a high school and their father was a principal at a junior high school. Jones' sister said that as a child he was "the stereotypical geek—he just kind of lived up in his head a lot." He has described his own childhood behavior as "bookish and bizarre." His grandfather was the senior bishop in the Christian Methodist Episcopal Church, and Jones sometimes accompanied his grandfather to religious conferences, where he would sit all day listening to the adults "in these hot, sweaty black churches". Jones was a young fan of John and Bobby Kennedy, and would pin photographs of them to a bulletin board in his room in the specially delineated "Kennedy Section". As a child he paired his Star Wars action figures with Kennedy-era political figures; Luke Skywalker was John, Han Solo was Bobby, and Lando Calrissian was Martin Luther King, Jr.