Jim Jones led a suicide cult called The People’s Temple, preaching against racism and building a community in Guyana. In 1978, 909 people died in a ritual suicide, including Jones and Congressman Leo Ryan who had investigated human rights violations. Jones ordered his followers to drink poisoned Kool Aid. Jones was born in Indiana, married Marceline Baldwin, and formed his own church in 1956. The Peoples Temple was involved in the civil rights movement and Jones was the chairman of the Indianapolis Commission on Human Rights.
Jim Jones was the leader of what might be considered a suicide cult called The People’s Temple. Jones believed in mass suicide and felt it was a revolutionary reaction to racism. His father was a Klan member, a member of the racist Ku Klux Klan (KKK). Jim Jones passionately preached against racism and eventually built the community he calls Jonestown in Guyana, South America. On November 18, 1978, a total of 909 adults and children died, including Jones himself, in ritual suicide in Jonestown.
It was never made clear whether Jim Jones shot himself in the head or if someone else did. The event that preceded the November 1978 Jonestown massacre, as it is sometimes called, was an appearance in Jonestown by San Francisco Congressman Leo Ryan and his party. They had spent a day there researching any human rights violations.
As a result of the investigation, Ryan and his party as well as three journalists and a former People’s Temple member were all killed trying to board a plane back to the United States. Eleven People’s Temple members trying to leave the country were also injured. Later the same day, Reverend Jim Jones ordered his followers to drink the poisoned grape Kool Aid from a large container. The adults first gave babies and children the poisoned Kool Aid and then drank it themselves. It is said that those who resisted were forced by others to drink the poison.
James Warren Jones was born on May 13, 1931 to James Thurman and Lynetta Jones. Jim grew up in Indiana and married a nursing student named Marceline Baldwin in 1949. After being a student pastor at a Methodist church in 1952, Jim Jones decided to form his own People’s Temple Church in 1956. He was ordained a priest in 1964.
Jim Jones spoke strongly against the segregation of blacks and whites that was happening heavily in the 1950s and 1960s in the United States and passionately preached race equality. Jim and Marceline have adopted one Native American child, three Korean children, and one white child. They also conceived a child. The Peoples Temple was heavily involved in the civil rights movement and, ironically, Jim Jones was the chairman of the Indianapolis Commission on Human Rights.
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