James F. Jones

Early life and mission James Francis Marion Jones was born in Birmingham, Alabama on November 24, 1907. His father, a railroad brakeman named James W. Jones, married a schoolteacher named Catherine Lewis. He was their only child. In 1912 the five-year-old James F. Jones joined and began preaching sermons in Triumph the Holy Righteous Church. The Triumph the Holy Righteous Church was a Black Nationalist/Pentecostal church founded by Father Elias Dempsey Smith in 1902 that Jones' parents, former members of the African Methodist Episcopal Church, converted to. Young Jones preached in the tents, convocations and other venues of the early Triumph Church as a child prodigy.

In 1915, Triumph the Holy Righteous Church changed its name to Triumph the Church and Kingdom of God in Christ. Its leader, Father Smith, was anointed Holy Apostle, Priest and King of the Triumph the Church and Kingdom of God. Smith claimed, and his followers believed, that he was divinely inspired to found and lead the Triumph Church and that God spoke directly to him. Jones in 1944, thirty years later, started a similar church called the Church of Universal Triumph, Dominion of God, in Detroit, wherein he and his teachings would both emulate and supplant those of Father Smith amongst his own followers.

In 1917 at eleven years old, Jones quit school. He spent his life evangelizing, preaching, prophesying and pasturing in the Triumph cause, as he understood and eventually reinterpreted it. As an adult Jones said when he was a little boy God spoke to him and told him he was destined to "distil" great and good thoughts in the minds of men.

In 1924 Jones, popularly called "sonny" and "son", became an officially ordained minister in the Southern-based Triumph the Church and Kingdom of God in Christ at age 18. Jones rose steadily within the Triumph Church after becoming a fully accredited officer. By the 1930s he attained the status of a "Prince" inside the Triumph Church hierarchy.

Triumph Church ministry and the formation of a new church In 1938 the expanding Triumph sect sent Jones, accompanied by his adolescent personal secretary James G. Walton, to Detroit as a missionary. Jones, had traveled extensively on Triumph Church business for many years without 'purse or script' in such states as Missouri, Tennessee and Georgia. In Detroit Jones began a radio ministry. He hosted a weekly radio hour on a Canadian station, CKLW, that reached across several midwestern states. It was around this time that he became known to the public by the title in which he became famous, "Prophet Jones". He would go on to become the first African American preacher in Detroit to host a weekly television program that was telecasted every Sunday at 11 p.m on WXYZ-TV.

Leadership of Universal Triumph Dominion of God

In 1944, Jones formed his new corporation, called the Church of Universal Triumph, Dominion of God, in Detroit.

After breaking with the national Triumph Church, the new Universal Triumph the Dominion of God started in the Black Bottom area of Detroit. From a small frame church building Jones' following was moved to larger headquarters at the old Oriole Theater at 8450 Linwood Avenue in 1953. This large building is now New Bethel Baptist Church and was once pastored by C. L. Franklin, a former friend and later rival of Jones. This rivalry stemmed from Franklin characterizing Jones as "a setback of hundreds of years" to integration. Universal Triumph the Dominion of God later moved from the Oriole Theater and held services above the Fine Arts Theater at 2940 Woodward before finding a permanent home of worship at 1651 Ferry Park.

In a religious subculture of competing claims, Jones declared that the almighty God spoke solely to him and that he was the second coming of Christ and thus was the world's 'one and only true prophet' and savior. As such he was God's 'Holiness' and sole 'Divine messenger' on Earth 'in these last days' with the divine powers to forecast, heal, bless and condemn.

As the Universal Dominion Ruler, Jones presided over the Dominion services from a throne atop a raised, canopied dais on an elevated stage in front of the people. He gave his inner circle royal titles such as sir, prince, princess, lord, and lady. He called his flock the "citizens" of his dominion. He taught them his 'true gospel' from the Holy Bible in light of his 'divine revelation'.

Many of these teachings are found in the Dominion publications: The al, The Message, The Mind Awakener, and the Dominion Constitution. His teachings revolved around him heralding God's incoming 'New World' of 'perfect bliss', in which the wicked would be destroyed but the faithful would live for ever in incorruptible physical bodies. He claimed those that are faithful now could have heaven on earth by recognizing his 'divine' calling and obeying his 'divine' wisdom and rules.

He held the belief that at least parts of the Bible were antiheterosexual, such as his interpretation of the book of Genesis. He taught that in the story of Adam and Eve, it wasn't the apple that was the "forbidden fruit", but rather it was Eve, and that the cohabitation of men and women violated God.

This home is a large, elegant structure which consists of three floors and a basement. The third floor was a dance hall and entertainment room, with high ceilings and hardwood floors. The second floor included bedrooms and quarters for the maid. The first floor had a large living room, a dining room and a sun room. Prophet Jones called this mansion the "French Castle". It was also known as the "Dominion Residence". According to Hue magazine the Arden Park Dominion parsonage was previously a fifty-four-room former gambling casino, which Jones purchased from gambler Danny Sullivan. According to Ebony the house was purchased by his flock at reported cost at that time, $30,000. The house had been previously built in 1917 by General Motors Corporation executive Edmund A. Vier for $100,000. The house was styled after an 18th-century French chateau.

On August 17, 1971, over 4,000 people attended Prophet Jones viewing at Swanson Funeral Home, 806 E. Grand Blvd., Detroit. It was also reported that cars jammed the intersection and the front of the funeral home as the line of viewers stretched out to the street by the late afternoon. Plans for the funeral service were described as being lively and reminiscent of when Jones packed crowds into his churches at the Oriole movie theater and the Fine Arts movie theater at 2940 Woodward. The funeral service would also include Jones's ladies and princesses dressed in white dancing and shouting with tambourines. The funeral was planned to be two services, the first a lively memorial service planned by his followers to be held August 18, 1971 at 7:30 pm and a traditional rite with celebrities at 10:00 am on August 19, 1971, at the Adlai Stevenson Building Auditorium on 10100 Grand River. He was to be temporarily buried inside a crypt at Woodlawn Cemetery, Woodward and Eight Mile.

Jones was buried at Detroit's Woodlawn Cemetery in his silver embroidered robe, in a bronze coffin which had had his signature white mink coat placed on it during the services.

Succession Pastor James Shaffer, an assistant to Jones who was 61 at the time of his death, became Jones' most logical successor. After a vote the Dominion Council and the Dominion Board of Trustees installed James Shaffer as the new 'Dominion ruler' and successor to Jones as leader of Church of Universal Triumph, Dominion of God.

Legacy Johnathan Walton of Watch This! explained, "Whether Jones was a healer or not his place in popular culture in the 1950s was indisputable. This self-proclaimed seer and radio evangelist was favorably featured in such publications as Ebony magazine, Time magazine, Life magazine, Newsweek, and The Saturday Evening Post. In the 1940s and 1950s Prophet Jones had mass acclaim, affluence, and influence in the black religious landscape in many cities. Rev. Ralph J. Boyd of Detroit was mentored by Prophet Jones. During the 1940s Rev. Ralph Boyd migrated to Detroit with Prophet Jones and went on to form his own church called Universal Liberty in Christ Truth Kingdom, Inc.

Political power Noted for his ardent U.S. patriotism, Prophet Jones opened his religious radio broadcast with the national anthem and the pledge of allegiance to the flag. A supporter of the Republican Party, Jones created a secular medal award, the Crispus Attucks, and presented it to Michigan's Republican Senator Homer S. Ferguson and Secretary of Defense Charles E. Wilson. In 1951 Prophet Jones delivered the invocation at the opening session of the Michigan State Legislature in Lansing. In 1952 Prophet Jones prophesied that General Dwight D. Eisenhower would win the 1952 presidential election. After Eisenhower's election victory Prophet Jones received an invitation to the inauguration. His attendance there was noted in the press. He stayed at the Rhode Island Plaza Hotel. Many of his supporters now looked at him as a prophet to the White House.