Annette Jones White

Obituary For Annette Jones White

Annette Jones White, 84, of East Point, Georgia and formerly of Albany, Georgia departed this life Tuesday, September 26, 2023 in home hospice at her daughter's house in Douglasville, Georgia. Celebration of Life services will be held Tuesday, October 10, 2023 at 11:00 AM at the Greater 2nd Mt. Olive Faith Center, 103 Dewey Street, Albany, Georgia 31705. Interment will follow in the Riverside/Oakview Cemetery, 200 Cotton Avenue, Albany, Georgia 31701.

Born in Albany, Georgia, Annette was the oldest of five children born to the late Paul Lawrence Jones and Delores Berry Jones. She was raised in a loving extended family that included her maternal grandparents, Asa Arthur Berry and Willie Mae Berry. Her home church was First Mt. Olive Baptist Church.

Annette attended Mercer and Madison Elementary Schools; Carver Jr. High School; and Monroe High School, from which she graduated with honors in 1958. Between high school and college, she worked as a secretary for C.B. King, the first African American to open a law practice in southwest Georgia.

The warmth and security offered by Annette’s family, church and school communities during her childhood contrasted with the overarching reality of being Black in segregated Albany during the 1940s, 50s and early 60s. Systemic and overt racism and various indignities experienced by Annette, her family, friends, and peers spurred Annette toward leadership in the civil rights movement in Albany after her graduation from high school.

In 1958, Annette matriculated at Albany State College (ASC) (now Albany State University). In 1959, she joined the NAACP Youth Council and participated in numerous sit-ins and protests of segregation in Albany. As Executive Secretary of ASC’s student government association (SGA), Annette helped
compose letters to the local newspaper protesting racist media coverage of the desegregation of the University of Georgia and protesting Albany’s segregation laws. Among Annette’s many other college activities, she was President of the Women’s League; Basileus of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority; and elected Miss Albany State College, 1961-62, which earned her a scholarship and fellowship to graduate school.

In October of 1961, Charles Sherrod and Cordell Reagon, two field secretaries from the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) recruited Annette, Bernice Johnson (Reagon) and Janie Culbreth (Rambeau) to assist with voter registration drives in southwest Georgia. On November 17, 1961, when the Albany Movement was formed to bring together the different organizations in Albany that sought to eliminate discrimination and promote voter registration in the Black community, Annette was appointed as a student representative.

On November 22, 1961, after five students (including ASC students Bertha Gober and Blanton Hall) were arrested attempting to integrate travel facilities, Annette, Bernice, and Janie led a protest march of more than 200 students from Albany State’s campus to City Hall and throughout the ASC campus. The next day, the President of ASC fired Annette from her position with the English Department.

On Thanksgiving Day 1961, at the Albany State-Fort Valley State Classic Football Game, in her first appearance as Miss Albany State College, Annette appeared at half-time with Miss Fort Valley State, dressed in black instead of the school colors of blue and gold. She and other students dressed in black sang Freedom Songs instead of cheers, in protest of ASC’s suspension of Gober and Hall because of their activism and arrests. Annette was not invited to the usual post-game dinner at the College President’s home that traditionally included Miss Albany State College.

On December 12, 1961, Annette was arrested along with a group of 265 people during a march to protest the arrest of the Freedom Riders who were attempting to integrate travel facilities. As a result of the protest, the city finally agreed to engage with Movement Leadership, including Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., who had joined the protest. The city agreed to release all prisoners except the Freedom Riders; to desegregate the bus and train terminals; and to meet with representatives from the Black community.

Not long after being released from jail, and five months before graduation, Annette was expelled from ASC due to her activism. She lost not only her Miss Albany State crown, but her scholarships. Undaunted, she attended SCLC’s Citizenship Training School in Dorchester, GA and returned to Albany, set up a Citizenship School, and began teaching unregistered citizens so that they could register to vote.

In January of 1962, Annette entered Spelman College in Atlanta, GA, having received three scholarships due to the efforts of Irene Asbury Wright, Howard Zinn, Troas Latimer, and James Forman. Although she became deeply immersed in the Movement in Atlanta, she commuted to Albany on weekends and holidays and summer vacations to continue working with SNCC and the Albany Movement. Indeed, Annette skipped the fall 1963 semester at Spelman to stay in Albany and work with SNCC until January 1964, when she returned to Spelman. She received her B.A. in English from Spelman in 1964.

On November 13, 1964, Annette married Frank Irvin White, a high school and college mathematics teacher who later joined IBM in New York, later transferring to Atlanta, GA. From this union, two daughters were born: Melanie Francine White (Eley) and Sharmian Lynell White. For most of their 38-year union, Annette and Frank resided in East Point, GA. Frank White died on June 29, 2003.

Annette devoted much of her life to education, teaching in settings that allowed her to cultivate young Black minds and teach them the rich history of Black people while looking forward to tomorrow. She served as English teacher, Monroe High School, 1966; Lead Teacher/Center Director, Harambee Child Development Centers in Albany and Atlanta, Ga., 1968-78; Kindergarten teacher, Atlanta University Child Care Center, 1981-85; Kindergarten teacher, Spelman College Nursery-Kindergarten School, 1985-89; Director, Spelman College Nursery-Kindergarten School, 1989-97; Lecturer, Spelman College Education Department, 1989-96. Annette completed a Master of Education in Early Childhood Education from Virginia State University, Petersburg, VA, in 1980.

Annette lived to see her Movement work recognized. She was featured in “Ain’t Gonna Let Nobody Turn Me ‘Round -- The Inside Story of the Albany Movement,” Carmichael Auditorium, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C., January 17, 2004. She assisted in researching, editing, and writing text for the Albany Civil Rights Institute, and was an honoree at the Grand Opening of the Institute in 2008. She also was included in the National Center for Civil and Human Rights Freedom Mosaic Microsite.

In 2010-11, Albany State University recognized all of the former ASC students it had suspended or expelled in 1961-62 as having made positive contributions in civil rights to the college, the City of Albany, and to the nation. All expulsions were revoked, and the title of Miss Albany State College 1961-62 was restored to Annette. Annette was re-crowned on October 3, 2010. She and the other students received honorary degrees from Albany State University fifty (50) years after the fact.

Annette passed on September 26, 2023, in Douglasville, Ga. where she had been residing with daughter Melanie and her family during the last period of her life. Annette leaves siblings Dorothy Jones Simpkins, Melvin Leon Jones, and Chrisna Jones Witherspoon; daughters Melanie and Sharmian; grandchildren Andrew Franklin White Cleary and Lauren Elise Eley; sister-in-law Sandra Miller Jones; brother-in-law Ron Witherspoon; son-in-law Mark Eley; nieces and nephews Khaisha Charles, Carthel Simpkins, Melton L. Jones, Marsha L. Jones, George H. Walker, Jr., Melanie Marie Clark, and Benjamin Paul Walker, Sr.; and numerous other relatives and dear friends. She was pre-deceased by her brother Paul Lawrence Jones, Jr.

Tribute donations may also be made to one of Annette's preferred charities, The Southern Poverty Law Center, by clicking here: https://support.splcenter.org/site/Donation2;jsessionid=00000000.app20121b?3840.donation=form1&df_id=3840&mfc_pref=T&NONCE_TOKEN=1EAB3089D8C843088EA8581B93DC2405.

Meadows Funeral Home is in charge of the arrangements.