Dorothy "Happy" Snowden Jones

Dorothy "Happy" Snowden Jones. . Happy Jones was born a member of the socially prominent Snowden family, but she embraced society in the largest possible sense. She involved herself in every imaginable public issue aimed at broadening justice and opportunity for citizens at large , from the sanitation workers' struggle of 1968 to Black-White comity and from women's rights to the extension of voting rights, to fairness and equality for all regardless of sexual orientation, gender identity or race. , Happy was the first donor to this Memphis Suffrage Monument and was the primary financial supporter of a published memorial to the state's decisive 1920 role in the passage of the 19th Amendment: The Perfect 36: Tennessee delivers Woman Suffrage, as a bound volume, e-book, and audiobook., She was active for many other causes, worked as a marriage and family therapist, and was a recipient of the Women's foundation for a Great Memphis Legend Award. She helped found the Panel of American Women, an early human relations project in Memphis addressing racial and religious discrimination. Politically she worked within the Republican Party to help establish a two-party political system during the 1960s and 1970s but became an independent working across party lines as her ever-growing progressive streak became irreconcilable with the rightward drift of the party she had been born into., She chaired the Concerned Women of Memphis and Shelby County, who helped avert a second strike in 1969, and championed better living conditions for sanitation workers and their families. In 1871, she founded the Memphis Community Relation Commission, the purpose of which was to help the city through yet another period of heightened racial tensions., Happy was a leader for equality and social justice for over 50 years, crossing political and racial lines. She abhorred discrimination for the pure injustice of it and was willing to put her time, energy and money to fight it.