Jonestown: The End to Segregation?

When humans desire answers to society's problems that have been around for decades, manipulation is simple to accomplish. That is why we as humans must be aware of what we get ourselves into, if not others could manipulate us with their way of words. Jim Jones promised to solve issues of racism and classism through a new community where people left those thoughts at the door. However, his intentions were not pure. Through manipulation, he convinced 900 people from America who wanted social equality, racial justice, and the desire to help the poor. In 1974 he convinced a small group of followers to follow him to Guyana, South America. He would later make them regret their decision to follow him and his church named The Peoples Temple. While he had his congregation in Guyana he was known to partake in suspicious activities that had affected the community these people had helped him build.

The 1960s were a time of terrible conditions in America. A few groups of people were longing for a better world free from the oppression they saw in the past and present. Black Americans, for example, were fighting with those in power during the Civil Rights movement trying to finally accomplish equality for their people. The anti-war protests of the 1960s were also alive and well and wanted a society with ideals more focused on peace and love. These people desperately wanted to live in a society that was not like the America they lived in. This want is most likely why someone like Jim Jones can manipulate them. Jones promised these people that he could provide a community with the ideals they wanted. It is no wonder that, without hope they could change the system, these people were drawn to Jones’ message. Sadly, this hope did not lead to a happy ending for the followers of Jim Jones.

Before we can get into the nitty-gritty of what happened to these people, we must take a look at what drove this man to do this. Jones had grown up in a difficult household. Jones’ father was emotionally absent, a drunk, and did not work. Jones’ mother was always working to support the family and did not have much time for him. His community deemed him a hellion and was taken care of often by his neighbors because he was misbehaving. Due to the upbringing of his neighbors' young age, he had become a regular churchgoer and then explored all the churches in his hometown; which kindled his interest in religion. In his eyes, the preachers were like father figures and had power over the community. After graduating from Butler University, he decided to join the ministry. Then in the 1950s and 60’s he gained a reputation for himself by claiming he could foretell the future and heal those who were sick. During this time he was a voice for racial integration, which was looked down upon by church elders. The thought that there was segregation, especially in the church, was one of the sources of Jones’ unhappiness. He adopted different races of children with his wife Marceline, known as a rainbow family, to show to others that he accepts any race into his heart. This led to him making his church in 1955 which at the time was called Wings of Deliverance, which was also a Pentecostal church practicing socialism in it and soon was named the Peoples Temple. As the church grew, however, the sermons on equality and tolerance were belied by his increasing demands for personal loyalty and obedience (Jim Jones (no date) PBS. Public Broadcasting Service). Due to his fear that Indianapolis was too racist for his communion, he relocated the church near Ukiah, California making it a promised land for them. Then in 1965 and then moved once more 1971 to San Francisco before the great move to Guyana.

How was he able to convince people to follow him and have faith in what he preached? Part of the reason was that Jones was a personable man who spread a message many wanted to hear at the time; social equality and racial justice. Another fact was the way he talked to people; he trained himself to speak on a personal level to each person and the congregation. Coupled with these very real factors, he made his followers believe that he could perform miracles for them even though he was lying about the miracles that he could perform on people who were “handicapped” or were in pain. Jones got away with this deception because he had picked certain people to play along with the charade he was putting on in front of the congregation. For example, he had one of the secretaries dress up; pretended to not be able to walk while she was sitting in a wheelchair. He spoke out to her as if she was just another person in the crowd and told her that this was her day to walk and that he was going to heal her. This declaration sent the whole crowd in the church into a frenzy and cheer, as he was telling her to get up and take steps forward toward him. Then, to sell it, she started to walk down the aisle, and soon enough she was running down all the aisles praising him. It was one of the many miracles that he did that made these people believe in him and that he could heal them. He also supported helping the poor, the elderly, “addicts”, and the forgotten humans in society. Taking these people in it had created not just a home for them all but a safe place as well. Which made him come across as a good person who was always trying to help out others in their time of need.

There are multiple suspicious activities that Mister Jim Jones was involved in. Taking personal belongings from members, using drugs, and making his congregation practice committing suicide. To get into Jones’ church you had to give up yourself to him along with literally everything you owned. He quoted Jesus “to sell all things and have all things in common”, basically saying that no one would have more or less than each other in the communion. He convinced elderly people to sell their homes and give the money to the church so that they could travel on the Greyhound buses. He had to spread his preachings and gain more members, along with them building a community for all the members to live in together. There were also full-time jobs that the community offered on top of the members' day jobs they had, but the checks that they made from working for the community would be turned back over to the community itself, and then those members were given allowances. Jones’ followers did anything and everything for this community to make sure it was running, basically giving all of their free time to the church. His followers were so busy they barely had time to even sleep. Jones' treatment of his followers was worse than overwork. In one instance he made people sign blank pieces of paper, then would, later on, use those signatures against them. Jones' mistreatment also applied to himself, as he was addicted to drugs that he was self-medicating which were either in the form of pills or injections which included amphetamines, quaaludes, liquid valium, morphine, Percodan, oxycodone, pentobarbital and sometimes he downed them with alcohol. His alcohol intake was nowhere near as much as his drug intake and this made him even more paranoid. This could explain why he wanted to have his congregation practice committing suicide, but he knew they wouldn't do it willingly so that is why he had to trick his congregation. During a New Years' celebration with 120 of his followers, Jones started to talk to his congregation about their cause. During his speech, he had punch be passed out to everyone who was there, even the children. Once everyone had gotten done drinking the punch he then proceeded to tell them all that they had just drunk poison and that they would all die as one together in the church. Some of the people were screaming and crying while some sat there in disbelief that this was happening. Jones spoke out once again now telling them that they did not drink any poison but it was a test for them to see if they were truly committed to their cause and their loyalty to him. Jones not only took poor care of his followers, but he also took poor care of himself.

The relationships that Jones formed with some of the members of his congregation were off, but no one in the congregation dared to speak out about it. He would have adulterous relationships with members and had also openly asked male members if they would like to have sexual relations with him. If they were not interested in his offer he would say along the lines of “well that's okay, but if you ever want to, the offer is on the table”. Most of the time this want of his to have sexual relations with these people would throw them off guard. On another occasion, while on Greyhound bus 7 he went over to one of the women on the bus and asked her “Do you know what you do to me?'' The woman could smell the alcohol on his breath. He told her to come back to the room that he had on the bus. Once the buses stopped for a break, she then went back to that room and Jones had sex with her. After she lay there terrified, he proceeded to tell her that he did that for her, trying to make her think that this was what she wanted. When people bought into Jones as their savior those people did not have a way out of thinking those thoughts.

Abuse played a very big part in The Peoples Temple which went against why the people had joined the congregation which was wanting to end violence and strive for a peaceful wholesome family-like community. People were called out in front of other members during service to come up to the stage and confess all the “sins” they have committed for that week. After saying their sins Jones would then ask the crowd how they should be punished. Punishment would usually end up having them beaten by others, usually in the form of fighting, being spanked, or slapped. It had gotten so bad at one point that two women were in a meeting and started fighting over Jones by telling each other that neither one of them had what he wanted. One of the women then proceeded to tell the other that she might as well take off her clothes to see if Jones even was interested in her, he nodded in approval for her to go ahead and do so. When she was completely naked in front of everyone in that meeting they then started to judge her body by saying what they thought about it in front of her. All of these things that were going on took a toll on some of the people who were living in Jonestown, but unfortunately for them, there was no way that they were allowed to leave, even afraid to try to leave or talk to anyone in the congregation about what was going on. Because friends and even family members would rat them out to Jones. He would then harass them and then punish them for doing these things.

The congregation was not allowed to have any form of communication with the world outside of Jonestown. Jones, instead, had a radio that he played around the clock with his voice only allowed on it, lying to them about what was going on in the world. This made their family members and friends who were ex-members of The Peoples Temple worry deeply about them and their safety. They then reached out to congressman Leo Ryan who then went to Guyana to make sure that everything was going okay with Jonestown. Once Ryan got to Jonestown he had people coming up to him saying that they wanted to leave with him. When this got to Jones he was not a happy camper but still let those people go back to the plane with Ryan. Little did they know that Jones’ next move was to send out a group of his inner circle to follow them back on the plane and then gun them down while this was happening Jones called a meeting to get ready for mass suicide.

The Jonestown massacre was, before 9/11, the largest single incident of intentional civilian death in American history (Conroy, 2018). The death toll at Jonestown on November 18, 1978, was 909 people, a third of them children. A few people managed to escape into the jungle that day, while at least several dozen more Peoples Temple members, including several of Jones’ sons, were in another part of Guyana at the time. In total, only 33 survived (Onion et al., 2010). Jones’ followers were originally drawn to Jones due to his talks on equality and making a great community for those who did not love where society was heading. Jones promised them a future where the members could create something better than what they had in their normal lives, away from the bad conditions they faced. This shows how far people will go to try and change their lives for the better when they face things such as racism and social injustice, they will follow a man as terrible as Mister Jim Jones.

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