Alberta O. Jones was one of the first Black women to pass the Kentucky Bar exam. She was the first woman appointed to the city attorney’s office in Jefferson County. She represented a young Muhammad Ali in business deals. And she worked to get scores of Black Louisvillians registered to vote.
Now, she may be the first Black woman to have a statue in downtown Louisville.
Jones’s promising life was cut short when she was murdered in the summer of 1965 at 34 years old. Police have not solved her case.
Her legacy lives on across the city. Central High School named a mock courtroom after her, Alberta O. Jones Park opened in the California neighborhood in 2023 and the Jefferson County Attorney’s office has a conference room named in her honor.
“It was late coming. My mother didn't live to see none of it,” said Jones’s sister, Flora Shanklin. “It didn't happen when I wanted it to happen. It's happening now, and it's good that it's happening at all.”
Now, some city officials want a statue of Jones in front of the Hall of Justice.
The idea came about around a year ago at the ribbon-cutting ceremony for the conference room.
Shanklin nudged Jefferson County Attorney Michael O’Connell, telling him, “we need a statute.”
“It would be something that people will recognize down through the years, and it's nothing that will deteriorate,” Shanklin said.
She hopes the statue will prompt people to ask questions about Jones and be inspired by her life.
“To make something of themselves,” Shanklin said.
O’Connell said he’s long been a champion for sharing Jones’s story and got started on the project soon after Shanklin’s urging.
“I think it's a disgrace that it has taken this long for Alberta to be remembered and recognized,” O’Connell said. “I felt this compulsion that this needed to happen for the whole community, but I especially want the lawyers to be aware of who this woman was.”
O’Connell commissioned, with the approval of Jones’s family, Oklahoma City-based sculptor LaQuincey Reed to complete the statue.
The aim is to have the statue placed and dedicated no later than spring of next year.
To pay for the statue and help maintain it, O’Connell said he’s raised more than $125,000 from various organizations and individual donors, like River City Bank, the Louisville Bar Foundation and, before his death, Junior Bridgeman.
O’Connell and Jones’s family are hoping to secure additional funding from the city to fund ongoing maintenance in the years ahead.
In his proposed 2025-2026 budget, Mayor Craig Greenberg earmarked $50,000 “for community public art projects.”
The Mayor’s spokesperson confirmed to LPM that most, if not all of that money, will be used towards the statue.
Greenberg said O’Connell brought the idea of a statue of Jones to him.
“I think that people in 2025 and beyond can learn a lot from her courage, from her creativity, from her intellect, from her energy and from her accomplishments,” Greenberg said. “And that's my hope as to what this statute does for everyone that comes into contact with it as they're entering or exiting our city's Hall of Justice.”
Metro Council is expected to approve and finalize a budget by the end of June. A public comment meeting is scheduled for May 22, and an online feedback form is open through June 9.
