Washington, D.C. — Today, the Center for American Progress welcomed former Alabama Sen. Doug Jones (D) as a distinguished senior fellow. At CAP, Jones will focus on racial equity and social justice issues, as well as criminal justice and democracy reform.
“Sen. Jones has been a leader in the fight for civil rights for decades,” said John Podesta, founder of the Center for American Progress. “At this critical moment, I’m grateful that the former senator will bring to CAP his deep expertise and commitment to racial equity and strengthening our democracy.”
“Events over the past year have brought our country to a moment of reckoning on matters of race and justice, including inequities in health care, education, income and voting rights,” said Sen. Jones. “With this moment, we have an opportunity to fulfill our obligation to future generations of Americans to protect the gains made over the last half-century and set the country firmly on the path of progress. I look forward to working with CAP to develop and promote policies that can help move us toward a more perfect realization of our founding ideals.”
In 2017, Jones became the first Alabama Democrat elected to statewide office in 15 years when he was elected to represent the state in the U.S. Senate. During his three years in the Senate, he led or co-led 25 bills that became law, including the Civil Rights Cold Case Records Collection Act. From 1997 to 2001, he served as U.S. attorney for the Northern District of Alabama. In this role, he reopened and successfully prosecuted two Ku Klux Klan members for their roles in in the 1963 bombing of the 16th Street Baptist Church, which killed four little girls. He also coordinated the state and federal task force that oversaw the investigation that led to the prosecution of Eric Robert Rudolph for the Birmingham women’s clinic bombing in 1998. Jones is a graduate of the University of Alabama and Cumberland School of Law.
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