The route William Jones III designed 15 years ago through predominantly Black neighborhoods in Charlottesville, Va., has become the impetus for a diverse running group that’s grown since the summer.
— Anna Katherine Clemmons, The New York Times
In 2006, William Jones III moved with his wife, Yolonda, to Charlottesville, Va. Two years before, Jones, who is Black, had started jogging regularly. But when he looked around Charlottesville, he saw only white people running.
“I said, ‘I got to see myself out here,’” Jones, 38, said. “We got to run in our neighborhoods. If I’m not seeing Black people running, then the people who really need to see Black people running are not seeing them either.”
So, he designed an almost five-mile route running through the city’s predominantly Black neighborhoods, beginning and ending at the Jefferson School, a community center that in 1926 had opened as the first high school in Charlottesville for African-Americans.