Who is Van Jones? | His Wife, Education & Net Worth

Van Jones aka Anthony Kapel “Van” Jones (born September 20, 1968) is an American journalist, author, and lawyer who specializes in news and politics. He is a three-time New York Times bestselling book. A CNN host and commentator, and an Emmy Award winner, as well as the co-founder of multiple non-profit organizations.

Moreover, Jones was a distinguished visiting fellow at Princeton University. In fact, served as President Barack Obama’s Special Advisor for Green Jobs in 2009. Also, The Ella Baker Center for Human Rights, Color of Change, and the Dream Corps are among the non-profit organizations he created or co-founded. Moreover, Dream Corps is a social justice accelerator with three advocacy initiatives. Also, They are Dream Corps Justice, Dream Corps Tech, and Dream Corps Youth.

Biography of Van Jones

Anthony Kapel Jones and his twin sister Angela were born on September 20, 1968, in Jackson, Tennessee. Likewise, to Loretta Jean Jones, a high school teacher, and Willie Anthony Jones, a middle school principal. In fact, His sister described him as “the prototypical geek” as a child, who “just kind of lived up in his mind a lot.” Jones has described himself as “bookish and odd” as a child. Jones attended his grandfather to religious conferences since he was a leader in the Christian Methodist Episcopal Church. He’d sit in “these hot, steamy black churches” all day, listening to the adults.

Jones was born after President John F. Kennedy, Martin Luther King Jr., and Robert F. Kennedy were assassinated, but as he learned more about their work, he became attached to them as heroic figures. Moreover, In his specially designated “Kennedy Section,” he posted images of the Kennedy brothers on a bulletin board in his room. Indeed, He dressed up his Star Wars action figures as Kennedy-era politicians as a child, with Luke Skywalker as John, Han Solo as Robert, and Lando Calrissian as Martin Luther King Jr.

Van Jones Education

Jones attended Jackson Central-Merry High School, a public high school in his hometown, where he graduated in 1986. He graduated from the University of Tennessee at Martin with a bachelor’s degree in communication and political science (UT Martin). Jones also interned at The Jackson Sun (Tennessee), the Shreveport Times (Louisiana), and the Associated Press during this time (Nashville bureau). When he was 17 and working at The Jackson Sun, he got the moniker “Van.” Jones assisted in the founding and leadership of a number of independent, campus-based newspapers while at UT Martin. The University of Tennessee’s Fourteenth Circle, Vanderbilt University’s Periscope, Tennessee’s New Alliance Project, and Nashville’s African-American community’s Third Eye were among them. Jones later said that UT Martin helped him prepare for a bigger life.

Jones relocated to Connecticut to attend Yale Law School after deciding against journalism. He was one of several law students invited by the Lawyers Committee for Human Rights, based in San Francisco, to participate as legal observers to the protests sparked by the Rodney King beating and trial in 1992. In a videotaped event, King was assaulted by police officers. Three of the policemen were found not guilty, while the jury couldn’t agree on the fourth officer’s fate. During the protests, Jones and others were arrested, but the charges against Jones were ultimately dropped by the district attorney. Jones and the other arrested protestors were awarded minor legal compensation.

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“The incident reinforced my dissatisfaction with the system and advanced my political radicalization,” Jones subsequently claimed. The trial and verdict had a profound impact on Jones. Jones remarked in an October 2005 interview that before the King verdict, he was “a noisy nationalist on April 28th,” but that by August 1992, he had become a communist. Jones’ involvement was also fueled by his observations of profound racial inequity in New Haven, Connecticut, particularly when it came to drug prosecution: “I was watching kids at Yale consume drugs and freely talk about it, with no consequences or, if anything, being sent to rehab… Then I saw youngsters three blocks away, in the housing projects, consume the same drugs in lower amounts and end up in prison.” Jones arrived to San Francisco after graduating from law school with a Juris doctorate in 1993, “trying to be a revolutionary,” in his own words.

He became involved with a number of left-wing activists and co-founded the socialist group Standing Together to Organize a Revolutionary Movement (STORM). It held demonstrations against police brutality, study groups on Marx and Lenin’s teachings, and aimed to a multi-racial socialist utopia.

Van Jones in CNN

Jones, along with Newt Gingrich, Stephanie Cutter, and S.E. Cupp, was named as a co-host of a re-boot of CNN’s political discussion show Crossfire in June 2013. The new edition of Crossfire premiered on September 16, 2013, however by October 2014, the show had been canceled.
Jones launched The Messy Truth, a news feature documentary series, in 2016 and followed it up with The Messy Truth with Van Jones, a studio discussion series that aired on CNN in 2017. Van debuted The Van Jones Show on CNN in 2018, and his first guest was Jay-Z.
Jones began The Redemption Project with Van Jones in 2019, a show dedicated to restorative justice and bringing “offenders face to face with the people most harmed” in 2019.

Van Jones Ex-Wife

Van Jones and Jana Carter divorced in 2020 after 13 years of marriage. She is former US President Jimmy Carter’s niece. She graduated from Yale Law School and worked for the Oakland Unified School District and other law companies before marrying Jones. Carter filed for divorce from Jones in September 2018 after the couple married in 2005 and had been together for more than a decade.

“Divorce means the end of a marriage, not the end of a family,” Jones wrote on Instagram about his impending divorce. #FamilyForever.”

“Though we have decided to terminate our marriage, we still love each other very much,” the political pundit stated in a statement to People.

Quick facts about Van Jones

Anthony Kapel “Van” Jones (born September 20, 1968) is an American journalist, author, and lawyer who specializes in news and politics. He is a three-time New York Times bestselling book, a CNN host and commentator, and an Emmy Award winner, as well as the co-founder of multiple non-profit organizations.

Anthony Kapel Jones and his twin sister Angela were born on September 20, 1968, in Jackson, Tennessee. He is currently 52 years old.

Van Jones’ net worth is estimated $5million.

Anthony Kapel “Van” Jones (born September 20, 1968) is an American journalist, author, and lawyer who specializes in news and politics. He is a three-time New York Times bestselling book, a CNN host and commentator, and an Emmy Award winner, as well as the co-founder of multiple non-profit organizations.

While Kardashian has stated that she is not dating Jones, the status of her divorce procedures with West is unknown. After weeks of speculations that they were divorcing, Kardashian filed for divorce from West in February.