Adrienne Lash Jones spent her career at Oberlin College, retiring as emerita associate professor of African-American studies. She graduated from Fisk University (B.A., 1956), then went on to earn an M.A. and Ph.D. in American studies from Case Western Reserve University. Her doctoral dissertation, Jane Edna Hunter: A Case Study of Black Leadership, 1915–1950, was published in 1983 and again in 1990 as part of a 16-volume series, Black Women in United States History. Her husband, L. Morris Jones, M.D., was one of the first African-American physicians to open a practice in Cleveland’s Hough neighborhood.

Jones served on the boards of Karamu House, Federation for Community Planning and Women’s Community Foundation, and was national vice president of the YWCA. Past professional affiliations include Black Women’s Historians, Organization of American Historians, American Studies Association and National Association for the Study of African American Life and History. An emeritus trustee of the Cleveland Museum of Art, she remains busy as a community activist.