Arthur Jones, a Pulitzer Prize winning journalist from Boston, who went on to become deputy press secretary to President Bill Clinton, died on October 2, 2006 as a result of complications from treatment for leukemia. 

Arthur was diagnosed with chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) in 1997 and waged a nine-year battle against the disease that included two bone marrow transplants, the first in 1999 and the second in 2004.  In both cases, his doctors conducted unsuccessful international searches for compatible donors.  Bone marrow contains racially specific characteristics and the sad fact is that there is an extremely limited pool of potential matches within the black community.  In fact, less than 10 percent of all donors registered in the U.S. Donor Program are Black. 

Faced with that, Arthur's only recourse was to undergo a transplant using stem cells from two seperate umbilical cord donors. At that time, he and his wife Karen determined that when he recovered, they would dedicate their efforts to raise awareness and educate the black community about the importance and ease of bone marrow donor registration.

Just as Arthur’s legacy in life was to educate and inform the public through the media, so too will the Arthur Jones Bone Marrow Donor Initiative direct its efforts to spotlight the work of donor registration organizations and bone marrow banks across the country and to increase black participation in those programs. 

Mission Statement:

The goal of the AJ Bone Marrow Donor Initiative is to increase the pool of potential bone marrow donors within the black community across America.  This includes blacks of African and Caribbean descent.  Since bone marrow contains racially specific characteristics, the odds of a black finding a matching donor within the predominantly-white U.S. Donor Program are miniscule.   It is crucial that blacks register in blood and stem cell donor banks to increase the chances for survival for other blacks confronted with life threatening illnesses like cancer, Multiple Sclerosis, Parkinson’s and sickle cell anemia, to name a few.