James Warren Jones was born May 13, 1931, in the small town of Lynn, Indiana. His father was an active member of the Ku Klux Klan, and his mother was a factory worker. From early childhood, Jim Jones was exposed to Pentecostal Christianity which would penetrate his entire life. After his parents divorced in 1945, Jones moved with his mother to Indianapolis, Indiana and eventually attended Butler University. Here he developed two areas of concern that would dominate his thinking and beliefs for the rest of his life: racial integration and socialism.

Throughout the 1950’s, Jones became increasingly involved in religion. He became a preacher of racial tolerance and integration, as well as Christian beliefs. Jones joined numerous churches as a preacher, but found resistance in many to the idea of racial equality. By 1955 he had founded the Peoples Temple Full Gospel Church and it was accepted in the Christian Church in 1960. As his church grew and changed locations, Jones became more and more concerned with socialism and developed an anti-capitalist sentiment. To him, "It seemed gross…that one human being would have so much more than another…I couldn’t come to terms with capitalism in any way." In the late 1960’s and early 70’s, Jones and his Peoples Temple became based in Northern California, mainly in San Francisco.

Jones was criticized by many for his preaching and claims to have healing powers and raised people from the dead. By the 1970’s the Peoples Temple had more than 3,000 members. And in 1973, the first possibility of mass suicide by the group became evident out of reaction to attacks on the church. In 1974, the first members of the group moved to what would become known as Jonestown in Guyana. In this town named for the leader of the Peoples Temple, members and Jones himself sought to find refuge from what they saw as the capitalist, brutal society of the United States. By 1977, over 1,000 people were occupying Jonestown, and as it grew, more and more suspicion and attack came upon the settlement. Former members told of "brainwashing, coercion, forced labor, tortuous punishments, and denial of any contact with the outside world." With cries of "Human Rights Violations" within Jonestown, the settlement and its leader became under the focus of the U.S. Government.

In November of 1978, Congressman Leo Ryan of California and a team of reporters and relatives of those in Jonestown went to evaluate the community. When the delegation attempted to take fifteen unhappy members with them, they were ambushed. Ryan, one defector, and three reporters were killed. Then, the next day, the entire village of Jonestown committed mass suicide, leaving dead 913 Americans and one Guyanese citizen.

These events were captured and shown throughout the United States and the entire world. The horrible scenes portrayed raised questions and doubts in the minds of many about why and how such a thing could occur. Jim Jones became an overnight demagogue and face of evil. He used the suicide of 1,000 people in an attempt to change the world. His last words were: "We didn’t commit suicide, we committed an act of revolutionary suicide protesting conditions of an inhuman world."

This radicalism dumbfounded the world and changed the way many people thought about society and religion. The number of religious cults has increased dramatically since then, and there is no doubt Jonestown and its leader had a direct effect on this. Jim Jones altered the way people look at religion and society. In a volatile time he committed an incredibly explosive act. Was it the work of selfishly aimed brainwashing, or was it valid philosophy and revolutionary thought? The majority of the world believes the first. But in any case, Jim Jones did effect the world. For good or for bad, that is up to each individual to decide. One thing is for sure, though. If Jones did not exist, our world would be different to some degree, most likely a serious one. In one way or another, his life and his experience changed the religious, societal, and political history of the United States and other nations.