Barbara O. Jones, an actress in the independent Black cinema of 1970s Los Angeles in films like Bush Mama and Daughters of the Dust , died on April 8 at her home in Dayton, Ohio. She was 82.
Her brother, Marlon Minor, confirmed the death to the New York Times and said the cause had not been determined.
Jones moved from the Midwest in search of a film career, and became active in the U.C.L.A. film school, a movement that has been called the L.A. Rebellion.
She appeared in several short student films, including Child of Resistance (1973), in which she played an imprisoned activist loosely based on Angela Davis, and Diary of an African Nun (1977), adapted from a short story by Alice Walker.
Her first leading role in a feature film was in Bush Mama (1979). The movie’s story followed the daily life of Dorothy, played by Jones. The film was about a working-class Black woman struggling with a daily life rarely seen in films of that era.