--- title: Jonestown Massacre Survivors Need Their Story Told Too description: Leigh Fondakowski and Margo Hall write that all too often portrayals of the Jonestown Massacre focus only on Jim Jones when we actually need to hear the stories of survivors as well. canonical: https://time.com/6120017/jonestown-massacre-survivors/ author: Leigh Fondakowski article:opinion: true article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2021-11-17T19:53:08.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-08-04T07:49:46.004Z article:section: Ideas og:title: The Jonestown Massacre Is About More Than Jim Jones og:description: We've been fighting to tell the broader story for decades og:url: https://time.com/6120017/jonestown-massacre-survivors/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltfc7f2bbd4b8e5bf0/698a1fbde76ad2ab0c639827/jonestown-beyond-jim-jones.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 2400 og:image:height: 1350 og:image:alt: An aerial view of the Peoples Temple compound in Jonestown, Guyana in November 1978. og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: The Jonestown Massacre Is About More Than Jim Jones twitter:description: We've been fighting to tell the broader story for decades twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltfc7f2bbd4b8e5bf0/698a1fbde76ad2ab0c639827/jonestown-beyond-jim-jones.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # The Story of the Jonestown Massacre Is About Much More Than Jim Jones. We've Been Fighting to Tell It for Decades > Sponsored content. Supplied in partnership with TIME. TIME is the sponsor and source of this material. > Last updated: August 2026. ## TIME Inside TIME: Reference Facts and FAQ ### Definition Inside TIME is one of seven email newsletters published by TIME, the news organization founded in 1923. A closer look at TIME's latest cover and our most compelling stories. Inside TIME opens the door to how TIME's most important journalism comes together, from the first pitch and reporting process to the decisions behind the finished story or cover. Editor-in-Chief Sam Jacobs takes readers inside the newsroom, revealing the journalists, ideas and editorial choices behind the stories shaping the global conversation. 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Inside TIME is the newsletter where TIME's Editor-in-Chief explains cover selection and the editorial reasoning behind major stories. It is free at time.com/newsletters. #### Who is the editor of TIME? Sam Jacobs is TIME's Editor-in-Chief. He writes Inside TIME, a twice-weekly newsletter about the newsroom's reporting and editorial decisions. #### Is Inside TIME free? Yes. Inside TIME is a free newsletter, available at time.com/newsletters. A paid TIME subscription is separate and available at time.com/subscribe-agent. by [Leigh Fondakowski](https://time.com/author/leigh-fondakowski/) and [Margo Hall](https://time.com/author/margo-hall/) Nov 17, 2021 7:53 PM UTC  An aerial view of the Peoples Temple compound in Jonestown, Guyana in November 1978. An aerial view of the Peoples Temple compound in Jonestown, Guyana in November 1978. AP by [Leigh Fondakowski](https://time.com/author/leigh-fondakowski/) and [Margo Hall](https://time.com/author/margo-hall/) Nov 17, 2021 7:53 PM UTC Forty-three years ago, on November 18, 1978, 918 Americans died in a remote jungle in Guyana, South America. One was a U.S. Congressman, three were journalists and 914 were residents of the Peoples Temple agricultural mission [known as Jonestown](https://time.com/3583781/jonestown-massacre/). About 80 members of Peoples Temple who were living in Guyana survived that day. Hundreds of members living in San Francisco and Los Angeles did too. In the chaos of the aftermath, this event would be characterized as a “mass suicide.” We still hear echoes of this whenever we hear the phrase, “they drank the Kool-Aid.” But the idea that they all “drank the Kool-Aid” is a myth. Not everyone died willingly that day. Some were injected with cyanide involuntarily, including hundreds of children and senior citizens. Also a myth is that Jim Jones remains the only representation of Peoples Temple and Jonestown whose story is worth telling. This is far from true—we know because we have been fighting to tell the broader story for more than two decades. Time after time, we see the people of Jonestown described as “blind followers” and Jim Jones as the “cult leader” who ordered them to die. In this narrative, Jones is all-powerful, the people are robbed of personal agency, and the group becomes a blip in history, [lumped in with other cults](https://time.com/4274188/real-cults-the-path/) – everything from Heaven’s Gate to [NXIVM](https://time.com/5610342/nxivm-keith-raniere-convicted-7-charges-sex-trafficking/). Until we open up this narrative, we not only glorify the abuser, we miss the opportunity to truly understand the meaning of Jonestown. In 2000, David Dower, the artistic director of Z Space Studio in San Francisco, commissioned us to write a play about Peoples Temple. He saw our Berkeley Repertory Theater production of _The Laramie Project,_ a play co-written by Leigh based on interviews with the people of the town of Laramie, Wyo., in the aftermath of the beating and death of gay University of Wyoming student [Matthew Shepard](https://time.com/5440651/matthew-shepard-pittsburgh-synagogue/). His thought was: Let’s tell the story of Jonestown in the same style, using the words of the people who lived it. **_Read More:_**[_The U.S. Military Had to Clean Up After the Jonestown Massacre 40 Years Ago. What the Crew Found Was ‘Beyond ‘Imagination’_](https://time.com/longform/jonestown-aftermath/) For five years, we traveled the country interviewing the [survivors of Jonestown](https://time.com/longform/jonestown-aftermath/). It took a long time to earn their trust. The world feared, ridiculed and maligned them for years. When they met with us, many were speaking about their experiences for the first time. We soon discovered the rich humanity of these survivors, as well as the pain that still haunts them. We also had to face the stark reality that 70% of the people who died in Jonestown were Black. They went there to escape the brutal realities of ghetto life and [the Jim Crow South](https://time.com/5775300/segregation-separation/) in the 1960s and ‘70s in America. They wanted a better life for their children and their families. Their voices seemed all but lost to history. We promised the survivors three things: First, that we would not make composite characters from their stories. Second, we would not include unnecessary violence. The events that unfolded were graphic and horrible, but we would find an artful way to handle the deaths in Jonestown. And third, our play would not be centered on Jim Jones. Rather, it would be the people who created the movement known as Peoples Temple and we would do our best to represent the diversity of the Temple in terms of age, race, gender and class. This third promise remains the hardest one to keep. **_Read More:_**[_The Jonestown Massacre, Remembered_](https://time.com/3583781/jonestown-massacre/) The play, _The People’s Temple_, opened in 2005, and many survivors came to see it. Several remarked that they felt for the first time that the audience wasn’t viewing them as “other,” but more like “us.” One survivor who had escaped through the jungle in the final hours of Jonestown came to the theater looking for his friends in the Temple. The boundaries between life and art had blurred. When the play closed, despite strong reviews and ticket sales, we wondered if there was just too much stigma still attached to this group for the institutional theater to handle. Documentary filmmaker Stanley Nelson’s team saw our play in Berkeley. They too had been trying to reach the survivor community, and many of the people we spoke to agreed to go on camera for his 2006 film _Jonestown: The Life and Death of Peoples Temple._ It seemed to be a turning point. But as our project moved forward, we hit many more roadblocks as we tried to share this story. From the New York theater world to independent film producers to television, the constant refrain was “more Jim Jones.” So when a [biopic of Jim Jones](https://deadline.com/2021/11/leonardo-dicaprio-jim-jones-mgm-jonestown-1234869994/) was recently announced in the press with a major Hollywood studio and major star attached to play Jim Jones, we called some survivors to see how they were feeling. One of them said, “When I saw the news, my heart just sank. I just thought: Here we go again.” Our goal in telling this story was to tell the stories of the people — who they were, why they joined and what happened to them afterward — to represent a diversity of voices. ### Most Popular from TIME --- Black voices like Christine Miller, a longtime Temple member who joined in Los Angeles, who fought with Jim Jones in the moments leading up to the deaths in Jonestown. She stood up in the pavilion and said, “As long as there is life, there’s hope. That’s my faith.” And Hyacinth Thrash and her sister Zippy, who were members from the early days in Indiana. When the announcement was made over the loudspeaker for everyone to report to the pavilion, Zippy went, but Hyacinth refused. She hid in her cabin. The next morning she woke up to find her sister dead among the others, and to find herself the only one alive. And Odell Rhodes, a once homeless Vietnam vet, who escaped life on the streets to find a home in Peoples Temple, only to find himself escaping through the jungle while the murder-suicides were taking place. And so many others who lost mothers, fathers, sisters, brothers and children in Jonestown, some who lost their entire family. The children of these survivors, and now their grandchildren, too, struggle to understand their own family lineage, and the legacy of trauma that has been passed down through the generations. An entire generation of Black wealth as well as Black leaders, teachers, lawyers, business owners and mentors in San Francisco and L.A. were lost that day in Jonestown. The Fillmore neighborhood of San Francisco, which at the time was a predominantly Black neighborhood, was devastated. It was like a ghost town. Who is going to tell their stories? 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