Jerry Jones was a curious kid at 14. It’s time for him to agitate for more than money.

Jerry Jones was 14, a few weeks shy of his 15th birthday.

Jones was just a “curious” kid, he says.

You know who else at age 14 was trying to be just a kid?

Emmett Till.

Google him if you need a reminder.

Tamir Rice was 12, playing with a replica toy gun outside a recreation center.

Trayvon Martin was 17, eating Skittles and walking home.

All got the death sentence from angry reactionary people while being kids.

Jones’ curiosity didn’t turn deadly at North Little Rock High School on Sept. 9, 1957 when six Black kids simply tried to enroll in school and attend classes.

They were blocked from entering the building by an angry mob of white students, some yelling racial epitaphs.

Jones, seen in a republished photo that has gained national attention, was there in the background, being curious, he said.

He says didn’t know what was going on or what might happen.

But we knew what could have happened. We don’t need 65 years of reflection to figure that one out.

The memories of the trauma of the Jim Crow south and civil rights movement are too vivid.

My dad, now 85, was 20 years old at the time, entering his senior year at Prairie View A&M after starting college at 16 and one year before beginning a teaching career at Greer School, an all-Black school in El Campo, Texas.

Full integration was still more than a decade away in Texas.

So it doesn’t take too much reflection or introspection to understand the climate and environment surrounding that fateful day at North Little Rock High School.

For reference, the incident at North Little Rock came at the same time a seminal moment in the desegregation movement occurred across town at Little Rock Central High School.

Seven days earlier, on Sept. 2, Arkansas Gov. Orval E. Faubus summoned the Arkansas National Guard to prevent integration at Little Rock Central.

After being blocked by the state national guard to open the school year, the now famous Little Rock Nine briefly broke the color barrier in Arkansas when they walked into class, escorted by the Little Rock Police Department on Sept. 23, through an angry mob of some 1,000 white protesters gathered outside.

Rioting ensued and the nine Black students were removed.

President Eisenhower intervened the following day, sending in 1,200 members of the U.S. Army’s 101st Airborne Division from Fort Campbell, Kentucky, and placed them in charge of the 10,000 National Guardsmen on duty.

Escorted by the troops, the Little Rock Nine attended their first full day of classes on Sept. 25.

The group experienced routine harassment and even violence throughout the rest of the school year.

One student, Melba Pattillo Beals, was kicked, beaten and had acid thrown in her face. Another, Gloria Ray, was pushed down a flight of stairs.

Minnijean Brown was expelled from Central High School in February 1958 for retaliating against the attacks.

Thankfully, there was no violent incidents that day at North Little Rock. But the emotional scars made an indelible impact on the six Black kids who were turned away by an angry mob.

Jones says he got his butt kicked by his football coach who told him to stay away but was left no worse for wear.

His curiosity was satisfied. That Jones refuses to offer regret or contrition about being present, even with the benefit of hindsight, is disappointing.

But 65 years later, that incident has no bearing on how Jones does his business as owner of the Cowboys.

It was simply a moment in time.

Kick his butt for his initial stance on players kneeling during the national anthem to protest police brutality against people of color.

He did evolve from demanding that “my players will stand with their toes on the line” in 2017 to asking for grace.

“What I do want to show and want us all to be a part of is a word called ‘grace’,” Jones said in 2020. “Grace. Not only grace in our actions, but grace in our understanding, where they’re coming from. I want our players to understand the perception and where they’re coming from regarding the flag and the sensitivity there and the many memories there. And I want our fans to understand I want where our players are coming from there. They do not feel like they’re dishonoring the flag. I’m going to have grace. I’ve had grace.

“This is a very serious matter. We’ve asked for the platform. As I mentioned earlier, we have the platform. We’re going to show grace. I’m going to show grace, and I’d like to show that kind of grace in a sensitive matter that comes up. Everybody’s genuine here; I’m giving everybody the benefit of the doubt relative to any decisions that I make.”

If you are going to examine Jones’ history, include it all.

It is also notable that his daughter, Charlotte, chose to attend the aforementioned and now fully diverse Little Rock Central for high school while her two brothers attended Catholic High School for Boys.

And while the Cowboys are one of 13 NFL teams to have never hired a Black head coach, they do employ one of the most diverse coaching staffs in the league.

Of the Cowboys’ 29 assistants on the 2022 staff, 15 are minorities, including the entire strength and conditioning staff which is the only one in the NFL made up of entirely Black coaches. It is the largest percentage of Black coaches in franchise history.

And well before making Dak Prescott the richest player in franchise history, Jones drafted Quincy Carter to be the team’s quarterback well before the current rise of the Black quarterback.

Carter was taken in the second round of in 2001, making him just the 12th Black quarterback in NFL history to be taken in the first two rounds of the NFL Draft.

And Will McClay runs the team’s scouting department as vice president of player personnel.

Jones was not trying to be a change maker; he was doing what he thought was best for the Cowboys.

That’s how he operates, he says.

It’s always business first.

That’s who he is and he makes no apologies for that. He also makes no apologies for standing in the background of a mob denying other kids looking for a better life at North Little Rock 65 years ago.

That’s no longer good enough. Nor is it noble.

Jones, who routinely talks about the platform he has with the Cowboys and the responsibility that comes with it, can and should do more when it comes to the league’s racial awakening as it relates to the lack of Black coaches. He has that type of platform, power and influence in the NFL.

It’s time for a curious kid, who tacitly blocked school entry in 1957, to be an agitator for more than just money and attention and push the door open for change.