Spencer Harold "Sonny" JamesonBorn:
November 9, 1926
New York, NY
Died:
September 17, 1994
New York, NY
Career
1943-44 Dewitt Clinton High School - Brooklyn (High School)
1944-45 Dewitt Clinton High School - Brooklyn (High School)
1945-46 CCNY (College)
1946-47 CCNY (College)
1947-48 CCNY (College)
1948-49 CCNY (College)
1949-50 Waterbury Coppers (EBL-Ct)
1949-50 New York Harlem Yankees (ABL)
1949-50 Cohoes Marras (ABL)
1951-52 Saratoga / Schenectady Yankees (ABL)
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He was in the Pan Am Olympics, on basketball team (when Americans of color were not admitted to the US Olympics). Worked for the NYC Youth Board socializing fighting gangs in Red Hook Brkln. Got an MA degree from NYU in Human Relations, then taught Social Studies to high school age inmates in Rikers Jail. He was offered high level positions in the Poverty Program of the 1960s-70s but turned down fame and fortune because he wanted to teach kids in trouble. He had kids accused of crimes from truancy to murder in the same classroom, some almost illiterate others pre-college. He would choose a theme like Joy or Trust... the kids who had very little schooling would cut out pix from old magazines to communicate their thoughts visually, others would write stories or essays, some would paint. The ones who couldn't spell would dictate stories or thoughts into a recorder. A classroom of deep learning despite each kid living in terror, waiting for trial, release or upstate prison.
ReplyDeleteHe was in the Pan Am Olympics, on basketball team (when Americans of color were not admitted to the US Olympics). Worked for the NYC Youth Board socializing fighting gangs in Red Hook Brkln. Got an MA degree from NYU in Human Relations, then taught Social Studies to high school age inmates in Rikers Jail.
ReplyDeleteHe was offered high level positions in the Poverty Program of the 1960s-70s but turned down fame and fortune because he wanted to teach kids in trouble. He had kids accused of crimes from truancy to murder in the same classroom, some almost illiterate others pre-college. He would choose a theme like Joy or Trust... the kids who had very little schooling would cut out pix from old magazines to communicate their thoughts visually, others would write stories or essays, some would paint. The ones who couldn't spell would dictate stories or thoughts into a recorder.
A classroom of deep learning despite each kid living in terror, waiting for trial, release or upstate prison. Sometimes a young man - sometimes white, black, or Spanish - would run up to him in the NYC subway - "Mr. Jameson! You saved my life!"
Thank you SO MUCH for your insight. I love to learn about people like Sonny and their accomplishments off the court. He sounds like a remarkable man.
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