The Rat That Got Away A Bronx Memoir

by Jones, Allen; Naison, Mark

• ISBN13: 9780823231027
• ISBN10: 082323102X
• Edition: 3rd
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2009-09-01
• Publisher: Fordham University Press

Summary

The Rat That Got Awayis an inspiring story of one man's odyssey from the streets of the Bronx to a life as a professional athlete and banker in Europe, but it is also provides a unique vantage point on the history of the Bronx and sheds new light on a neglected period in American urban history.Allen Jones grew up in a public housing project in the South Bronx at a time—the 1950's—when that neighborhood was place of optimism and hope for upwardly mobile Black and Latino families. Brought up in a two parent household, with many neighborhood mentors, Jones led an almost charmed life as a budding basketball star until his teen years, when his once peaceful neighborhood was torn by, job losses, white flight and a crippling drug epidemic. Drawn into the heroin trade, first as a user, then a dealer, Jones spent four months on Rikers Island, where he experienced a crisis of conscience and a determination to turn his life around. Sent to a New England prep school upon his release, Jones used his basketball skills and street smarts to forge a life outside the Bronx, first as a college athlete in the South, then as a professional basketball player, radio personality and banker in Europe.A brilliant story teller with a gift for dialogue, Jones brings Bronx streets and housing projects to life as places of possibility as well as tragedy, where racism and economic hardship never completely suppressed the resilient spirit of its residents. A book that will change the way people view the South Bronx.

Author Biography

Allen Jones, born in the Bronx, is a manager for foreign currency exchange at Dexia Banque Internationale at Luxembourg.

Mark Naison is Professor of African American Studies and History at Fordham University, where he also directs the Bronx African American History Project. He is the author of three books, including White Boy: A Memoir.

Table of Contents

Preface	p. vii
Introduction by Mark Naison	p. xi
Bronx Beginnings	p. 1
Oil and Water: An Unlikely Marriage	p. 6
Spare the Rod, Spoil the Child: Family	p. 11
Love of God and the Lure of the Streets	p. 15
The South Bronx by Day and Night	p. 19
Lost and Found: Welcome to the '60s	p. 25
The Rules of the Game	p. 31
The Lessons of Sex	p. 37
Gains and Losses	p. 44
1963 and Me	p. 49
What Women Want	p. 53
The Summer of Unrest: 1964	p. 57
The Streets Are Alive: Summer of '65	p. 63
Hustle and Heart, on and off Court	p. 70
Becoming a Subject to the Bitch Queen Heroin	p. 74
Welcome to Hell	p. 79
Shifting Loyalties	p. 83
The Road to The Tombs	p. 88
Do the Crime, Do the Time	p. 98
Judgment Day	p. 106
Free at Last! Free at Last...	p. 114
Cornwall Academy	p. 122
Summer Schooling	p. 128
Going to College	p. 135
College: Round II	p. 146
Passage to Europe	p. 153
Homecoming	p. 160
The Year of the French	p. 165
A New Life in Luxembourg	p. 173
Finding My Groove	p. 178
Standing on Higher Ground	p. 183
Acknowledgments	p. 191
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