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C H A M I N A DE M AGAZI NE
T R A N S F O R M A T I V E
EXPERIENCE WHEN SAM JONES STARTED TAKING EVENING CLASSES AT CHAMINADE, HE WASN’T EXPECTING TO BECOME A LAWYER— LET ALONE A MEMBER OF THE NATIONAL BLACK LAWYERS TOP 100, AN ELITE ORGANIZATION OF PREDOMINANTLY AFRICAN AMERICAN ATTORNEYS. LAW SCHOOL SEEMED OUT OF REACH. BUT THEN AGAIN, THERE WAS A TIME IN JONES’ LIFE WHEN COLLEGE ALSO SEEMED OUT OF REACH.
SURVIVING CHILDHOOD
Jones’ upbringing was one of survival. He grew up in an impoverished neighborhood in Philadelphia and didn’t have much of a relationship with his birth parents. He had a few experiences with foster families, but didn’t feel comfortable in those environments. By the time he was an adolescent, he was hiding out and living in a local boxing gym. “The fighters would come in and I would watch them and also box a little bit,” recalls Jones. “Before closing, I’d run upstairs and hide in the locker room and they would lock up and I would stay there.” Occasionally one of the fighters would give him pocket change to run an errand or take care of their gear, and he would use the money to buy cookies. He lived off of those cookies. Sometimes he went to school. His school didn’t pay much attention to the whereabouts of their students at the time. When he did attend, it was uncomfortable—he had such a strong sense of not belonging. “I never felt like I belonged, because I was the person that was not normal,” says Jones. But even with his absences, school came easy to him. As long as he did some of the readings, he passed his tests. Though he knew his experiences were different, he didn’t think about them the way that the world does now. “When you’re a child, you don’t really know that you’re malnourished or poor,” he explains. “You know you don’t have a normal life because you don’t have a mom or dad to go home to, but you don’t know the extent of your poverty and neglect.” While a part of him longed for a traditional family setting, he got used to the independence his lifestyle provided. It was peaceful.
