Jean Rice

Jean Rice was born on July 1st, 1939 during American Apartheid in Anderson, South Carolina. Jean was deeply impacted by the ever present threat of the Jim Crow south and the way that racism manifested in the North. He was also deeply inspired by his grandfather D.M. Sloan’s resilience and that of other Afro-Americans in his family and faith community. D.M. Sloan supplemented his meager income from sharecropping by moonshining, saving enough money to send his three daughters and their children north. One of those daughters was Jean’s mom, Lizzie. Jean and his mother, along with his aunts, cousins, and extended family, travelled to New York City as part of the Great Migration, settling in Harlem, on 141st between Lenox and Seventh Ave, in his Aunt Willie’s seven room railroad flat, around the corner from the stories Savoy Ballroom.

Defense industry jobs had opened up for African-Americans based on the Equal Employment Act and folks who had worked as sharecroppers and domestic workers down South joined the defense industry labor force, as Jean’s did in 1944.

Jean attended public schools in Harlem and Brooklyn, N.Y. His education was supplemented by extended trips back down South. When he was 16 years old he was sent back down South for “family raising” after some brushes with gang activity in Brooklyn. This was in the 1950’s and he was infuriated at the prohibitions against any sort of race mixing and the danger it presented for Afro-Americans. Jean found two drunk men he could bribe to forge his birth certificate and joined the Army. His first episode of incarceration happened soon thereafter. While he graduated high school while still incarcerated a few years later he was arrested again, and this time sent to Attica, not yet 25 years old. In between those two episodes, Jean married and became a young father. It was then that he began his career hustling, selling marijuana and managing sex workers, or as he describes it, participating in the underground economy.

Jean attributes his knowledge of law to a fellow Attica inmate, Virgil Carter. Jean participated in his own defense and won his release from Attica, just prior to the infamous riots in 1963. Jean continued working in the underground economy, spending the next nearly two decades working in the drug trade up and down the east coast. Retiring from that life, he was arrested again for carrying a concealed weapon, this time landing him in prison in Connecticut, where his attorney negotiated an early release deal for him, and he enrolled in college. From 1979 through 1981 Jean attended Norwalk Community College in Norwalk Connecticut, where he studied Criminal Justice administration earning a place on the Deans List. While attending Norwalk Community College he was president of the Black Student Union and also served as the community liaison for then Deputy Mayor Otha Brown, Jr. He received a full scholarship to John Jay College of Criminal Justice in New York City and moved back to 141st with his Willie and Bessie. It was after his Aunt Willie’s tragic murder that Jean eventually became addicted to crack cocaine and homeless. Jean spent roughly 30 on the streets of New York City, picking up cans for the 5 cent deposit. It was in the spring of 2001 that his cousin Prince told him about Picture the Homeless (PTH), a homeless led, grass roots organization fighting against police harassment and for the rights of folks like Jean to keep their livelihood, but to enjoy the same rights as every other New Yorkers. Jean became a civil rights leader with PTH, and is a founding member of the board of the organization. While at PTH, he founded the Jean Rice Liberation Reference Library, for which he received an honorary proclamation from the New York City Council. Through PTH Jean met folks at the Poverty Initiative, becoming a member of the first cohort of the Poverty Scholars, which has evolved into the National Poor People’s Campaign. Jean is the father of two daughters, a grandfather and great grandfather and is affectionately known to many as “the Professor” He is a sought after public speaker, particularly in the area of police reform, remains a board member of Picture the Homeless and is a member of StoptheSweepsNYC.