By now, everybody knows my friend Jamele Ransom. He’s the Southwest Philly crossing guard who went viral on May 5, after he nearly got hit by a car, then rescued a child, and talked about what happened on NBC10, while eating a Mr. Softee.
We caught up on the last day of public school here in Philly, a day a lot like the 81-degree one when Jamele became a hero.
Listen to the interview edition here:
He was sitting in the shade outside Mitchell Elementary at 55th and Kingsessing, talking to some students. “The next thing you know, it’s like you can’t believe what you’re about to see, because you hear something — Bam! — and you see a car coming towards you, and you just don’t know what to do, besides just run,” he says. By the time he bobbed and weaved out of the way, the car had crashed into the schoolyard.
“I want to call it an out-of-body experience, where I didn’t even think about myself anymore, I just thought about the kids, just trying to make sure nobody was hurt.” After he pulled a child out from under some crushed monkey bars, he “put myself back together, broke down, made the calls that I needed to call,” accepted a cone from the operator of a Mister Softee truck parked nearby and agreed to do an interview on NBC10.
Before he knew it, that interview was racking up 15 million views, and Jimmy Kimmel was shouting Jamele out on his late night show. “I don’t think I got back to myself right till next week,” he says.
Here’s the thing about Jamele. He was just being himself. He loves kids and has got personality to spare — my Nan would call that “lightskin.” And he’s not just a crossing guard. I met him back when I was starting my Streetgazing column for the Philadelphia Daily News and he had a vintage shop at 7th and Girard called Culture Couture. Jamele was the first person I photographed for my column.
Jamele grew up in Southwest at 55th and Kingsessing, “right where the accident happened,” he says. His mom, a multi-sport athlete at John Bartram High, was 17 when she had him, so he was raised by his great aunt and uncle. His mom would go on to be a self-made businesswoman and creative. He sees a lot of his mom in himself.
“I picked up her artist ways. She was a photographer and a videographer as a young person, an entrepreneur as well,” he says. She was also a little bit like me. “She made cakes and cookies at all the state fairs that I can remember,” Jamele says. His first artistic passion: Fashion.
Way before he was crossing kids on their way to and from Mitchell, he worked in sales at Neiman Marcus and developed his own look. “I always had street style, sophisticated style. I call it ‘church style.’” He was the inspiration and stylist for Jidenna’s Classic Man music video.
Later, he shadowed me on my photo shoots for my line, LipHeelé and became the visual director for Suitsupply — a move that his peers at Neiman’s doubted, but Jamele points out, today, “Saks and Neiman’s are on the brink of bankruptcy,” while Suitsupply’s still around.
This summer he plans to enjoy Philly, and work on his treatment for an Abbott Elementary spinoff based on “a vision that this needs to be highlighted outside of the school.” He’ll head back to his corner when school starts. “I love this city, and I love the kids. I love my job, so I’m gonna just go full throttle ahead.” That’s Jamele Ransom.
West Philly born and raised with a slosh of Brooklyn, Big Rube partnered with Mitchell & Ness in 2000 to help make it a global brand marketing and selling high-end throwback jerseys. He has been photographing Philly since 2009, including in a Daily News Column from 2011 to 2017. He’s also a chef, preparing to open his own space in 2026.
MORE FROM BIG RUBE’S PHILLY
