Esau jenkins biography of williams
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The Progressive Club of Johns Island
Community Story
- Activism
- Education
- Civil Rights & Black Power, 1945-1975
Founders Esau and Janie B. Jenkins
Janie B. Jenkins and family
The influential civil rights activists Esau and Janie B. Jenkins devoted their lives to their Johns Island, South Carolina, community. After his mother died when he was nine, Esau quit school to help his father and got a job on a boat to provide money for the family. In 1926, at age 16, he married Janie Elizabeth Jones. Together they had 13 children, seven of whom graduated from college. While raising their children they ran several successful businesses, including a truck farm.
The Jenkinses also helped to create the Progressive Club, which operated the first Citizenship School in the nation. Along with the school, the Progressive Club housed a gas station, a grocery store, and a place to sleep. It was an important gathering place for members of the Johns Island community.
Creating the Progressive Club of Johns Island
Progressive Club member Alice Wine and two children inside the club
Esau Jenkins attended the Highlander Folk School in Tennessee, a training center for labor and civil rights activists from across the United States. There, he discussed strategies
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Esau Jenkins and the Progressive Club
ByAmanda RossonApril 6, 2011inGuest Contributor
This semester, the Avery Research Center has greatly benefited from the services of three interns. In today’s post, TJ Fielder, a senior and political science major at the College of Charleston, shares some of what he learned as he worked with the Esau Jenkins papers.
History is all around us. As a student at the College of Charleston, I never took the time to recognize the vast history that surrounds me. It was not until my senior year at the college that I was granted the opportunity to intern at one of the nation’s most fascinating research centers and archival museums.
The Avery Research Center located in downtown Charleston, South Carolina is the home to many primary artifacts, documents, and oral recordings. With a huge focus on the Civil Rights Movement, I often found myself reading articles and personal letters and looking through photos that captured many of the civil rights leaders in that era. Through the internship and the time I spent at the center, I was able to research the life and contributions of a prominent community leader in the Charleston County Area. Esau Jenkins broke barriers and paved the way for many in his community to abandon poverty and achieve
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