Charleston Currents – Esau Jenkins

MYSTERY PHOTO: Winter wonderland

Here’s a snow picture that we received over the last week, but where is it? Does it look familiar? (It should, for a couple of reasons.) Send your best guess – plus your name and hometown – to editor@charlestoncurrents.com. In the subject line, write: “Mystery Photo guess.”

The Jan. 1 mystery, “The remains of a day,” showcased the remains of the Progressive Club, a civil rights landmark on Johns Island that is recognized as a start for citizenship schools. They eventually led to the voter registration of hundreds of thousands of African Americans across the South.

by Charleston Currents · 01/08/2018 · Comments are Disabled · Mystery Photo, Photos

CALENDAR, Jan. 1+: Berman’s civil rights photos on display at library

Staff reports | If you want to know more of what life was like on Johns Island as the civil rights movement was blossoming, you should see Ida Berman’s collection of photographs now on display at the Charleston County Public Library, 68 Calhoun St., Charleston.

A celebrated photographer and immigrant, Berman snapped these never-before-seen photos of places and scenes on the sea island from January 1959 include people working at The Progressive Club as well as portraits of civil rights leaders Esau Jenkins, Myles Horton, Septima Clark and others.

Special Jan. 4 event: Candie Carawan, who published the landmark, “Ain’t You Got a Right to the Tree of Life?” with husband Guy Carawan, will share civil rights stories with Team Backpack journalists 5:30 p.m. Jan. 4 in the library’s auditorium. The book includes statements from Johns Island residents during the modern civil rights movement.

by Charleston Currents · 01/01/2018 · Comments are Disabled · calendar

FEEDBACK: Praise for column on Esau Jenkins

Dave Brown, James Island: Never knew about Esau Jenkins. But now I do. I am wiser and certainly better informed as a result of your article. On behalf of all subscribers, thank you.

by Charleston Currents · 10/03/2016 · Comments are Disabled · Feedback

HISTORY: Esau Jenkins

S.C. Encyclopedia | Born on July 3, 1910, on Johns Island, Jenkins was the only child of Peter Jenkins and Eva Campbell. He was forced to end his formal education in the fourth grade to help supplement the family’s income. At age seventeen, he married Janie Jones. Of their thirteen children, seven survived, all of whom earned college degrees.

by Special to Charleston Currents · 09/26/2016 · Comments are Disabled · Features, S.C. Encyclopedia

BRACK: Yes, love is progress and hate is expensive

By Andy Brack, editor and publisher | If you’re relatively new to the state or under age 50, you may not know the story of Esau Jenkins.

But you should. And now, the world knows more about this incredible Johns Island civil rights leader thanks to a permanent exhibit in the new Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture that opened Saturday. The exhibit displays Jenkins motto — “Love is Progress, Hate is Expensive” — on the back panels of a Volkswagen microbus that ferried people on the sea islands to work, school and the voting polls.

by Andy Brack · 09/26/2016 · Comments are Disabled · Andy Brack, Views

GOOD NEWS: Jenkins send-off ceremony to be Thursday

Staff reports | There will be a big community send-off at 10 a.m. Thursday to honor a Charleston legend who will be part of the new Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture that opens this week in Washington, D.C.

The Thursday event at Gadsden Wharf at the Charleston Maritime Center will honor the life work of the Esau and Janie B. Jenkins family, the surviving members of whom will make a special private visit to the museum prior to its grand opening. Other family members, friends and Sea island residents also will travel to the nation’s capital for the museum’s grand opening celebration.

by Charleston Currents · 09/19/2016 · Comments are Disabled · Good news, News briefs