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Man of the People: The legacy of African American Human Rights leader Esau Jenkins

Man of the People: The legacy of African American Human Rights leader Esau Jenkins
February 2025
WRITER: 

The John’s Island native spent a lifetime dedicated to improving the lives of Sea Island residents



Born and raised on John’s Island, Esau Jenkins (1910-1972) was an African American human rights leader beloved by his community. An advocate for formal education despite not having received one himself, he and his wife, Janie, purchased several buses in the 1940s that were used to transport Sea Island children to schools on the peninsula. The Jenkins’s buses also transported workers to jobs in the Charleston area, serving as mobile classrooms where the couple would teach adult passengers information needed to pass literacy exams. Jenkins later went on to found the Progressive Club in 1948, which encouraged local African Americans to register to vote, as well as the Citizens’ Committee of Charleston County in 1959, which was dedicated to the economic, cultural, and political improvement of Black residents.