| Tenia Jenkins: In a blaze for glory of children by Jonathan Gramling |
| Anyone who knows Tenia Jenkins knows she is passionate about children -- all children -- succeeding. It's almost as if this passion flares up in Jenkins' fiery red hair, as well as her intense gaze that can pull the truth out of you. Jenkins is retiring after spending 34 years -- the last 24 years at Shabazz High School -- teaching children and the future teachers who will be teaching them. About 75 colleagues, friends, and family members were on hand at Jenkins' retirement party May 25 at the FitchburgCommunity Center. Speaker after speaker spoke about Jenkins' commitment to children. |
| No one can question Jenkins' motivation even if they are wary of her sometimes fiery discourse as she dissects the problems African American students face -- and sometimes the person or people she is addressing. There are some people who may not understand Tenia Jenkins. Perhaps in order to understand the person, you have to understand their history. And Jenkins' history explains much about Jenkins' approach to life. |
| Before she came to the University of Wisconsin and earned her teaching degree, Jenkins grew up in Ruth, Mississippi, a "cotton-gin town," as her sister Gwen described it because picking cotton was the primary source of income for many families. Family was the most important thing in Ruth and Jenkins had plenty of it. The Jenkins never thought of themselves as poor. |
| While Jenkins is somewhat small in stature, she never let that get in the way of doing what she wanted to do. Gwen recalled the early years when members of the family used to pick cotton. "You would have to hustle to out pick her," Gwen said about her sister. "Tenia could out pick any man in Ruth. She could pick 200 pounds of cotton a day. When you have adult men who can't pick that much that is something else. She was showing her ability to achieve. That crossed over into her adult life here in Madison. That is what has made her into an achiever today. That made her want her children in her classroom to achieve because she knows you can do anything you put your mind to." |
| And in 1950s Mississippi, particularly in places like Ruth, White supremacy ruled the day in the segregated South. The only way that Black families survived was by looking out after their own. They didn't wait for the authorities to keep the peace for many of the people in authority were the very people threatening violence against them. |
| During her remarks, Jenkins recalled an incident that happened, an incident that was buried deep in her subconscious until an uncle talked about it during a recent visit back home. Almost mirroring what had happened to Emmett Till several years before, Jenkins' brother Curtis -- a quiet, shy young man -- was accused by a White man of staring at his girl friend in short shorts.at the local grocery store. In those days, that type of "indiscretion" could get a Black man lynched. Word was sent back to the Jenkins family that Curtis had better leave town or face the consequences. But the Jenkins family wasn't going to have any of that. |
| "I remembered daddy's words," Jenkins recalled during her speech at the retirement party. "'We Jenkins never let the White man come into our homes and do harm to our wives and children.' The word went out from the Whites in the community that my brother had better leave town. My daddy and his brothers were beside themselves with anger. Now my daddy was a World War II veteran. He knew how to fight. He took out a lot of Nazis in Italy and Africa. He spent his time driving a truck that took ammunition to the front lines and he brought back the dead, wounded and the dying. He knew what it looked like when they got shot up. He knew how to fight. He got up and went down to that store. He wasn't going to take it. He had a talk with that storeowner. And he put the word back on the line to the White folks. He said 'My boy ain't going nowhere. He's going to stay right in this town with me. And if anyone thinks they are going to mess with him, they had better start thinking again.' He described to the man exactly what he was going to do to any Klan who came down violating Jenkins land. So he sat and he waited, but they never came." |
| Jenkins feels that although the setting and time may be different, Black children are at risk in Madison, Wisconsin of harm. And the response of the adults should be the same: Don't wait for anyone else to take care of your own. After reciting statistic after statistic showing that Dane County and Wisconsin rank with the worst when it comes to the education and incarceration of Black young men, it was only natural for Jenkins to offer up a challenge to the adults in the audience as her parting thoughts about her career. |
| "I ask you today, friends and family, are we complicit in this if we do nothing about the miseducation of Black and Brown children in this community?" Jenkins asked the audience. "I want to issue a call for action to the Black and Brown and anti-racist White community. This should be of concern to the whole community. Our children are in deep trouble in all of the schools of the Madison Metropolitan School District. Don't let anyone tell you anything differently. I've been here for 34 years. [I know.] There must be a struggle for the education of the children in this community. Power concedes nothing without a demand. It never did and it never will. Our children are not in charge of their own destiny. They have not failed themselves. We, this community, have failed them. We must advocate for their education. We must form organizations. We must put mentors in every school. We must have them there. Now I'm painfully aware that the person who becomes an agitator is not popular with everyone who is in power. However, our children are enmeshed in a crisis and are depending on us to change the situation of their education as the children in Ruth, Mississippi were dependent on the community to protect them from the ravages of the Klan, to save their lives. We must save the education of Black and Brown children in this community." |
| It became clear by the end of her remarks that Jenkins is merely retiring from teaching, and not from her advocacy for African American student achievement. Perhaps, in some ways, she is just beginning. |
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| Stan Johnson, president of WEAC, congratulates Tenia Jenkins for her years of service. |
| Joni Theobald, a former student teacher of Jenkins, gives her a Pendleton blancket in appreciation |
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