Using Your Voice: John Jenkins
Voice and Democracy
In a democracy, people have a say in how the country is run. Citizens get to participate in choosing their leaders, usually by voting in an election. Elected officials represent the people and make decisions on their behalf.
Democracies protect important rights. In the United States, the First Amendment says everyone has the right to speak, share ideas, and be heard. It protects the freedom of speech and helps people work together to solve problems. Not everyone can vote (kids can’t until they are 18), but everyone has a voice and can express their opinions and advocate for change.
Citizens can express their views on issues at public meetings, protests, and by communicating with elected officials. Respecting and accepting others with different viewpoints and different ways of life is an important part of being a good citizen. This helps make Maine and the United States a welcoming place for everyone while creating an environment that encourages healthy debate. In a democracy, people can peacefully talk through their problems and create positive change.
Summary: In this lesson, primary sources will show John Jenkins’ path from a humble childhood to teaching martial arts to a political career as one of Maine’s most popular mayors and its first Black state senator.
Share whatever information from this introduction you feel will help provide context for your students before they investigate the primary sources.
Early Life
John Jenkins was born in Newark, New Jersey in 1952. He grew up in poverty, raised by a single mother. As a young man, he used his voice as president of the student council at his high school. He would grow up to be a man who used his voice as a community builder in Maine.
The move to Maine
Jenkins first came to Maine to attend Bates College through the Upward Bound program (which helps low-income students attend college) in 1970.
College life was a big change for Jenkins, especially as an African American student coming to a city in Maine. He struggled with his college classes at first and was even expelled for a semester when his grades dropped too low, he was even briefly homeless. His background in martial arts helped him pull through this hard time.
While at Bates College, John Jenkins started the Golden Fist Karate School in Lewiston. His work there helped him with his discipline and sense of purpose and he was able to re-enroll at Bates the following semester.
During his time as a student, Jenkins also made many friends in the large Franco-American community in Lewiston. Many Franco-Americans embraced him and helped with his later political career.
Adult Life
John Jenkins loved Maine so much that after graduation, he decided to stay in Lewiston. His love of public speaking and of helping others led him to start his own business, PepTalk, as a motivational speaker.
He also continued with martial arts, becoming known around the world for his skill.
Entry into politics
In 1992, some of John Jenkins’s friends convinced him to try running for mayor of Lewiston. He won by a landslide. During his time as mayor, he worked to help Lewiston establish closer ties with Auburn to keep duplicate spending down. He also tried to engage with young people to try to make them feel more involved in how the city was run. He was re-elected as mayor of Lewiston in 1995.
Halfway through his second term as mayor, he also ran for the Maine Senate and became the first African American elected to the Maine Senate. He served one term as a senator from 1996-1998. While he was in the Senate, he served as chair of the Business and Economic Development Committee and also sat on the Transportation Committee .
In 2006, he was elected mayor of the city of Auburn and became the first person to serve as mayor of both Lewiston and Auburn. While serving as mayor in Auburn, he lowered taxes and worked to build shared services with Lewiston to continue lowering costs. He also worked hard to build trust in the community, especially the new and growing community of immigrants and refugees from Somalia and other African countries.
Criticism
Some people criticized him for being too busy with his personal career to do a good job as mayor, and for his low attendance rate as a senator. Despite his active political life, Jenkins also continued to earn his living as a motivational speaker and business consultant.
Not everyone agreed with his policies, or thought he did enough work to help the communities he served.
End of life and legacy
John Jenkins died on September 30th, 2020, from an aggressive form of cancer.
After his death, city councilors from both Lewiston and Auburn decided to pay tribute to Jenkin’s public service by renaming a footbridge that connected the two cities in his honor. A dedication ceremony was held on June 10th, 2022.
Hundreds of people, including Governor Janet Mills, joined together to walk over the bridge together and celebrate John Jenkin’s life and his way of bringing people together.
The Lesson:
- Present as much as desired from the introductory information below to your students to give them context for the lesson. Depending on reading level, they could read the introduction as a homework assignment, or you could go over it together as a class.
- Students choose (or the teacher assigns) one or more of the primary sources to work with.
- The primary source can be projected/viewed on a big screen by the full class, or printed, so each student has their own copy.
- This is a mystery-solving activity – students should not know details about the sources in advance. Without first seeing the source label information, students practice their observation and analysis skills. They only see the source and have to use their skills to pull out information about it.
- Option 1 – Open inquiry
- The teacher leads a full-class discussion using the prompts “What do you see?” and “What do you wonder?” The class should be encouraged to look at tiny details and pull out clues from each source. This can also work as a whiteboard or post-it note activity, with students writing their own comments in response to the sources.
- Option 2 – Guided worksheets
- Students complete an Analysis Worksheet for each source. They can make educated guesses using whatever information they find in the sources. Note – This can be completed as a class, individually, or in small groups.
- Option 1 – Open inquiry
- Present the source label information (the “answers”) to the students. Were you surprised by anything you learned? Have you found more connections between the different sources?
- Repeat with as many sources as desired.
- Discuss all the sources together. What sources did you work with? What did you learn from them? What questions do you have? How do the different sources connect to the theme or to each other?
- Optional: use the recommended activity prompts and reflection questions for further discussion.
Optional Activity #1:
Time travel! Cooperate as a class to create a timeline of Jenkins’ life, including his martial arts, personal career, and political life. Students may search online or use this packet of news articles [link to pdf] as a source. Option to assign each student an article and pull information from that article into the whole class timeline.
Class discussion prompts:
- As you put pieces of Jenkins’ life together, can you notice any ups or downs?
- What about his life surprises you?
- Where do you see Jenkins make mistakes and move forward?
Optional Activity #2:
What do you think? Write a pro or con opinion piece as though you are writing a letter to the editor talking about John Jenkins as your mayor. Use this packet of news articles [link to pdf] as a source.
Reflection Questions:
- How do you think John Jenkins’s childhood influenced the person he became?
- Why do you think he chose to go into politics?
- What impact do you think John Jenkins’ race had on his life and work?
- What are some characteristics of a good politician, in your opinion?
- How are local politicians important to people (compared to big national positions, like the presidency)?
- What are some of the challenges that local politicians face?
- What are some of the benefits of being involved in local politics?
Maine Industry Primary Source Sets developed in collaboration between the Maine State Archives, Maine State Library, and Maine State Museum.