John Jenkins - the “Mayor of Maine”

Using Your Voice: John Jenkins

Voice and Democracy

In a democracy, people have a say in how their country is run. They can help choose their leaders by voting in elections. The leaders they choose make decisions for everyone.

Democracies protect important rights. In the United States, the First Amendment says that everyone has the right to speak, share their ideas, and be heard. This freedom of speech is important because it helps people work together to solve problems. 

While not everyone can vote (like kids who have to wait until they are 18), everyone has a voice! You can share your opinions and ask for changes even if you can’t vote yet. Citizens (both kids and adults) can express their thoughts at public meetings, join protests, or talk with their elected leaders. 

It’s also very important to listen to and respect others who may have different ideas or ways of living. This helps make Maine and the United States welcoming places for everyone. When we can talk and share our opinions peacefully, we can create positive change together!

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 30^th, 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 10^th, 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:

1. 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.
2. Students choose (or the teacher assigns) one or more of the primary sources to work with.
3. The primary source can be projected/viewed on a big screen by the full class, or printed, so each student has their own copy.
4. 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.
5. 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?
6. Repeat with as many sources as desired.
7. 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?
8. Optional: use the recommended activity prompts and reflection questions for further discussion.

Optional Activity:

Run for mayor! Students imagine that they are running for mayor of their town. How would they create a campaign? Students may design a poster, give a speech, or do a writing piece. Encourage them to choose three ideas to focus on in their campaign (give examples, i.e: building a playground, housing, free pizza every weekend, pollution, animal welfare, etc.). 

Reflection Questions:

• How do you think John Jenkins’s childhood influenced the person he became? 
• What impact do you think John Jenkins’ race had on his life and work?
• 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.