◆ SpookStack

*., 4 a ne! Es . seed.and a good bit of fertilizer *By CHARLES Esau Jenkins sows visitors through the Progressive Club Center with pride, a pride which is best understood when the Negro leader contrasts the recently completed structure with the humble origins of the organization back in March At that time — more than 15 years ago — many of the Ne- groes were still living on plan- tations while, others were small farmers or shafecroppers, he explained. “The only organization then was the church,” the John's amand man said. “They — the small farmers — bought their seed end fertilizer a bag at a and save some money. “Often these people were in trouble with the law. If they progressed — not just finan- ciallv, but also spirtually and merally and in every walk of life — they were not as likely to get in irouble with the law. And if they did get in trouble for their beliefs or what they thought, the group would be there to help them.” This was what Esau Jenkins had in mind when he called “eight or 10° of his neighbors tegether and formed the Pro- gressive Club, The first meeting was devoted to examining the word “progressive’’ and its meaning for the John’s ty. One of the first problems faced by the group was the need for literate and politically in- formed citizens. All of the mem- hers of the club either had to be registered voters or had to agree to iry to register if they . |. dcnadns, his speech fla- vored with rare traces of Gul- lah, pointed out: “From the siart we stressed registration and voting. I knew you could get what you needed if you had the votes. The politicians — they call them the ‘power struc- ture’ now — listen to the people ‘who vote. So we taught that participation in government was negsential.' we | p af * \ — ‘] ' “"HERL SCHOUL 2ee——= At that time the Negro lead. er operated a bus line to Charleston for Jotu’s Island Negroes, a line that once in- cluded five buses. Seeing the need for a citizenship school, Jenkins began teaching his pas- sengers on the bus, “a convenient place for meeting.’ “One day in mid-1948,” he re- lates, “one lady, Alice Wine, said ‘Mr. Jenkins, I can't read these words, but as you teach, these people 1 will memorize. Not long afterwards I took thera down to register, a large group of them. But I didn’t kno r not able to read. Finally w put her about in the middie. “When the lady in front of was taking her test, she het é one of the rected her, and the lady at the registration center told her, All right, no coaching.’ I was 80 surprised I didn’t know what to ‘do. “When Alice’s turn came Up, they ran her on through. Yet|| if they had shown her the word rinted on a page.she wouldn't) have known what it was. of 25 cents.‘ “That's how we found the people who needed help. We arranged for them to come in two nights a week. ‘He went on to explain that pe ple with similar — difficulties were grouped together. Problems began to develop for Jenkins and his pupils: “So many persons needed help. I {ust couldn't help all of them. ell, Septima Clark (now as- sociated with Southern Christian Leadership Conference) was & school teacher here. She asked Ime to go to Highlander Folk School with her. I didn’t want to go—this was back about 1953). —but she said Myles Horton (di-[ rector of Highlander) might be able to get me some help for the work on the island. So I finally waid-lyer'. eer et ha | “It was a two-week United Nations workshop on school in- tegration and human relations. On the last day—just like at the workshops we have here— they tumed to us and asked: hat are your problem?’ ew the answer to that “When my tum came T to em. I told-them we had fmany people and not enough time or enough money for teachers and no ploce to meet. ' “Myles asked me: ‘Do you think you can get them to go back to school?’ I told him that wasn't the problem. We had more than enough people, Myles said he would see what he could Oo “The Field Foundation gave us ® grant for two years. The first ear we went to Wadma- w. Bernice Robinson was teaching on John’s Island. Then Wwe set up an adult citizenship hool on Edisto. They met i 4 church building on Wadmala jgd in a center on Edisto, We eded a building on John’s land” 2 ww And, consequently, in the mid- fifties the Progressive Club bor- rowed money and bought an old school building on the istand. “After the fellows at the Pro- gressive Ciub saw how the schoo] house was working out— they saw how our boys were more oyt of trouble— I told i