Nancy Jenkins died yesterday in Raleigh. Not too many people outside of North Carolina know who she is. Hell, not too many people inside of North Carolina know who she is. She was the mayor of Greenville from 1989-2001 (?) and her term saw a time of great change for our fair city. During her tenure, the Convention Center was built and Eastern North Carolina rebuilt after the Flood of '99.
Somewhere along the way (around '95 or so) she encouraged a young man to continue thinking and writing: I'd entered the Martin Luther King Jr. essay contest at the advice of my english teacher, Mrs. Yeomans. Yeo-Yeo (as Sheon and I used to call her) loved my entry [I recall her discussing the essay with my mother, and saying "I really think God sent Martin Luther King as a savior to the Black people." I think my mother was honestly speechless], but I didn't think it would have much of an impact outside of my school's walls.
The night of the award ceremony (I'll never forget, it was held in the WEB DuBois Center), I was genuinely surprised to hear my name called as the winner for the Senior (high school) division of the contest. As I read my essay [I can't remember everything I wrote, but the general gist was to stop the cycle of bitterness and neglect in the Black community--I will always remember the line, "When will we learn that to bequeath this legacy of hatred and animosity to the next generation is to damn them to the same miserable existence we so vehemently decry?"], I could feel a hush in the room as they sat absorbing my words. It was the first time I could feel the power of my words. I think that might have been the exact moment I fell in love with writing.
After I finished speaking, Mayor Jenkins walked over to me to shake my hand. As she clenched my hand, she leaned in close and said earnestly, "That was lovely. You make sure you keep writing. I can tell from the way you speak and the way you write you've got a brilliant mind, and you need to share that with the world." I was floating on air. Mayor Jenkin's words were the first inkling I had that writing was something that might have any relevance beyond academia. I'd enjoyed writing before, but I'd never really considered any practical application of it.
I have no idea if she had any idea what that simple comment meant to me, but it's still with me, all these years later.
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