HERU

The Rev. DeMett Jenkins isn’t focused on evangelism.

“I’m not trying to convert her,” Jenkins, an ordained Baptist minister, explained to a friend who had asked whether Jenkins intended to convince her aunt, a Jehovah’s Witness, to follow Jesus Christ. “That is not my calling. … I don’t feel called to convert. I feel called to care. Caring is for anybody.”

That ministry of caring — a calling first nurtured by her family of civil rights activists who, in the face of racial oppression, sought to improve the political, educational and economic lives of Black people in Charleston while demonstrating the love of God to those they encountered — is what has propelled Jenkins her entire life. This calling will continue to guide her in her current role of leading the faith-based programs of Charleston’s new International African American Museum, where she seeks to shed light on the ways race and religion have shaped the city.

Jenkins’ progressive theological views are somewhat of a rarity locally, particularly from the African American church perspective. For example, she calls herself “a believer” instead of a Christian as a way to emphasize the need to care, not convert. The Gullah-Geechee daughter of the Sea Islands hopes to use her voice and platform to have difficult conversations about the city’s past and the ways in which racism continues to manifest itself in religious spaces, along with challenging the church to focus on the issues that matter.

“I’m open to all faiths and religions,” she said. “I don’t say, ‘mine is better than theirs.’ “

It’s part of the Jenkinses’ history to serve others. Her grandparents, Esau and Janie Jenkins, founded organizations in the Lowcountry that served the Black population. The couple pooled their money in the 1940s to fund buses that were used to transport kids on the Sea Islands to school. In the late ’40s, they and other families opened the Progressive Club on the island, which housed a grocery store, sleeping rooms, classrooms, recreational spaces and a gas station.

The club also taught adults how to read so that they could register to vote. Among those who facilitated courses at the club included Septima P. Clark and Martin Luther King Jr.

A widely circulated photo shows King during one of his visits to Charleston seated in the pulpit of Emanuel AME Church while Esau Jenkins introduces the world-renowned civil rights advocate. The photo reminds DeMett Jenkins of her rich family legacy.

She called her grandfather a “humble country boy who just loved people.” DeMett Jenkins’ grandmother Janie was as involved in the freedom struggle as her husband. Janie Jenkins was the financial brains behind the Jenkinses’ operations, DeMett Jenkins said.

“I’m proud to be a part of Esau and Janie’s legacy,” she said. “I pray I can live up to their expectation.”

Jenkins’ mother, Georgetta, had the same passion for helping others.

Georgetta would often stop on the side of the road to pick up people in need of transportation, either offering them a ride to their destination or a warm meal back at the Jenkins residence.

“It’s in my DNA to help people,” Jenkins said. “I don’t know to do anything different.”

She got involved early in the family businesses.

Jenkins was born in 1966, in France, while her father was serving in the Air Force. Her family moved back to the United States while she was still a child, and soon after she was working at the Johns Island-based Progressive Club alongside her siblings, stocking shelves and pumping gas.

She also worked at the family’s restaurant and motel in Atlantic Beach, the African American beach located near the segregated, Whites-only beaches of the Grand Strand.

The family also owned a record store on King Street where Jenkins’ uncle taught African history courses and Black authors were invited to mingle and converse. The Jenkins family didn’t hide from their children the harsh truth of racial discrimination. But the Jenkins adults taught the young people about their history and faith. The latter was especially important in helping a young DeMett Jenkins closely identify with Jesus, who was always Black in the family home, she said.

Jenkins felt the nudge toward ordained ministry while serving as a social worker for the United Family Services’ shelter for abused women. While there, she realized the individuals she was helping needed a connection to a greater power that would help them overcome life’s obstacles.

In 2008, her ministry work led her to a hospital chaplaincy position in Emory University Hospital’s emergency department. She provided spiritual care for patients, families and medical professionals.

“It was really a meaningful place to work in their jobs and help them deal with life issues coming before them,” she said.

But while she’d committed her life to helping those who have encountered difficult circumstances, Jenkins herself would have to wrestle with loss.

She first learned that the IAAM was searching for a faith-based program coordinator when her brother, Abe Jenkins Jr., sent her the job description. The role — connecting with faith communities across the globe to raise awareness about Charleston’s new African American museum — seemed like the perfect fit for the Gullah-Geechee woman who’d been formed by the Lowcountry’s faith communities.

It was just like Abe to be thinking of his sister. Decades since the siblings’ mother passed away, Abe had been DeMett’s father figure and confidant. He died in January 2022, leaving behind a legacy that included fundraising to restore and reopen the old Progressive Club.

“I lost three people in one person,” Jenkins said. “He was magical. The loss is very, very heavy.”

Abe’s hunch that his sister would be the right woman for the IAAM job proved true. Jenkins was hired in the role in 2018, and has since been organizing programs centered around spirituality and race. 

Part of the goal is to bring hard conversations into the public sphere. 

Last March, the museum hosted an online event, “From the Balconies of our Churches,” based on a documentary being produced by the Baptist Educational and Missionary Convention of South Carolina. The film explores the racism that was demonstrated by White churches in the Palmetto State, many of which segregated worshippers by forcing Blacks to sit upstairs. 

The museum also wants to focus on Black spiritual practices that don’t get as much attention as Christianity. In 2020, the faith-based program held a six-part webinar on Elijah Muhammad, who led the Nation of Islam from 1934 until his death in 1975.

In February, the museum will welcome Iya Funlayo E. Wood-Menzies, who earned her Ph.D. in African and African American Studies and Religion from Harvard University. Wood-Menzies will touch on the variety of African spiritual practices, something that Jenkins hopes to discuss more frequently through the museum’s faith-based initiatives.

“We’re not a Christian organization,” Jenkins said. “We are an organization that talks about faith and religion of all kinds and traditions.”