Jenkins, Carol 1944–

(Carol Ann Jenkins)

PERSONAL:

Born November 30, 1944, in Montgomery, AL. children: two. Education: Boston University, B.A., 1966; New York University, M.A., 1968.

ADDRESSES:

Office—Women's Media Center, 350 5th Ave., Ste. 901, New York, NY 10118.

CAREER:

Journalist, broadcaster, and author. WOR-TV, reporter, anchor and moderator on news program, 1970-72; ABC network correspondent with the Reasoner-Smith Report and Eyewitness News, 1972. WNBC-TV, New York, NY, began as a general reporter and became co-anchor of Weekend News Channel 4, then coanchor of News Channel 4 at 6 P.M., beginning 1972; Fox 5/WNYW, coanchor of Fox Midday News, then host of Carol Jenkins Live, beginning 1996; Women's Media Center, New York, NY, cofounder and president, c. 2004—. Guest anchored news reports for the Today Show, National Broadcasting Company, Inc. Executive producer of documentary What I Want My Words to Do to You. Former board member, Ms. Foundation for Women, Feminist Press.

AWARDS, HONORS:

Emmy Award; Lifetime Achievement and International Reporting Award, Association of Black Journalists/New York Chapter; Daily News' Front Page Award; Mother of the Year, National Mothers Day Committee; Woman of the Year, Police Athletic League; Humanitarian of the Year, Abbot House; Distinguished Alumna, New York University; Freedom of Expression Award, Sundance Film Festival, 2003, for What I Want My Words to Do to You; honorary doctorate, College of New Rochelle, Marymount Manhattan College.

WRITINGS:

(With daughter, Elizabeth Gardner Hines) Black Titan: A.G. Gaston and the Making of a Black American Millionaire, One World (New York, NY), 2004.

Contributor to anthology Sisterhood Is Forever: The Women's Anthology for a New Millennium. Contributor to periodicals, including More, Ms., and Opportunity Journal.

SIDELIGHTS:

Carol Jenkins is a longtime television journalist and broadcaster who, according to a contributor to Notable Black Americans, is "well-known for her thought-provoking coverage of political figures and events." Jenkins eventually moved on to producing and then became president of the Women's Media Center in New York City. The center is dedicated to making women more visible and powerful in the media via advocacy and media relations. Among its goals is to assure that women and their experiences are reflected in the media and that women have equal opportunities for employment in the many fields that make up the media.

As a media and political analyst, Jenkins has appeared at debates at top national outlets. Her commentary, written for the Women's Media Center Web site, has appeared in print and online sources. She is also a speaker and moderator and conducts media training seminars and private sessions for women across the country. "Jenkins' experience throughout the world has resulted in her strong commitment to issues relating to children and women," wrote a contributor to Notable Black Americans. The contributor added: "Jenkins earned respect of her colleagues for her stance on certain controversial topics. Asked to narrate a tabloid-type segment on ‘How to Tell If Your Child Is Gay,’ over which a WNBC producer had resigned after refusing to produce, Jenkins declined the assignment."

Jenkins is the author, with her daughter, Elizabeth Gardner Hines, of Black Titan: A.G. Gaston and the Making of a Black American Millionaire. The book is the life story of Carol Jenkins's uncle A.G. Gaston, a grandson of slaves who went on to become a well-established businessman and one of the wealthiest black men in twentieth-century America. His empire included ownership of the Alabama enterprises Booker T. Washington Insurance Company, Smith and Gaston Funeral Home, Booker T. Washington Business College, A.G. Gaston Motel, Booker T. Washington Broadcasting Company, A.G. Gaston Construction Company, and the Citizens Federal Savings and Loan. Gaston's estimated worth at the time of his death was more than 130 million dollars. "This biography of Arthur George Gaston recounts the fascinating tale of one who rose from the iron mines of Birmingham to become Alabama's first black millionaire," wrote Carole Merritt in the Black Issues Book Review.

Jenkins follows Gaston's life from one of poverty in the late-nineteenth-century South in Demopolis, Alabama, to that of a successful entrepreneur who played a key financial role in the civil rights movement. "This book is as much about the southern black middle/upper classes in the making as it is about an American story of a man who rose from humble begin- nings to become one of the richest men in American despite his race and the obstacles because of it," reported Dera Williams on the AfriGeneas Books Web site. Along the way to becoming a successful entrepreneur, Gaston served with the U.S. Army in France during World War I and returned to work in the mines in Fairfield, Alabama. Gaston's entrepreneurship showed almost immediately in the mines, where he soon began selling lunches to fellow miners and then lending them money at twenty-five percent interest. He next founded a burial insurance company focusing on miners and the local mining community. "Gaston was a pioneer among black entrepreneurs in the aggressive use of vertical integration," explained David T. and Linda Royster Beito in the Independent Review. "He began with insurance but moved on to control other parts of the process, such as undertaking and casket manufacturing."

The authors also delve deeply into Gaston's politics. Although Gaston's second wife was a cofounder of the national Council of Negro Women, Gaston stayed on the fringes of politics, offering mostly financial support. While Gaston most often tried to act as a mediator in civil rights issues, he never became close to Martin Luther King, Jr., but he provided him with discount rooms at his motels and free meeting rooms at his offices. The authors also describe the events of May 12, 1963, when someone tried to blow up a part of Gaston's motel where King was staying.

"His descendants' loving portrait reveals the pivotal, if milder, role black business leaders played in the struggle for racial justice," noted a contributor to Kirkus Reviews. The Beitos attested: "Black Titan is a well-written and balanced study of one of the leading black entrepreneurs of the twentieth century. Jenkins and Hines put Gaston into the broader context of black history and give proper due to the influence of Booker T. Washington and the enabling role of mutual-aid networks. Although the authors are Gaston's relatives, they never lose their scholarly detachment. The book features a nuanced and enlightening discussion of Gaston's complex relationship with the civil rights movement of the 1950s and 1960s." Other reviewers stated their praise more simply. "This book should be taught in every Business 101 class and should be mandatory reading for black high school students," concluded Dera Williams.

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

BOOKS

Notable Black American Women, Book 3, Gale (Detroit, MI), 2002.

PERIODICALS

Black Issues Book Review, May-June, 2004, Carole Merritt, review of Black Titan: A.G. Gaston and the Making of a Black American Millionaire, p. 42.

Independent Review, spring, 2006, David T. Beito and Linda Royster Beito, review of Black Titan, p. 618.

Kirkus Reviews, October 15, 2003, review of Black Titan, p. 1262.

Library Journal, November 1, 2003, review of Black Titan, p. 102.

ONLINE

AfriGeneas Books,http://www.afrigeneas.com/ (September 20, 2006), Dera Williams, review of Black Titan.

Library of Congress,http://www.loc.gov/ (April 15, 2004), "News from the Library of Congress; Author Carol Jenkins to Discuss Biography Regarding A.G. Gaston, African American Millionaire and Philanthropist."

Women's Media Center,http://www.womensmediacenter.com/ (April 16, 2008), author profile.