{"id":147737,"date":"2022-07-01T16:08:26","date_gmt":"2022-07-01T20:08:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/?p=147737"},"modified":"2023-05-25T09:40:02","modified_gmt":"2023-05-25T13:40:02","slug":"the-spirit-of-john-lewiston-and-auburn-dedicate-the-john-t-jenkins-74-memorial-bridge","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/2022\/07\/01\/the-spirit-of-john-lewiston-and-auburn-dedicate-the-john-t-jenkins-74-memorial-bridge\/","title":{"rendered":"‘The spirit of John’: Lewiston and Auburn dedicate the John T. Jenkins ’74 Memorial Bridge"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

When John Jenkins \u201974 arrived in Lewiston from Newark, N.J., to attend Bates, the Androscoggin River was polluted and stinky. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

No one would ever \u2014 ever! \u2014 imagine spending time along the river to bike, kayak, walk, jog, or just hang out. And it definitely wasn\u2019t a place to celebrate someone with imagination and hope. But things change, sometimes for the better. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n

John Jenkins Biography<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The biography John Jenkins: The Mayor of Maine<\/em>, by Chuck Radis ’75 will be published by Down East Books<\/a> in April 2023. For information about the John Jenkins Scholarship Fund, contact alumni@bates.edu.<\/p>\n<\/section>\n\n\n\n

Fifty years later, on a former railroad trestle turned walking bridge over the Androscoggin, a big gathering of friends, family, colleagues, and admirers came together to remember Jenkins, who died in September 2020, and to dedicate the span as the John T. Jenkins Memorial Bridge. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Phyllis
Members of the family of John Jenkins \u201874, followed by Maine Gov. Janet Mills, Auburn mayor Jason Levesque, and Lewiston mayor Carl Sheline, cross the John T. Jenkins Memorial Bridge during the naming ceremony on June 10, 2022. (Phyllis Graber Jensen\/Bates College)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Everyone misses Jenkins, but every message at the June 10 gathering was upbeat, positive, and hopeful. Because that\u2019s who Jenkins was. \u201cHe had the ability to make people feel good just by showing up,\u201d said Maine Gov. Janet Mills, who spoke fondly and respectfully about Jenkins<\/a>, an unprecedented figure in Lewiston, Auburn, and Maine history. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Welcome\nArnaldo
John Jenkins ’74 seen at the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. Day keynote in the Gomes Chapel on Jan. 15, 2018. (Phyllis Graber Jensen\/Bates College)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The naming ceremony was one of two events during Reunion weekend honoring Jenkins. A day later, a long-postponed memorial service for Jenkins was held in the Lewiston Armory.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bates friends were close by throughout the weekend, and a committee of alumni has been raising funds to endow the John Jenkins Scholarship Fund. There are enough memories of Jenkins to fill a book, and that was another task of the committee: supporting a biography, John Jenkins: The Mayor of Maine<\/em>, written by Chuck Radis \u201975.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Jenkins was also known as the \u201cmayor of Bates.\u201d He was genuine and kind and everywhere; he acted in early modern dance productions for Marcy Plavin, and ran track for Walt Slovenski. He would\u200b keep everyone laughing on bus rides until the legendary coach stood up and yelled, \u201cNo belly laughing!\u201d \u2014 he didn’t want someone pulling a stomach muscle by laughing too hard. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Photographed by classmate Joe Gromelski ’74 during their Bates days, John Jenkins \u201974 touched many lives deeply.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Jenkins taught John Emerson \u201973 how to be easier on himself as a student. \u201cI felt pressure to succeed and to perform,” Emerson recalled. “It can overwhelm you. John would help you put all of that in perspective. He helped me believe that friendships and relationships and how you handled winning and losing is what really mattered.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
John Jenkins ’74 performs in “Choreosphere: An Experiment in Dance,” staged at Bates on May 30 and June 1, 1975. (Photograph by Leonard Plavin)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

After Bates, Jenkins\u2019 talent as a competitive martial artist earned him international recognition<\/a> \u2014 he\u2019s a member of multiple halls of fame. He was a community organizer and motivational speaker. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

He was the first Black citizen elected as mayor of Lewiston, as a Maine state senator, and as mayor of Auburn, the latter as a write-in candidate, becoming the only person to serve as mayor of both Auburn and Lewiston. Last year, both city councils voted unanimously to name the footbridge, across which immigrants from Canada once traveled by train to Lewiston when the span was a railroad trestle, in memory of Jenkins.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He was a role model, said Mills. Physically fit and mentally fit, Jenkins \u201chad an attitude toward life that inspired everyone,\u201d including the many children who heard his talks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Hundreds
John Jenkins\u2019 nephew Abdul Lateef holds a red carnation and a copy of the new Jenkins biography, written by Chuck Radis ’75. (Phyllis Graber Jensen\/Bates College)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Both mayors also spoke at the event, as did Ann Parker, Jenkins\u2019 companion. She said that anyone walking across the Jenkins bridge will never walk alone.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI really hope that when you walk across that bridge, you feel the spirit of John,\u201d she said. \u201cIf someone\u2019s having a difficult day, walk across John\u2019s bridge. I guarantee it\u2019s going to lift you up. If you\u2019re having a wonderful, awesome day, walk across the bridge, because John\u2019s gonna be there with you in all his awesomeness.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Hundreds
Longtime Bates student dean James Reese talks with John Jenkins’ sister Mujiba Wadud and her husband, Abdul Razzaqq, during the June 10, 2022, ceremony dedicating the Jenkins Memorial Bridge. (Phyllis Graber Jensen\/Bates College)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A big gathering of friends, family, colleagues, and admirers gathered to remember John Jenkins and to dedicate the span as the John T. Jenkins Memorial Bridge.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":104,"featured_media":147769,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_hide_ai_chatbot":false,"_ai_chatbot_style":"","associated_faculty":[],"_Page_Specific_Css":"","_bates_restrict_mod":false,"_table_of_contents_display":false,"_table_of_contents_location":"","_table_of_contents_disableSticky":false,"_is_featured":false,"footnotes":"","_bates_seo_meta_description":"","_bates_seo_block_robots":false,"_bates_seo_sharing_image_id":0,"_bates_seo_sharing_image_twitter_id":0,"_bates_seo_share_title":"","_bates_seo_canonical_overwrite":"","_bates_seo_twitter_template":""},"categories":[7,175,31,224],"tags":[4775],"class_list":["post-147737","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-alumni","category-justice-poverty","category-lewiston-auburn","category-society-culture","tag-john-jenkins"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/147737","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/104"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=147737"}],"version-history":[{"count":17,"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/147737\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":153851,"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/147737\/revisions\/153851"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/147769"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=147737"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=147737"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=147737"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}