Ella Jenkins (Finding Aid)

Ella Jenkins

1924 -

Favorite Color: Red

Favorite Food: Pasta and Pizza

Favorite Time of Year: Spring

Favorite Vacation Spot: Switzerland and California

Interview Length: 174 minutes

Interview Date(s): August 5, 2002

Interview Location(s): The HistoryMakers, 1900 S. Michigan Avenue, Chicago

Abstract

Folk singer Ella Jenkins speaks in rich detail about growing up on Chicago's South Side--sharing memories that include street games and rhymes, stage shows at the many neighborhood theaters, Chicago Park District table tennis tournaments, the Bud Billiken Day Parade and participating in a Negro history club at the Chicago Public Library's George Cleveland Hall branch Ms. Jenkins also remembers childhood visits to family in Alabama, where she was baptized during a revival one summer. Folk singer Ella Jenkins talks about life on Chicago's South Side in the 1930s and 1940s. She grew up in a poor family but was richly educated at DuSable High School and the Hall Branch public library, influenced by a vibrant African American culture, Bronzeville theaters and dance halls and her 'Uncle Flood''s harmonica playing and blues records. She also discourses at length about Southern and African American culture, food and dialect, and the use of dialect in literature. Singer Ella Jenkins re-calls the jobs she held in her youth and her post-secondary education at Wilson Junior College, Roosevelt College and San Francisco State College, from which she graduated in 1951. She also shares her ideas on music, African American history, bridging cultural boundaries, and performing for children. Ella Jenkins shares memories from her musical career during the 1950s and 1960s. She tells of her debut on Chicago's public television station, WTTW, which then gave her her own program, "In Rhythm". She talks about her first record album, "Call and Response", explains the tradition of call and response and then gives an example of it in a song with interviewer Larry Crowe performing the responses. Ms. Jenkins also rhe relates anecdotes of the discrimination she encountered in finding places to eat and sleep while on tour, and also discusses her own involvement in sit-ins and restaurant testing for the Congress of Racial Equality. Folk singer Ella Jenkins shares her thoughts about street rhymes and songs, tells about musicians she has met and admired, and discusses her experiences performing for children and her wish to spread a positive message in dangerous times. Folk musician Ella Jenkins talks about the most important highlights of her life, her current projects, her legacy and her hopes for the black community.

43 Stories (See Ordered Story Set)