MOUNT PLEASANT, S.C. (WCBD) – The Mount Pleasant Police Department (MPPD) will pay tribute to the town’s first Black police officer on Saturday in honor of Black History Month.
Don Calabrese, Mount Pleasant Police Lieutenant, will give a presentation on the life of Edmund Jenkins. Jenkins was a former slave, and veteran, who later became one of the first Town Marshals.
According to research by the Mount Pleasant Police Department, Jenkins was born in McClellanville, South Carolina in 1845. Following enslavement, Jenkins rose as a private in Company K the 128th U.S Colored Infantry. Records of Jenkins’ life after his military service are scarce but his army service ended around 1866. He then worked as a farm laborer and a teamster.
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MPPD says Jenkins entered the political arena in Mount Pleasant in the 1880s. He is listed on the Club Roll of the Democratic Club #1 in Christ Church Parish in 1886. This political association was significant because it separated him from the majority of African Americans’ political alignment. During that time, African Americans in Mount Pleasant were predominately allied to the Republican Party but Jenkins was Democrat.