About the Digital Collection
The Dr. Carolyn Jefferson-Jenkins and the League of Women Voters Digital Collection includes records, correspondence, reports, printed materials, and memorabilia related to the life and career of Dr. Carolyn Jefferson-Jenkins, the 15th National President of the League of Women Voters of the United States, as well as documents relating to the mission and activities of that organization during her tenure as president. Original materials are held at the Walter Havighurst Special Collections & University Archives at Miami University, originally part of the Western College Memorial Archives.
Dr. Carolyn Jefferson-Jenkins, a 1974 graduate of Western College for Women (now Miami University), served as the President of the League of Women Voters from 1998-2002. She is the only woman of African-American descent to head the League. During her presidency, Dr. Jefferson-Jenkins led the organization’s education and advocacy work and oversaw several comprehensive League initiatives. These included the 1996 “Get Out the Vote” campaign and “The Wired for Democracy” project, which increased voter education and participation via the Web. She also led the League in developing their strategic plan, “The Future Plan,” which emphasized keeping the League relevant through diversity, equity and inclusion.
The Dr. Carolyn Jefferson-Jenkins Digital Collection was funded by a grant from the MIAMI Women Giving Circle and is hosted by the Miami University Libraries.
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Biography
Dr. Carolyn Jefferson-Jenkins
Dr. Carolyn Jefferson-Jenkins served two terms as president of the League of Women Voters of the United States from 1998–2002. Before being elected president, she served as Vice President of the League of Women Voters of the United States from 1996-1998. She is the only woman of color to have served as national president in the organization's first one hundred years.
"I do not represent all Black people. I do not represent all women. No one person represents all, and we need to remember that as we listen to people who speak to us and how we give weight to what they say."
Jefferson-Jenkins was born in Cleveland, Ohio. She grew up during the American Civil Rights Movement and was inspired by the movement to become active in civics. Jefferson-Jenkins attended Western College for Women in Oxford, Ohio and graduated with a B.A. in education and political science in 1974. She went on to earn an M.Ed. from John Carroll University in Cleveland, Ohio, and an Ed.S. from Kent State University in Kent, Ohio. She graduated with her doctorate from Cleveland State University in 1991, focusing her dissertation on analyzing the role of administration on racial isolation in Cleveland public schools in the early twentieth century.
She worked in the Cleveland public schools from 1979 until 1993, and then served as principal of Taylor Academy until 1995. Jefferson-Jenkins was a vice president of Junior Achievement starting in 1995 and was promoted to a vice president in 1996. She left the organization in 1998 to work for the National Center for Education and the Economy, the University of Colorado at Denver, and retired from Douglas County Schools Colorado. She now works with the Center for Racial Justice in Education.
Jefferson-Jenkins joined the League of Women Voters in 1982, and she led a 1996 "Get Out the Vote" campaign, which registered more than 50,000 voters nationally. In 1998 she was elected as the 15th President of the League of Women Voters and subsequently elected to a second term as president. She was the first woman of African descent to serve as president of the league. While Jefferson-Jenkins served as president, the League helped pass the Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act in 2002, which closed loopholes in campaign finance. She also spoke on the need for campaign finance, worked to increase voting using public awareness ads, sought to broaden participation in democracy, and established a means to increase membership in the League of Women Voters.
Support
The Dr. Carolyn Jefferson-Jenkins and the League of Women Voters Digital Collection received financial support from a grant from the MIAMI Women Giving Circle. Dr. Jefferson-Jenkins for generously donating her papers to the Walter Havighurst Special Collections and University Archives in 2006 and 2021. Funding from the MIAMI Women Giving Circle supported the physical processing of the 2021 gift, the digitization of the collection, and the creation of the Carolyn Jefferson-Jenkins Collection finding aid.
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