William “Blue” Jenkins has lived in Racine, Wisconsin, ever since his parents brought him there in 1917, one year after his birth in Hattiesburg, Mississippi. During his youth the Jenkins family home, located across the street from Racine's main railroad station, served as a stopping-off point for blacks newly arrived in town. This was one of several reasons why the young Jenkins, gregarious, curious, and active, acquired a good knowledge of events and personalities in the city's Black community, which had 294 inhabitants in 1924, 477 in 1930, 432 in 1940, and 1489 by 1950. After gaining local renown as an athlete during his years at Horlick High School, Jenkins became active in local and regional union affairs and Democratic Party politics. Although a political moderate, Jenkins's wide range of friends and acquaintances included communists, conservative business leaders, and militant Black nationalists. From 1940 into the 1970s he closely observed, and usually was a participant in, all major public issues and controversies involving Racine's labor movement or Black community.
From 1938 to 1968 Jenkins learned many different foundry skills while employed as a laborer at Belle City Malleable (later called Racine Steel Castings). After being appointed chairman of the local United Auto Workers (UAW) Fair Employment Practices Committee in 1940 he went on to hold numerous union offices, the most important being chairman of the fifty thousand member UAW National Foundry Sub-council No. 2. During his decades of local union activity Jenkins took particular interest in time-study procedures, grievance settlement, work safety and educational programs, and reconciliation of conflicts within and among unions. He attended the School for Workers at the University of Wisconsin-Madison for eight summers during the 1950s.
After becoming prominent in local union affairs Jenkins took the lead in establishing a central blood bank for Racine County, setting up a low-cost prescription drug and eye glass program for union members, getting a union representative on the United Givers Fund staff, and organizing a Black voter registration drive (early 1950s). In 1962 union members elected him president of the Racine Central Labor Council, American Federation of Labor-Congress of Industrial Organizations(AF of L-CIO). Jenkins believes that he was the first Black in the country to be elected to the presidency of a county AF of L-CIO central labor council. Despite his success in winning elective union offices, the international UAW never appointed Jenkins to a permanent staff position. He thinks high-ranking UAW staff members distrusted him because he was too outspoken and was unwilling to condone what he considered to be irresponsible actions by other union leaders.
