Jenkins Orphanage Bands

South Carolina has been home to an impressive number of nationally prominent jazz figures as well as the site of many high-caliber jazz activities, including major festivals, comprehensive jazz education programs, and even an award-winning radio show.

Jenkins’s greatest contribution to Charleston, however, was the founding of the Jenkins Orphanage.

Jenkins took advantage of the growing popularity of jazz in London and played clarinet in dance orchestras to support himself while he continued his classical music studies.

In 1895 the Marine Hospital building was occupied by the Jenkins Orphanage, founded for black children in 1891 by the Reverend Daniel J. Jenkins, a black Baptist minister.