Glenfield Terrace

Willette Jenkins was blacker than poet James Weldon Johnson's hundred midnights. Her family moved to Washington, D.C. in the early 1950s during a time when a lot of blacks in America were as "color-struck" as many of the nation's white citizens. Willette was a considerable beauty, with a darkness that virtually shined and features which would fit well in ancient Egyptian artwork. She was a most sought after young lady by men who were seeking first-hand proof of the old maxim, "the blacker the berry, the sweeter the cherry." And if Willette was viewed as fruit by young suitors, she was set on ensuring that her sweetness was of the kind hanging low in the tree, and easily accessible. Janet Jenkins was of a much lighter hue, a tone many blacks derisively called "high-yellow." They were sisters, and very close. But Willette would go on to give birth to seven children, by six different men, while Janet would go on to college. Janet was a sports fanatic and a "tom boy," at a time when women who preferred the close company of other women was not a subject discussed or even acknowledged among a black population where many social activities centered around the church. Willette and Janet were as different as night and day. But while Willette would become a shame to her aging mother for "chasing men," Janet would find it hard to appease a strict Baptist family for what seemed to be her desire to chase women. And as safe and assured as Janet's path seemed to be, it was the chasing of a more deadly substance by Willette which would eventually find Janet as overseer of her sister's seven children. Tragically, they'd eventually all be set adrift on the cold streets of "Glenfield Terrace."