The 1966 Volkswagen Deluxe Station Wagon was originally owned by Esau and Janie B. Jenkins, Civil Rights pioneers who dedicated their lives to helping the people of Johns Island, South Carolina, and beyond.
A historic and visual part of the story of civil rights pioneers seeking prosperity in a time of adversity in the racially charged times of the late 60s, in the South East, and is still owned by the Jenkins family.
The Jenkinses drove the VW extensively until October 1972, when, as a passenger in another vehicle, Mr. Esau was severely injured in a car accident. He died on October 30, and the VW was soon parked in the garage. When the family home was enlarged in 1974, the Jenkinses moved the VW into the back yard, where it began a long, decaying slumber. Mrs. Janie just couldn’t let it go.
Over the following decades, exposure to the elements, the salt air of the island, and multiple hurricanes took their toll on the VW. Corrosion set in, the right front door rusted off completely, and the A-pillar collapsed. The bus gradually sank into the earth. Long after Mrs. Janie’s death in August 1998, the old VW bus sat.
B.R. Howard and Associates, Inc. and The NB Center for American Automotive Heritage have been entrusted us to stabilize the condition of the "Microbus" to bring it out of the yard it had sunk into after being parked that one last time.
"This microbus became a fixture in the South in the 1960s as the Jenkinses, a family that went above and beyond to change their community and the nation for the better, made major strides in their community to combat racial inequality, were successful entrepreneurs, and inspired numerous civil rights leaders, including Martin Luther King, Jr.,” Maxon says.
https://www.hagerty.com/articles-videos/articles/2019/07/30/apollo-12-astronaut-corvette-civil-rights-vw-van
https://www.hagerty.com/articles-videos/articles/2019/08/07/1966-volkswagen-bus-civil-rights-movement-foot-soldier
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