Renee' Jenkins:  

Life I got off to a rocky start. I got pregnant and dropped out of school at 17. By the time I was 21, I had my second son, but still no husband--by choice. I eventually got fed up with where my life was going; so at the age of 24, I enrolled in community college and studied court stenography. I never completed that course of study, but I did acquire enough secretarial skills to turn my life around and get a damn job. After a few meaningless clerical jobs, I eventually landed a job as secretary to Judge Damon Keith, 6th Circuit Court of Appeals. While working in the courts, I soon met my husband-to-be, Judge Leon Jenkins, who was on trial at the time for bribery, with his entire career in jeopardy. He was eventually acquitted of all charges against him. (To make a long story short, his crime was that he was a Black man in America who didn't stay in his place. (He would sentence offenders to take their GED instead of fining them or throwing them in jail). We got married and moved to California, where we did not live happily ever after. My husband had two pre-teen daughters, and I had my own two sons who were 12 and 16 at the time of our marriage. Now, to make that long story short: We were not the Brady Bunch; it was more like the Fraidy Bunch. My husband's olde...Expand for more