Dallas County Judge Clay Jenkins denies he wore “blackface” in 1983 prank

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When Clay Jenkins and two buddies stormed the condo of feminine Baylor University classmates in 1983, they laughed it off as a prank. The ladies described it as a terrifying second, and Jenkins and his buddies have been arrested and charged with legal trespass.

In the years since, Jenkins has climbed to be probably the most outstanding Democrats in Texas as Dallas County choose, and the story of the faculty “panty raid” has surfaced in at the very least one prior revealed report. But in the waning days of his 2022 reelection marketing campaign, a brand new element of the story has emerged: One of the ladies advised police that Jenkins and his buddies “had on dark oil type or paint or dark makeup on their faces to make them look like Black people,” in keeping with a Waco police report.

That report was first revealed by two right-wing media websites Tuesday evening, with each saying Jenkins had dressed in blackface. One such web site, The Blaze, hosted Jenkins’ GOP rival, Lauren Davis, for the dialogue after which blasted him for performing recklessly.

Jenkins denies the allegation of carrying blackface, saying he was merely camouflaging his face with paint. Another lady cited in the report makes no point out of blackface. The report stated she believed the boys “were all dressed in dark colored clothing like camouflage and had dark colored make-up on their faces.”

The 1983 incident was reported quickly after it occurred by the Baylor pupil paper, The Lariat, and once more in 2014 by D Magazine when Jenkins was looking for a second time period.

The report was supplied to The Texas Tribune by the marketing campaign for Davis, Jenkins’ Republican challenger. On Tuesday, in an interview with The Blaze, the interviewer requested Davis concerning the episode and described Jenkins “dressing up in blackface, which we’re told is the most egregious crime ever.” Davis didn’t instantly accuse Jenkins of donning blackface, though her marketing campaign uploaded the phase to the marketing campaign’s YouTube web page with the title: “Clay Jenkins Exposed — Blackface Allegations.”

In the interview, Davis stated: “It was anything but [a prank], he could have been shot. He broke in and entered a home dressed not as himself, and then terrorized these women … He ransacked the apartment, [the women] barricaded themselves behind a door.”

Attempts to achieve the ladies named in the report have been unsuccessful. The husband of 1 lady, reached by telephone, stated she didn’t want to be interviewed.

On Wednesday, Jenkins’s marketing campaign supervisor, Sean Gregory, acknowledged the allegation however denied that the choose had ever worn blackface.

“Judge Jenkins apologized then, when he was 19, and continues to be sorry for the poor judgment he exhibited at the time,” Gregory stated. “He has never darkened his face in an attempt to appear as a member of another race.”

When he was requested by The Dallas Morning News in a 2010 candidate questionnaire whether or not he had ever been charged with a criminal offense, Jenkins talked about the trespassing cost and a separate reckless driving cost.

“I realized how close I came to throwing away my opportunity to become the first in my family to graduate college by engaging in immature college pranks,” Jenkins stated then. “I didn’t want to disappoint my mother and all the people who sacrificed to give me that opportunity by squandering it. I recommitted myself to my studies, which culminated in my graduation from law school five years after high school.”

When he first sought workplace in 2010, Jenkins drew the backing of outstanding Black Democrats in Dallas, together with U.S. Rep. Eddie Bernice Johnson, County Commissioner John Wiley Price and state Sen. Royce West. In 2020, Jenkins voted alongside a unanimous commissioners courtroom to declare racism a public well being disaster. Jenkins additionally voiced his help for Black Lives Matter following the homicide of George Floyd by a white Minneapolis police officer.

According to the police report, one of many ladies awoke in the early hours of Sept. 22, 1983, to see what “appeared to be three, possibly Black males, coming through the window.” She woke her roommate and dragged her into one other bed room, the place they hid as the boys ransacked their room.

Then one of many males known as out the lady’s title, she advised police, which is when she realized that she knew at the very least two of the intruders, together with Jenkins. Another roommate chased the boys out of the condo by the entrance door as they laughed, the report says.

The ladies determined to press costs and the three males got here to Waco police headquarters to talk to an officer, the report says. One of them advised the officer that the incident was a “Baylor prank” and stated that they had entered the condo “trying to scare the girls and … they all left laughing thinking it was very funny.”

Jenkins and the opposite two males have been charged with legal trespass of a habitation, the report says. According to legal information, Jenkins was sentenced to at least one yr of deferred adjudication, a sort of probation.

The carrying of blackface, which was a mainstay of minstrel exhibits and different demeaning depictions of African Americans, particularly through the Jim Crow period, has come up in a number of political races in current years.

In 2019, Gov. Ralph Northam of Virginia, a Democrat, confronted a firestorm after a 1984 yearbook photograph emerged of him carrying blackface whereas he was a pupil at medical faculty. Numerous officers known as on Northam to resign, however he survived in workplace — in giant half due to help from African American constituents — and vowed to make racial fairness a spotlight of his time period in workplace, which ended in January 2022.

Disclosure: Baylor University has been a monetary supporter of The Texas Tribune, a nonprofit, nonpartisan news group that’s funded in half by donations from members, foundations and company sponsors. Financial supporters play no position in the Tribune’s journalism. Find an entire list of them here.