NLRB Celebrates Induction of Howard Jenkins Jr. into the Government Hall of Fame

Washington D.C. – The National Labor Relations Board celebrates the induction of former Board Member Howard Jenkins Jr. into the Government Hall of Fame today.

Created by Government Executive Media Group, the Government Hall of Fame honors those who have demonstrated sustained achievement and unparalleled dedication to public service throughout exemplary careers. The Hall of Fame inductees have had an historic impact on changing government for the better, and their stories serve as an inspiration to others.

Howard Jenkins Jr. was appointed to the NLRB by President Kennedy in 1963. The first African American to serve on the Board, Member Jenkins sworn in on August 28, 1963, the day after Martin Luther King’s historic civil rights march on Washington.

During his twenty years on the NLRB, Member Jenkins fought to ensure that discrimination of any kind had no place in U.S. labor law. He contributed to core doctrines that still provide the framework for modern labor relations, such as the duty to bargain under Fireboard and First National Maintenance, bargaining orders under Gissel, and successorship under Burns (in which the Supreme Court upheld his dissenting opinion that a successor employer should not generally be bound by the predecessor’s contract), among many others.

Member Jenkins was also inducted into the Department of Labor’s Hall of Honor on September 26, 2019.

“Member Jenkins is deserving of this distinguished honor, and the NLRB is proud that one of our finest has been selected for the Government Hall of Fame,” said NLRB Chairman John Ring.

Established in 1935, the National Labor Relations Board is an independent federal agency that protects employees and employers, and unions from unfair labor practices and protects the right of private sector employees to join together, with or without a union, to improve wages, benefits and working conditions. The NLRB conducts hundreds of workplace elections and investigates thousands of unfair labor practice charges each year.