At age nineteen, while still in journalism school, Jenkins and his future wife, the former Diane Aker, who is a few days older than Jenkins, started a community weekly newspaper, the "North Baton Rouge Journal", which was honored by the Louisiana Press Association for editorial writing. Jenkins received a Bachelor of Arts in journalism from LSU in 1969 and a Juris Doctor degree from the Louisiana State University Law Center, where he was a member in 1972 of the "Law Review".