Florynce Rae Kennedy (February 11, 1916 – December 21, 2000) was an American lawyer,

radical feminist Radical feminism is a perspective within feminism that calls for a radical re-ordering of society in which male supremacy is eliminated in all social and economic contexts, while recognizing that women's experiences are also affected by other ...

civil rights Civil and political rights are a class of rights that protect individuals' freedom from infringement by governments, social organizations, and private individuals. They ensure one's entitlement to participate in the civil and political life o ...

advocate, lecturer and activist.

Early life

Kennedy was born in Kansas City,

Missouri Missouri is a state in the Midwestern region of the United States. Ranking 21st in land area, it is bordered by eight states (tied for the most with Tennessee): Iowa to the north, Illinois, Kentucky and Tennessee to the east, Arkansas t ...

, to an

African-American African Americans (also referred to as Black Americans and Afro-Americans) are an ethnic group consisting of Americans with partial or total ancestry from sub-Saharan Africa. The term "African American" generally denotes descendants of ensl ...

family. Her father Wiley Kennedy was a

Pullman porter Pullman porters were men hired to work for the railroads as porters on sleeping cars. Starting shortly after the American Civil War, George Pullman sought out former slaves to work on his sleeper cars. Their job was to carry passengers’ bag ...

, and later had a taxi business. The second of her parents' five daughters, she had a happy childhood, full of support from her parents, despite experiencing poverty in the Great Depression and racism in her mostly white neighborhood. Kennedy remembered a time when her father had to be armed with a shotgun in order to ward off the strong neighborhood Ku Klux Klan presence that was trying to drive her family out."Florynce R. Kennedy 1916–2000", ''

The Journal of Blacks in Higher Education ''The Journal of Blacks in Higher Education'' is a former academic journal, now an online magazine, for African Americans working in academia in the United States. The journal was established as a quarterly in 1993 by Theodore Cross, a "champio ...

'' (30): 57, December 1, 2000. She later commented: "My parents gave us a fantastic sense of security and worth. By the time the bigots got around to telling us that we were nobody, we already knew we were somebody."

Steinem, Gloria Gloria Marie Steinem (; born March 25, 1934) is an American journalist and social-political activist who emerged as a nationally recognized leader of second-wave feminism in the United States in the late 1960s and early 1970s. Steinem was a c ...

"The Verbal Karate of Florynce R. Kennedy, Esq."
"Ms.blog" on the '' Ms. Magazine'' website (August 19, 2011). Accessed June 15, 2012. Kennedy graduated at the top of her class at Lincoln High School, after which she worked many jobs including owning a hat shop and operating elevators. After the death of her mother Zella in 1942, Kennedy left Missouri for

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the Un ...

, moving to an apartment in

Harlem Harlem is a neighborhood in Upper Manhattan, New York City. It is bounded roughly by the Hudson River on the west; the Harlem River and 155th Street on the north; Fifth Avenue on the east; and Central Park North on the south. The greater Ha ...

with her sister Grayce. Of the move to New York she commented, "I really didn't come here to go to school, but the schools were here, so I went." In 1944 she began classes at

Columbia University School of General Studies The School of General Studies, Columbia University (GS) is a liberal arts college and one of the undergraduate colleges of Columbia University, situated on the university's main campus in Morningside Heights, New York City. GS is known primarily ...

, majoring in

pre-law In the United States, pre-law refers to any course of study taken by an undergraduate in preparation for study at a law school. The American Bar Association requires law schools to admit only students with an accredited Bachelor's Degree or it ...

and graduated in 1949. However, when she applied to the university's law school, she was refused admission. In her autobiography Kennedy wrote,

The Associate Dean, Willis Reese, told me I had been rejected not because I was a Black but because I was a woman. So I wrote him a letter saying that whatever the reason was, it felt the same to me, and some of my more cynical friends thought I had been discriminated against because I was Black.

Kennedy met with the dean and threatened to sue the school. They admitted her. She was the only black person among eight women in her class. In a 1946 sociology class at Columbia University Kennedy wrote a paper that analogized the discourses of race and sex. "Kennedy hoped that comparing 'women' and 'Negroes' would hasten the formation of alliances".

Career and acting

Kennedy graduated from

Columbia Law School Columbia Law School (Columbia Law or CLS) is the law school of Columbia University, a private Ivy League university in New York City. Columbia Law is widely regarded as one of the most prestigious law schools in the world and has always ranked i ...

in 1951. By 1954, she had opened her own office, doing matrimonial work, and some assigned criminal cases. She was a member of the Young Democrats. In 1956, she formed a legal partnership with the lawyer who had represented

Billie Holiday Billie Holiday (born Eleanora Fagan; April 7, 1915 – July 17, 1959) was an American jazz and swing music singer. Nicknamed "Lady Day" by her friend and music partner, Lester Young, Holiday had an innovative influence on jazz music and pop s ...

in regards to drug charges. Kennedy then came to represent Holiday's estate, and also that of

Charlie Parker Charles Parker Jr. (August 29, 1920 – March 12, 1955), nicknamed "Bird" or "Yardbird", was an American jazz saxophonist, band leader and composer. Parker was a highly influential soloist and leading figure in the development of bebop, a form ...

. Kennedy acted in the films ''

The Landlord ''The Landlord'' is a 1970 American comedy-drama film directed by Hal Ashby, adapted by Bill Gunn from the 1966 novel by Kristin Hunter. The film stars Beau Bridges in the lead role of a privileged and ignorant white man who selfishly becomes ...

'' (1970), adapted from Kristin Hunter's 1966 novel), in which she played "Enid", and the independent political drama ''

Born In Flames ''Born in Flames'' is a 1983 documentary-style feminist fiction film by Lizzie Borden that explores racism, classism, sexism, and heterosexism in an alternative United States socialist democracy. The title comes from the song "Born in Flames" wr ...

'' (1983), directed by

Lizzie Borden Lizzie Andrew Borden (July 19, 1860 – June 1, 1927) was an American woman tried and acquitted of the August 4, 1892 axe murders of her father and stepmother in Fall River, Massachusetts. No one else was charged in the murders, and despite ost ...

), in which she played "Zella". Kennedy also acted in '' Who Says I Can't Ride a Rainbow'' alongside Morgan Freeman and directed by Edward Mann) and was seen on the TV series '' Some of My Best Friends are Men'' (1973). Kennedy was one of many narrators in the second volume of a film entitled '' Come Back, Africa: The Films of Lionel Rogosin'', which discussed African-American history as well as

apartheid Apartheid (, especially South African English: , ; , "aparthood") was a system of institutionalised racial segregation that existed in South Africa and South West Africa (now Namibia) from 1948 to the early 1990s. Apartheid was ...

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the Southern Africa, southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by of coastline that stretch along the Atlantic Ocean, South Atlantic and Indian Oceans; to the ...

. This film was created to "serve as a unique piece of African American oral history". In 1997, Kennedy received a Lifetime Courageous Activist Award, and the following year was honored by

Columbia University Columbia University (also known as Columbia, and officially as Columbia University in the City of New York) is a private research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Church in Manhatt ...

with their Owl Award for outstanding graduates. In 1999 the City University of New York awarded her the Century Award.

Activism

Kennedy used

Intersectionality Intersectionality is an analytical framework for understanding how aspects of a person's social and political identities combine to create different modes of discrimination and privilege. Intersectionality identifies multiple factors of adva ...

as her approach to activism. Sherie Randolph, in her book ''Florynce "Flo" Kennedy: The Life of a Radical Black Feminist'', quotes Flo saying: "My main message is that we have a pathologically, institutionally racist, sexist, classist society. And that niggerizing techniques that are used don't only damage black people, but they also damage women, gay people, ex-prison inmates, prostitutes, children, old people, handicapped people, native Americans. And that if we can begin to analyze the pathology of oppression… we would learn a lot about how to deal with it."Randolph, Sherie (2015). ''Florynce "Flo" Kennedy: The Life of a Black Feminist Radical'', USA: University of North Carolina Press, pp. 1, 157, 158. Kennedy kept revisiting the same aim: "urging women to examine the sources of their oppression. She spoke of day to day acts of resistance that we can all take and hold her own arrests and political actions."lipton, carol (1974-08-01). "'balancing the scales' women and justice". ''Off Our Backs'' 4 (9): 16. Kennedy summed up her protest strategy as "Mak ngwhite people nervous". Kennedy often dressed in a

cowboy hat The cowboy hat is a high-crowned, wide-brimmed hat best known as the defining piece of attire for the North American cowboy. Today it is worn by many people, and is particularly associated with ranch workers in the western and southern Unit ...

and pink sunglasses."Feminist Flo Kennedy, Civil Rights Lawyer, Dies"
''The Washington Post'', December 24, 2000. Another trademark in public appearances were false eyelashes, which she referred to as her "

Daffy Duck Daffy Duck is an animated cartoon character created for Leon Schlesinger Productions by animators Tex Avery and Bob Clampett. Styled as an anthropomorphic black duck, he has appeared in cartoon series such as ''Looney Tunes'' and ''Merrie Mel ...

" lashes, and which she used to great effect. Kennedy had a summer home on Fire Island, and was a popular fixture on the social scene there, entertaining many activists whom she invited to visit her. Kennedy held regular salons in her apartment on East 48th Street, off Fifth Avenue, in New York City. She would preside over networking and facilitate people meeting each other, sharing ideas, and was always coming up with projects. She would give tours of her apartment, directing guests to the "filthy room" and the "dirty room".

Early activism

Her activism began early. According to Jason Chambers in his book ''Madison Avenue and the Color Line: African Americans in the Advertising Industry'', "After graduating high school, ennedyorganized a successful boycott against a Coca-Cola bottler who refused to hire black truck drivers." "Kennedy recalled being arrested for the first time in 1965 when she attempted to reach her home on East 48th Street and police refused to believe she lived in the neighborhood. From that point on, she focused her attention on combatting racism and discrimination."Kennedy, Florynce
Papers of Florynce Kennedy, 1915-2004 (inclusive), 1947-1993 (bulk)
. Schlesinger Library: Kennedy, 2004. She worked as an activist for

feminism Feminism is a range of socio-political movements and ideologies that aim to define and establish the political, economic, personal, and social equality of the sexes. Feminism incorporates the position that society prioritizes the male po ...

and

, and the cases she took on increasingly tended to be related to these causes. She was close friends with fellow Columbia law graduate

Morton Birnbaum Morton Birnbaum (October 20, 1926 – November 26, 2005) was an American lawyer and physician who advocated for the right of psychiatric patients to have adequate, humane care, and who coined the term sanism. His seminal paper on "The Right To T ...

MD, whose concept of sanism she influenced during the 1960s.Burnbaum, Rebecca
"My Father's Advocacy for a Right to Treatment"
''Journal of the American Academy of Psychiatry and the Law'' 38:1:115–123 (March 2010). Kennedy established the Media Workshop in 1966, " singthese sessions to discuss strategies for challenging the media and to stress the importance of sharing tactical information across movement lines." She and others would picket and lobby the media over their representation of Black people. She stated that she would lead boycotts of major advertisers if they did not feature black people in their ads. She attended all three Black Power conferences and represented H. Rap Brown,

Assata Shakur Assata Olugbala Shakur (born JoAnne Deborah Byron; July 16, 1947; also married name, JoAnne Chesimard) is an American political activist who was a member of the Black Liberation Army (BLA). In 1977, she was convicted in the first-degree murder ...

and the Black Panthers. Kennedy also represented prominent radical feminist

Valerie Solanas Valerie Jean Solanas (April 9, 1936 – April 25, 1988) was an American radical feminist known for the ''SCUM Manifesto'', which she self-published in 1967, and for her attempt to murder artist Andy Warhol in 1968. Solanas had a turbulent child ...

, who was on trial for the 1968 attempted murder of

Andy Warhol Andy Warhol (; born Andrew Warhola Jr.; August 6, 1928 – February 22, 1987) was an American visual artist, film director, and producer who was a leading figure in the Art movement, visual art movement known as pop art. His works explore th ...

. Kennedy played a significant role in formulating the

Miss America protest The Miss America protest was a demonstration held at the Miss America 1969 contest on September 7, 1968, attended by about 200 feminists and civil rights advocates. The feminist protest was organized by New York Radical Women and included puttin ...

of 1968. The Miss America protest was used as a tool to demonstrate the "exploitation of women". Randolph noted in her book, ''Florynce "Flo" Kennedy: The Life of a Black Feminist Radical'', that the responsibility lay with Kennedy to recruit other black feminists to this protest. During the protest multiple women were arrested and Kennedy took on their cases as their attorney. In the 1970s Kennedy traveled the lecture circuit with writer

Gloria Steinem Gloria Marie Steinem (; born March 25, 1934) is an American journalist and social-political activist who emerged as a nationally recognized leader of second-wave feminism in the United States in the late 1960s and early 1970s. Steinem was a c ...

. If a man asked the pair if they were lesbians – a stereotype of feminists at the time – Kennedy would quote

Ti-Grace Atkinson Grace Atkinson (born November 9, 1938), better known as Ti-Grace Atkinson, is an American radical feminist activist, writer and philosopher. Life and career Atkinson was born into a prominent Louisiana family. Named after her grandmother, Gra ...

and answer, "Are you my alternative?" She was an early member of the

National Organization for Women The National Organization for Women (NOW) is an American feminist organization. Founded in 1966, it is legally a 501(c)(4) social welfare organization. The organization consists of 550 chapters in all 50 U.S. states and in Washington, D.C. It ...

, but left them in 1970, dissatisfied with their approach to change. In 1971 she founded the Feminist Party, which nominated

Shirley Chisholm Shirley Anita Chisholm ( ; ; November 30, 1924 – January 1, 2005) was an American politician who, in 1968, became the first black woman to be elected to the United States Congress. Chisholm represented New York's 12th congressional distr ...

for president. She also helped found the National Women's Political Caucus. Beginning in 1972 she served on the Advisory Board of the

Westbeth Playwrights Feminist Collective The Westbeth Playwrights Feminist Collective was a group of professional women playwrights in New York active from 1971 to 1975. They wrote and produced feminist plays and were one of the first feminist theatre groups in the United States to do so ...

, a New York City theatre group that produced plays on feminist issues. Kennedy's "position on the role of black feminists was diplomatic without being evasive." Kennedy supported abortion rights and co-authored the book ''Abortion Rap'' with Diane Schulder. The phrase "If men could get pregnant, abortion would be a sacrament" is sometimes attributed to Kennedy, although

attributed it to "an old Irish woman taxi driver in Boston" whom she said she and Kennedy met. In 1972, Kennedy filed tax evasion charges with the Internal Revenue Service against the

Catholic Church The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...

, saying that their campaign against abortion rights violated the separation of church and state. Sherie Randolph outlines in her article "Not to Rely Completely on the Courts" that Kennedy was one of the lawyers in the ''Abramowicz v. Lefkowitz'' case, the class action suit that wanted to repeal New York's strict abortion laws.Randolph, Sherie (2015). "Not to Rely Completely on the Courts: Florynce 'Flo' Kennedy and Black Feminist Leadership in the Reproductive Rights Battle, 1969–1971". ''Journal of Women's History'': p. 137. Randolph stated: "This case was one of the first to use women who suffered from illegal abortions as expert witnesses instead of relying on physicians." "These tactics were eventually used in the '' Roe v. Wade'' case, in 1973, which overturned restrictive abortion laws." Kennedy was a lawyer for the Women's Health Collective and 350 plaintiffs in a similar lawsuit about abortion in New York.Price, Kimala (2010), "What is Reproductive Justice? How Women of Color Activists Are Redefining The Pro-Choice Paradigm", ''Meridians: feminism, race, transnationalism'', p. 45.

Later activism

After the 1971 rebellion at Attica Prison in New York State arose as a result of human rights abuse, the issue of solidarity arose between the black power movement and the feminist movement, often forcing activists to choose between the two. Kennedy addressed the discord that feminists had against those who supported both the black power movement and feminism by saying: "We do not support Attica. We ARE Attica. We are Attica or we are nothing." In 1973 Kennedy co-founded with

Margaret Sloan-Hunter Margaret Sloan-Hunter (May 31, 1947 – September 23, 2004) was a Black feminist, lesbian, civil rights advocate, and one of the early editors of ''Ms.'' magazine. Early life Margaret Sloan-Hunter was born in Chattanooga, Tennessee on May 31 ...

the National Black Feminist Organization (NBFO), which also dealt with race and gender issues such as reproductive rights and sterilization campaigns that were aimed at specific races. In 1973, to protest the lack of female bathrooms at

Harvard University Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of high ...

, women poured jars of fake urine on the steps of the University's Lowell Hall, a protest Kennedy thought of and participated in. When asked about this, she said:

I'm just a loud-mouthed middle-aged colored lady with a fused spine and three feet of intestines missing and a lot of people think I'm crazy. Maybe you do too, but I never stop to wonder why I'm not like other people. The mystery to me is why more people aren't like me.

In 1974, ''

People A person ( : people) is a being that has certain capacities or attributes such as reason, morality, consciousness or self-consciousness, and being a part of a culturally established form of social relations such as kinship, ownership of prope ...

'' magazine wrote that she was "The biggest, loudest and, indisputably, the rudest mouth on the battleground." In 1977, Kennedy became an associate of the

Women's Institute for Freedom of the Press Women’s Institute for Freedom of the Press (WIFP) is an American nonprofit publishing organization that was founded in Washington, D.C. in 1972. The organization works to increase media democracy and strengthen independent media. Mo Basic info ...

(WIFP). WIFP is an American nonprofit publishing organization. The organization works to increase communication between women and connect the public with forms of women-based media. A strong opponent of military and interventionist wars, especially the

Vietnam War The Vietnam War (also known by other names) was a conflict in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia from 1 November 1955 to the fall of Saigon on 30 April 1975. It was the second of the Indochina Wars and was officially fought between North Vietnam a ...

, Kennedy coined the term " Pentagon orrhea".

Personal life

In 1946, Kennedy wrote a monograph called "The Case Against Marriage", which she later summarized in her autobiography:

...the idea being that marriage is a crock. Why should you lock yourself in the bathroom just because you have to go three times a day?

In 1957 Kennedy married science fiction author Charles Dye, who was previously married to fellow science fiction author Katherine MacLean. Dye suffered from

alcoholism Alcoholism is, broadly, any drinking of alcohol that results in significant mental or physical health problems. Because there is disagreement on the definition of the word ''alcoholism'', it is not a recognized diagnostic entity. Predomi ...

and died circa 1960, in his mid-30s. Kennedy never remarried or had children. In 1986 on her 70th birthday, Kennedy had a birthday gala at the New York City

Playboy Club The Playboy Club was initially a chain of nightclubs and resorts owned and operated by Playboy Enterprises. The first Playboy Club opened in Chicago in 1960. Each club generally featured a Living Room, a Playmate Bar, a Dining Room, and a Club ...

, sponsored by Christie Hefner—daughter of Hugh Hefner and former CEO of Playboy Enterprises. Kennedy contributed the piece "Institutionalized oppression vs. the female" to the 1970 anthology '' Sisterhood is Powerful: An Anthology of Writings From The Women's Liberation Movement'', edited by

Robin Morgan Robin Morgan (born January 29, 1941) is an American poet, writer, activist, journalist, lecturer and former child actor. Since the early 1960s, she has been a key radical feminist member of the American Women's Movement, and a leader in the ...

. In 1976, Kennedy wrote an autobiography, ''Color Me Flo: My Hard Life and Good Times'' (Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall), in which she wrote about her life and career. She also collaborated with

William Francis Pepper William Francis Pepper (born August 16, 1937) is a U.S. lawyer formerly based in New York City who is most noted for his efforts to prove government culpability and the innocence of James Earl Ray in the assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr. P ...

on the book ''Sex Discrimination in Employment: An Analysis and Guide for Practitioner and Student''. She died on December 21, 2000, at her home in New York, aged 84. Kennedy was an atheist who was once noted as saying: "It's interesting to speculate how it developed that in two of the most anti-feminist institutions, the church and the law court, the men are wearing the dresses".

In popular culture

Kennedy was featured twice in 2020 biopics of other women. In '' Mrs. America'', an FX limited series about

Phyllis Schlafly Phyllis Stewart Schlafly (; born Phyllis McAlpin Stewart; August 15, 1924 – September 5, 2016) was an American attorney, conservative activist, author, and anti-feminist spokesperson for the national conservative movement. She held paleocons ...

Niecy Nash Carol Denise Betts (née Ensley; born February 23, 1970), known professionally as Niecy Nash-Betts (), is an American actress, comedian and television host, best known for her performances on television. Nash hosted the Style Network show '' C ...

portrayed her, while in the 2020

biopic '' The Glorias'', she was played by

Lorraine Toussaint Lorraine Toussaint () is a Trinidadian-American actress. She is the recipient of various accolades, including a Black Reel Award, a Critics' Choice Television Award and a Screen Actors Guild Award. Toussaint began her career in theatre before ...

References

External links

Florynce Kennedy (1916 — 2000)
As remembered by Marsha Joyner
Civil Rights Movement Archive
website.
Papers of Florynce Kennedy, 1915-2004 (inclusive), 1947-1993 (bulk)Schlesinger Library
Radcliffe Institute, Harvard University.
Florynce Kennedy
fro
"Tenacious Women: Activists in a Democratic Society"
, exhibit at Schlesinger Library, Radcliffe Institute, Harvard University
Florynce Kennedy
from the KC Black History website
2021 Kansas City Black History Booklet
created by the Black Archives of Mid-America, Local Investment Commission, and the Kansas City Public Library * {{DEFAULTSORT:Kennedy, Florynce 1916 births 2000 deaths African-American lawyers Activists for African-American civil rights American civil rights lawyers American women's rights activists African-American feminists American feminists Columbia University School of General Studies alumni People from Kansas City, Missouri American women activists American autobiographers 20th-century American writers 20th-century American women writers Women autobiographers 20th-century American lawyers American atheists Missouri Democrats New York (state) Democrats 20th-century American women lawyers Women civil rights activists 20th-century African-American women 20th-century African-American writers