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Early Life

The Klu Klux Klan being present in her neighborhood, Kennedy remembered a time in her neighborhood with her father having to be armed with a shotgun in order to ward off the Klan who was trying to drive her family out of the neighborhood.

In a 1946 sociology class at Columbia University Kennedy wrote a paper which analogized the discourses of race and sex. "Kennedy hoped that comparing "women" and "Negroes" would hasten the formation of alliances".

"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 combating racism and discrimination." 

She was the only black person among eight women in her class.     

"she collaborated on another book, Sex Discrimination in Employment: An Analysis and Guide for Practitioner and Student, with William Francis Pepper."

Activism

Florynce Kennedy used Intersectionality as her approach to activism. Sherie Randolph, in her book Florynce “Flo” Kennedy: The Life of a Radical Black Feminist, quotes Flo, who says “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.”

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.” “Kennedy summed up her protest strategy as “Mak[ing] white people nervous”Kennedy’s “position on the role of black feminists was diplomatic without being evasive.”

Kennedy's activism began early, according to Jason Chambers in his book Madison Avenue and the Color Line: African American's in the Advertising Industry, “After graduating high school, [Kennedy] organized a successful boycott against a Coca-Cola bottler who refused to hire black truck drivers.”

Florynce Kennedy played a significant role in formulating the Miss America Protest 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 lied on Flo to recruit other black feminist to this protest. During the protest multiple women were arrested and Kennedy took on their cases as their attorney.

She attended all three Black Power conferences and represented H. Rap Brown, Assata Shakur and the Black Panthers. Kennedy also represented prominent radical feminist Valerie Solanas who was on trial for the attempted murder of Andy Warhol .

After the 1971 rebellion at Attica Prison in New York State arose as a result to human rights abuse, issue of solidarity arose between the black power movement and the feminist movement. Often forcing activist to choose between the two. Florynce Kennedy discussed that this discord that feminists had against those who supported both the black power movement and feminism by saying “ We do not support Attica. We ARE Attic. We are Attica or we are nothing.”

Beginning in 1972 she served on the Advisory Board of the Westbeth Playwrights Feminist Collective, a New York City theatre group which produced plays on feminist issues. In 1973 Kennedy co-founded the National Black Feminist Organization (NBFO) with Margaret Sloan-Hunter which also dealt with race and gender issues like reproductive rights and sterilization campaigns that were aimed at specific races

*Media Workshop*

“Kennedy used these session to discuss strategies for challenging the media and to stress the importance of sharing tactical information across movement lines.”

Activism -- Reproductive Rights

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 which wanted to repeal New York's strict abortion laws . Randolph stated that, “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.

Films:

Kennedy acted in the films The Landlord (1970, adapted from Kristin Hunter's 1966 novel), in which she played "Enid", and the independent political drama Born In Flames (1983, directed by Lizzie Borden), in which she played "Zella".^[9]

Kennedy also acted in Who Says I Can't Ride a Rainbow along side Morgan Freeman (1971, 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. The film discussed African American history as well as apartheid in South Africa. This film was created to "serve as a unique piece of African American oral history".

Private Life

In 1986 on her 70th birthday, Kennedy had a birthday Gala at the New York City Playboy Club, sponsored by Christie Hefner -- daughter and former CEO of Playboy Enterprises.

Awards and Achievements [Header]

“In 1997 Kennedy received a Lifetime Courageous Activist Award; the following year Columbia University honored her by conferring their Owl Award for outstanding graduates. The City University of New York awarded her the Century Award in 1999.”