Quotes by Flo Kennedy HERE
Visit Pinterest page HERE
From the back cover …
“Here’s Flo Kennedy, ‘radicalism’s rudest mouth,’ telling her life story in full and for the first time. Raised in Kansas City in the twenties, she was one of five sisters, the daughter of a father who stood off the Ku Klux Klan with a shotgun and a mother who taught them always to hold out for the best.
One of the first Black women to graduate from Columbia Law School, she went on to represent the estates of Billie Holiday and Charlie Parker. In the sixties she was a delegate to the Black Power conferences, then took up the battle against sexism and racism by founding the Media Workshop, the Feminist Party, and the Coalition Against Racism and Sexism.
She was a member of the legal team which was instrumental in liberalizing the New York State abortion laws, and was co-author of Abortion Rap. She has mastered guerilla warfare tactics on the picket line and in the streets and suites of New York. Her verbal karate has provoked and entertained TV audiences internationally. In Color Me Flo, the inimitable Flo Kennedy makes her case to the reader.”
December 23, 2000
Flo Kennedy, Feminist, Civil Rights Advocate and
Flamboyant Gadfly, Is Dead at 84
Florynce Kennedy, a lawyer and political activist whose flamboyant attire and sometimes outrageous comments drew attention to her fierce struggle for civil rights and feminism, died on Thursday in her Manhattan apartment. She was 84. More HERE
SUMMER 2011
The Verbal Karate of Florynce R. Kennedy, Esq.
By GLORIA STEINEM
Like many people all over the country, I knew a little about the Flo Kennedy legend long before I met her in the flesh. In fact, the name “Flo” alone was enough to evoke images of outrageous and creative troublemaking in almost any area, from minority hiring to ban-the-bomb. Just as there was only one Eleanor or Winston, one Stokely or Marilyn or Mao, there was only one Flo. More HERE
Flo’s 70th birthday Gala sponsored by Christie Hefner at the New York City Playboy Club (1986)
The New York media also dubbed them “The Black Brontes” when all had books published in 1976.
The sisters at Flo’s place off Fifth Avenue
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Florynce “Flo” Kennedy’s legacy lives on in her youngest sister, Faye Kennedy of Honolulu and Joy Kennedy-Banks of East Orange, New Jersey.
Flo’s threatened national boycott of Hawaii during her visits after sister Faye retired there led to the Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Holiday’s belated adoption in the island state in 1989 — three years after the federal holiday became law (1986). Faye’s own rise to political prominence and national honors accelerated during this period. The Hawaii MLK parade continues to be one of the largest and most diverse in the nation.
After Flo’s passing, her sister Joy, a former model, songwriter and civic leader was very involved in protecting Flo’s legacy. Faye Kennedy now administers Joy’s power of attorney because of her sister’s advanced age and frail health. The two financially secure sisters oppose any efforts to use Flo’s name without Faye’s written authorization. For more information, please contact: Faye Kennedy 3071 Felix Street Honolulu, Hawaii 96816
Hi- Hope you’ll share this with your friends as a way of honoring Flo’s legacy with my BFF Faye Kennedy and Flo’s other surviving sister.
Aloha,
Ash
Flo is being forgotten, and it is time to make sure that the new generation of ‘troublemakers’ learn about and get inspired by her example.
my dad had an apartment in the same building and I met flo in the stairwell without knowing who she was…we later became dear friends and associates sharing many happy hours together which I treasure very much…not because of her fame but rather her humanity
Hello please tell Faye Hello.
I helped submit the papers to Harvard and my Mother sang ag her parties. I was the 5 yr old Intern on the 60 Mins.
When I last spoke with Joy and went by to check on her I’ve since been Tour. I’ve known all them since the 5th Ave Apt. Joy would tell me of her Harlem Days and Grace lived in Queens.
Please contact me…Still Kick N A