The Lasting Legacy of Florynce Kennedy, Black Feminist Fighter

[seabeyond]

SEVERAL DECADES AFTER the 1960s political upheavals, very few people recognize the name of the Black feminist lawyer and activist Florynce “Flo” Kennedy (1916-2000). However, during the late 1960s and 1970s Kennedy was the country’s most well-known Black feminist. When reporting on the emergence of the women’s movement, the media covered her early membership in the National Organization for Women (NOW), her leadership of countless guerilla theatre protests and her work as a lawyer helping to repeal New York’s restrictive abortion laws. Indeed, Black feminist Jane Galvin-Lewis and white feminists Gloria Steinem and Ti-Grace Atkinson credit Kennedy with helping to educate a generation of young women about feminism in particular and radical political organizing more generally. Yet Kennedy’s activism is marginalized or completely erased from most histories of “second wave” feminism. Those rare references to Kennedy usually highlight her as one of the few Black women in the women’s movement. Kennedy is a significant exemplar of the exclusion of key Black feminist organizers from most feminist scholarship on the movement: the erasure of her critical role speaks to the ways in which feminist literature has failed to see Black women as progenitors of contemporary feminism. Connecting both Black and white feminists to organizations such as the Black Panther Party and the Black Power Conferences tells us a great deal about how feminists worked toward reconstructing the society in which they lived. While some recent scholarship has helped to expand our understanding of the Black Power movement’s relationship to feminism, there is still much to be understood about the ways in which the Black Power movement was connected to feminist radicalism. I argue that Kennedy’s example forces us to see how the strategies and theories understood to have originated in Black Power struggles were absorbed by both Black and white feminists.

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Frequently, Kennedy used the term “niggerizing” as a synonym for oppression, a rhetorical strategy meant to force oppressed people to understand how racist techniques could be deployed against all oppressed people. Although Kennedy understood oppressions as interconnected, she argued that “racism will always be worse than sexism until we find feminists shot in bed like [Black Panthers] Mark Clark and Fred Hampton.” And like other Black Power leaders and some white leftists, she argued that because Black people started this revolution” and spent more time on the front lines, the Black Power movement had a moral claim to vanguard status within the larger struggle. Though Kennedy privileged Black liberation movements and racial oppression, she still argued that it did not matter which oppression was more lethal: they all “hurt like crazy.” In her opinion the best strategy was to conquer all forms of exploitation. Kennedy believed that a steady and consistent attack against all forms of oppression from a variety of organizational fronts helped to quicken revolutionary change. Kennedy’s theory on challenging oppression helps to explain why she worked in a wide range of organizations and movements throughout her political career.

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Moore, who had founded the Reparations Committee in 1962, was a powerful voice in Black nationalist circles. Her voice bellowed throughout the room: “These white women have to get out! This meeting is for Blacks only!” Activists seated in the front rows turned around to see white feminists and NOW members Ti-Grace Atkinson and Peg Brennan shrinking into their seats as Moore hovered over them. From the stage Kennedy quickly came to their defense: “These are my guests! I don’t invite people some place then tell them to leave!” But Moore and the other attendees did not care whose guests the women were, they just wanted them out. The Black Power movement was to be unlike the civil rights struggle, where white participation was directly encouraged. In contrast Black Power promoted independent Black politics, and white participation in the conference threatened to disrupt this goal. As the arguing between Kennedy and Moore escalated the room became tense and bodies began to rise from their seats. Atkinson remembers someone in the crowd threatening to kill Kennedy for bringing the white women to the Black Power Conference. “Do what you have to do,” Kennedy responded. “I’ve lived my life.”

Afraid of what might happen next, Brennan “got out of there fast.” When Kennedy saw Brennan leave she ordered Atkinson to “stay where you are!” Shaking, Atkinson froze, not daring to leave her chair. To her surprise, Moore and her backers eventually gave way. Kennedy and the other facilitators returned to their presentations with Atkinson listening quietly, staring at her feet. Years later, Atkinson described her decision to attend the conference as “nuts.” Yet she was profoundly appreciative of the opportunity Kennedy provided her to witness the Black Power movement during its formative years. Hearing Black activists plot strategies and formulate workshop resolutions “transformed” her burgeoning feminist politics. Atkinson commented: “She was always trying to pull it together and have to say in many ways maybe it was a bad idea or clumsy or difficult. But, it’s why people like myself became really transformed not only in terms of politics generally, but because of my feminism. It deepened everything.”

http://www.solidarity-us.org/node/3272
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too much good stuff in this article.

[niyad]

1. always loved that woman

[seabeyond]

2. i love people like this that fight theirs within

with such courage and righteousness, knowing it allows all to be better, strong, more than who they are.

for me, that is the best in awesome

[BlueIris]

3. Great article.

I actually haven't read all that much about '70s feminism or its leaders since, well, about the year 2001. Which is very sad. So I'm happy this thread is here.

[seabeyond]

4. and i havent done any

woman studies so i have been having a blast reading about this stuff. this is my type of woman.