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Activism

Florynce Kennedy played a significant role in formulating the Miss America Protest of 1968. According to Sherie Randolph, in her book “Florynce “Flo” Kennedy: The Life of a Radical Black Feminist, The Miss America Protest was used as a tool to demonstrate the “exploitation of women”. Randolph noted that the responsibility lied on Flo to recruit other black feminist to this protest (p.157). During the protest multiple women were arrested and Kennedy took on their cases as their attorney. (p.158)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. http://oasis.lib.harvard.edu/oasis/deliver/~sch01221

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 (Price, 2010, p. 45).Kennedy, Florynce. Papers of Florynce Kennedy, 1915-2004 (inclusive), 1947-1993 (bulk). Schlesinger Library: Kennedy, 2004. http://oasis.lib.harvard.edu/oasis/deliver/~sch01221 Price, Kimala. (2010). What is Reproductive Justice? How Women of Color Activists Are Redefining The Pro-Choice Paradigm. Meridians: feminism, race, transnationalism, 10(2). p.42-65

Activism -- Reproductive Rights

According to Sherie Randolph in her article Not to Rely Completely on the Courts, 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 case. (2015, p.137) 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.” (2015, 137). “These tactics were eventually used in the Roe v. Wade case, in 1973, which overturned restrictive abortion laws.” (Randolph, 2015, 137)

Awards and Achievements

“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.”

Notes

Kennedy, Florynce. Papers of Florynce Kennedy, 1915-2004 (inclusive), 1947-1993 (bulk). Schlesinger Library: Kennedy, 2004.

http://oasis.lib.harvard.edu/oasis/deliver/~sch01221

Price, Kimala. (2010). What is Reproductive Justice? How Women of Color Activists Are Redefining The Pro-Choice Paradigm. Meridians: feminism, race, transnationalism, 10(2). p.42-65