Today, in honor of Black History Month, we remember Flo Kennedy, who was born on this date February 11, 1916, in Kansas City, Missouri. Kennedy was a lawyer, feminist and civil-rights activist. As a lawyer, she represented Billie Holiday, Charlie Parker, Assata Shakur, H. Rap Brown, and Valerie Solanas (for her attempted murder of Andy Warhol). In 1972 she formed the Feminist Party and filed an Internal Revenue Service complaint alleging that the Catholic Church violates tax-exempt requirements by spending money to influence political decisions. "I'm just a loud-mouthed middle-aged colored lady . . . & 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."
She grew up at a time when the KKK was quite active in Kansas City. She remembered her father had to have a shotgun to keep them safe. "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." As a young woman, she moved to Harlem and enrolled at Columbia. She was refused admission to their law school because she “was a woman.” She knew it was because she was black. So, she threatened to sue them and they admitted her. She was the only black person among the eight women in her class.
As an activist, she once said, "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." As early as 1966, she was picketing and lobbying the media over their portrayal of Black people. She played a prominent role in the protest against the 1968 Miss America Pageant. After the Attica prison uprising, she said, “We do not support Attica. We ARE Attica.” She also participated in the 1973 protests at Harvard over the lack of women’s bathrooms. When asked why she participated in the pouring of urine on the steps of Lower Hall, 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 addition to her activism and legal work, Kennedy also acted in the films “The Landlord” (1970), adapted from Kristin Hunter's 1966 novel, and the independent political drama “Born In Flames” (1983), directed by Lizzie Borden. She also acted in “Who Says I Can't Ride a Rainbow” alongside Morgan Freeman.
Flo Kennedy, c1972, wearing a leather cowboy hat and vest, and a t-shirt that says “bullshit” while flipping the middle finger and smiling at the camera. By http://www.reclaimthemedia.org/files/images/kennedy.jpg, Fair use, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=36268845
In the midst of all the crazy things happening in #America, this isn't at the top of the list, but its certainly fascinating: the top prosecutor having a text chain for 33 hours with a reporter:
New: A surveillance tool government agencies have access to can track everywhere a phone goes without a warrant. Someone with access to the tool tracked a person crossing state lines to go to an abortion clinic, then showed us how it works:
@404mediaco This should be illegal. I keep my location services off at all times. Occasionally turned it on for maps and then turn it back off. They better not be tracking me because that’s an invasion of my privacy. We need to take our privacy very seriously because once we start giving it up, we will NEVER get it back. #RightToPrivacy#UnConstitutional#Vote Isn’t there an #Attorney out there who can fight this infringement? #uspol