Dates

• Existence: 1916 - 2011

Biographical Note

Stetson Kennedy has spent the majority of his life fighting for human rights in the deep south of America. Crusading for human rights, fighting the Jim Crow laws and helping equality take hold in the south. Stetson Kennedy, was born in Jacksonville, Florida in 1916. As a teenager he began collecting Cracker and African American folksay material while he was collecting ''dollar down and dollar a week'' accounts for his father, a furniture merchant. He left the University of Florida in 1937 to join the WPA Florida Writers' Project, and was soon, at the age of 21, put in charge of folklore, oral history, and ethnic studies. Slowly becoming one of the pioneer folklore collectors during the first half of the twentieth century, In addition to his passion for folklore, Stetson - during a career spanning over six decades - has become friends with many literary giants. including: Erskine Caldwell, who became interested in his work in an essay competition and was so impressed went on to edit his novel on Floridian folklore, "Palmetto Country". He was Zora Neal Hurston's boss in the Florida Works Progress Administration (WPA). In addition, while he was living in Paris in the mid 1950's, Jean Paul Sartre published his book, "The Jim Crow Guide", after Kennedy could not find any American publisher to publish this controversial and eye opening true story. During and after the late 1940's when Kennedy infiltrated and exposed the Ku Klux Klan and other hate groups- Woody Guthrie, Richard Wright, and W.E.B. Du bois were among his friends.

Kennedy was born into an old family of Jacksonville's high society in 1916. As a teenager he began collecting Cracker and African American folksay material while he was collecting ''dollar down and dollar a week'' accounts for his father, a furniture merchant. After high school, Kennedy enrolled at the University of Florida, where he took a creative writing course taught by Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings. But in 1937, he dropped out to join the WPA Florida Writers' Project, an arm of the federal government's Work Progress Administration. At age 21, Kennedy found himself in charge of the project's folklore effort. In this role he served as the supervisor of Zora Neale Hurston, who joined him on numerous field trips. Infiltrated the Ku Klux Klan in the 1940s, exposing its secrets to authorities and the outside world. Fled the country for France when his home was firebombed by enemies. After returning to the U.S. in 1956, Kennedy stayed active crusading for human rights, fighting the Jim Crow laws and helping equality take hold in the south. He was inducted into the Florida Artists Hall of Fame in 2005. Kennedy later died on August 27, 2011 at Baptist Medical Center South in Jacksonville.

Gender

• male

Occupations

• Human rights workers
• Authors

Places

• United States (Associated Country)
• Jacksonville (Fla.) (Residence)

Languages Used

• English

Found in 2 Collections and/or Records: