William Stetson Kennedy (October 5, 1916 – August 27, 2011) was an American author,

folklorist Folklore studies, less often known as folkloristics, and occasionally tradition studies or folk life studies in the United Kingdom, is the branch of anthropology devoted to the study of folklore. This term, along with its synonyms, gained currenc ...

and

human rights activist A human rights defender or human rights activist is a person who, individually or with others, acts to promote or protect human rights. They can be journalists, environmentalists, whistleblowers, trade unionists, lawyers, teachers, housing cam ...

. One of the pioneer

folklore Folklore is shared by a particular group of people; it encompasses the traditions common to that culture, subculture or group. This includes oral traditions such as tales, legends, proverbs and jokes. They include material culture, rangin ...

collectors during the first half of the 20th century, he is remembered for having infiltrated the

Ku Klux Klan The Ku Klux Klan (), commonly shortened to the KKK or the Klan, is an American white supremacist, right-wing terrorist, and hate group whose primary targets are African Americans, Jews, Latinos, Asian Americans, Native Americans, and Cat ...

in the 1940s, exposing its secrets to authorities and the outside world. His actions led to the 1947 revocation by the state of Georgia of the Klan's national corporate charter. Kennedy wrote or co-wrote ten books.

Childhood and education

William Stetson Kennedy, commonly known as Stetson Kennedy, was born on October 5, 1916, in

Jacksonville, Florida Jacksonville is a city located on the Atlantic coast of northeast Florida, the most populous city proper in the state and is the largest city by area in the contiguous United States as of 2020. It is the seat of Duval County, with which th ...

to Willye Stetson and George Wallace Kennedy. A descendant of signers of the

Declaration of Independence A declaration of independence or declaration of statehood or proclamation of independence is an assertion by a polity in a defined territory that it is independent and constitutes a state. Such places are usually declared from part or all of th ...

, Kennedy came from a wealthy, aristocratic Southern family with relatives including John Batterson Stetson, founder of the Stetson hat empire and namesake of

Stetson University Stetson University is a private university with four colleges and schools located across the I–4 corridor in Central Florida with the primary undergraduate campus in DeLand. The university was founded in 1883 and was later established in 1887 ...

, and an uncle "Brady" who served as the head Klan official, or "Great Titan", of a congressional district. At a young age, Kennedy began collecting Florida folklore material and wrote poetry about Florida nature. His views on race relations in the South were largely influenced by his family's black maid, known only as "Flo", whom Kennedy considered "almost like a mother". He recalled that during his childhood in the 1920s, local Klan members beat and raped Flo for "sassing whitefolks" after she questioned a white bus driver who had given her incorrect change. Recalling this incident later in life, Kennedy said, "At a very tender age, I became aware that grownups were lying about a whole lot more than Santa Claus", in reference to the Klan's claims of being Christian patriots. Kennedy attended Jacksonville public schools and graduated from Robert E. Lee High School during the

Great Depression The Great Depression (19291939) was an economic shock that impacted most countries across the world. It was a period of economic depression that became evident after a major fall in stock prices in the United States. The economic contagio ...

. In 1935, he enrolled in

University of Florida The University of Florida (Florida or UF) is a public land-grant research university in Gainesville, Florida. It is a senior member of the State University System of Florida, traces its origins to 1853, and has operated continuously on its ...

(UF), leaving in 1937 without receiving a degree. He also studied at the New School for Social Research in New York and at the Sorbonne in Paris, France.

Early writing and activism

In 1936, while studying at

, Kennedy collected boots and blankets for the Spanish Republic during the

Spanish Civil War The Spanish Civil War ( es, Guerra Civil Española)) or The Revolution ( es, La Revolución, link=no) among Nationalists, the Fourth Carlist War ( es, Cuarta Guerra Carlista, link=no) among Carlism, Carlists, and The Rebellion ( es, La Rebeli ...

. Kennedy has been called "one of the pioneer folklore collectors during the first half of the 20th century". In 1937, he left the University of Florida to join the

Federal Writers' Project The Federal Writers' Project (FWP) was a federal government project in the United States created to provide jobs for out-of-work writers during the Great Depression. It was part of the Works Progress Administration (WPA), a New Deal program. It wa ...

, the federally funded

Works Progress Administration The Works Progress Administration (WPA; renamed in 1939 as the Work Projects Administration) was an American New Deal agency that employed millions of jobseekers (mostly men who were not formally educated) to carry out public works projects, i ...

(WPA) initiative created under the

New Deal The New Deal was a series of programs, public work projects, financial reforms, and regulations enacted by President Franklin D. Roosevelt in the United States between 1933 and 1939. Major federal programs agencies included the Civilian Con ...

to fund and support American writers during the Great Depression. As part of the Federal Writers' Project, the

Library of Congress The Library of Congress (LOC) is the research library that officially serves the United States Congress and is the ''de facto'' national library of the United States. It is the oldest federal cultural institution in the country. The libra ...

hired archivists to document the diversity of American culture by recording regional

folksong Folk music is a music genre that includes traditional folk music and the contemporary genre that evolved from the former during the 20th-century folk revival. Some types of folk music may be called world music. Traditional folk music has b ...

s (e.g., children's songs, dance and

gospel music Gospel music is a traditional genre of Christian music, and a cornerstone of Christian media. The creation, performance, significance, and even the definition of gospel music varies according to culture and social context. Gospel music is co ...

) and oral histories in many languages and dialects. For five years, Kennedy collected Florida

, traveling throughout Florida alongside other notable figures such as

Harlem Renaissance The Harlem Renaissance was an intellectual and cultural revival of African American music, dance, art, fashion, literature, theater, politics and scholarship centered in Harlem, Manhattan, New York City, spanning the 1920s and 1930s. At the t ...

writer

Zora Neale Hurston Zora Neale Hurston (January 7, 1891 – January 28, 1960) was an American author, anthropologist, and filmmaker. She portrayed racial struggles in the early-1900s American South and published research on hoodoo. The most popular of her four n ...

and folklorist

Alan Lomax Alan Lomax (; January 31, 1915 – July 19, 2002) was an American ethnomusicologist, best known for his numerous field recordings of folk music of the 20th century. He was also a musician himself, as well as a folklorist, archivist, writer, s ...

, among others. Kennedy had a large role in editing several volumes for the Federal Writers' Project, including ''The WPA Guide to Florida'' and ''A Guide to Key West'' of the WPA's famed

American Guide Series The American Guide Series includes books and pamphlets published from 1937 to 1941 under the auspices of the Federal Writers' Project (FWP), a Depression-era program that was part of the larger Works Progress Administration in the United States. T ...

, and ''The Florida Negro''. Kennedy's first book, ''Palmetto Country'' (1942), which was commissioned by Georgia writer

Erskine Caldwell Erskine Preston Caldwell (December 17, 1903 – April 11, 1987) was an American novelist and short story writer. His writings about poverty, racism and social problems in his native Southern United States, in novels such as '' Tobacco Road'' (1 ...

for his

American Folkways Series The American Folkways is a 28-volume series of books, initiated and principally edited by Erskine Caldwell, and published by Duell, Sloan and Pearce from 1941 to 1955. Each book focused on a different region, or "folkway", of the United States, inc ...

, was based on unused material collected during Kennedy's time with the Federal Writers' Project. When it was published, Alan Lomax of the Library of Congress said, "I very much doubt that a better book about Florida folklife will ever be written". In 1942, Kennedy began working for the CIO, a federation of labor unions for industrial workers. As an editorial director for the CIO's political action committee (PAC) in Atlanta, he wrote a series of

monographs A monograph is a specialist work of writing (in contrast to reference works) or exhibition on a single subject or an aspect of a subject, often by a single author or artist, and usually on a scholarly subject. In library cataloging, ''monograp ...

advocating against racist policies such as the

poll tax A poll tax, also known as head tax or capitation, is a tax levied as a fixed sum on every liable individual (typically every adult), without reference to income or resources. Head taxes were important sources of revenue for many governments f ...

white primaries White primaries were primary elections held in the Southern United States in which only white voters were permitted to participate. Statewide white primaries were established by the state Democratic Party units or by state legislatures in Sout ...

, and other restrictions that were routinely used throughout the South to disenfranchise minorities, primarily African Americans, and poor people from being able to exercise their right to vote.

Infiltration of the Ku Klux Klan

Kennedy was unable to enlist in the military to serve in

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...

because of a bad back, so he decided to channel his patriotism towards combatting racial injustices in the Jim Crow South. He is best known for infiltrating the Georgia

and for exposing their secrets on the popular children's radio program '' The Adventures of Superman'', thus trivializing their rituals. He also targeted the Columbians, an Atlanta-based

neo-Nazi Neo-Nazism comprises the post–World War II militant, social, and political movements that seek to revive and reinstate Nazi ideology. Neo-Nazis employ their ideology to promote hatred and racial supremacy (often white supremacy), attack ...

organization. Kennedy said, "There were an awful lot of evils abroad in the world at the time, as there still are, but I couldn't help but feel that

racism Racism is the belief that groups of humans possess different behavioral traits corresponding to inherited attributes and can be divided based on the superiority of one race over another. It may also mean prejudice, discrimination, or antagoni ...

was perhaps the most evil". Working with the Georgia Bureau of Investigation, Kennedy joined the multiple Klan-affiliated organizations under the pseudonym John Perkins. He intended to gain evidence that could be used to prosecute its members. He obtained information about the Klan's "Invisible Empire" through his own participation and also through a high-ranking informant. As soon as he became aware of new details, he shared the Klan's secrets with police, prosecutors, journalists, and human rights organizations. In 1947, after a year of working undercover, he consented to testify in a trial against the leaders of the Columbians, Homer Loomis and Emory Burke, who were found guilty. Kennedy claimed that in 1946, he provided information – including secret codewords and details of Klan rituals – to the writers of the ''

Superman Superman is a superhero who appears in American comic books published by DC Comics. The character was created by writer Jerry Siegel and artist Joe Shuster, and debuted in the comic book '' Action Comics'' #1 ( cover-dated June 1938 and pu ...

'' radio program, intending to strip away the Klan's mystique. There was a series of 16 episodes in which Superman took on the Klan. Kennedy claimed that the trivialization of the Klan's rituals and codewords likely had a negative impact on Klan recruiting and membership. This led Stephen J. Dubner and

Steven Levitt Steven David Levitt (born May 29, 1967) is an American economist and co-author of the best-selling book '' Freakonomics'' and its sequels (along with Stephen J. Dubner). Levitt was the winner of the 2003 John Bates Clark Medal for his work in th ...

to dub Kennedy "the greatest single contributor to the weakening of the Ku Klux Klan" in their 2005 book '' Freakonomics''. In 2006, Dubner and Levitt cast doubt on their claim with correction that "the story of Stetson Kennedy was one long series of anecdotes — which, no matter how many times they were cited over the decades, were nearly all generated by the same self-interested source".

Critical assessments from his peers

In 1999, freelance historian Ben Green alleged that Kennedy falsified or misrepresented portions of ''The Klan Unmasked''. During the 1990s, Green had enlisted Kennedy's help while researching a book about the still unsolved murders of Florida couple Harry and Harriette Moore, black

Civil Rights Civil and political rights are a class of rights that protect individuals' freedom from infringement by governments, social organizations, and private individuals. They ensure one's entitlement to participate in the civil and political life ...

activists who died of injuries from the bombing of their home on Christmas Eve 1951. Green's book about the Moores, ''Before His Time'', was published in 1999. Green, whose book is generally disparaging of Kennedy, claimed to have examined Kennedy's archives at the

Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture The Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture is a research library of the New York Public Library (NYPL) and an archive repository for information on people of African descent worldwide. Located at 515 Malcolm X Boulevard (Lenox Avenue) ...

Harlem Harlem is a neighborhood in Upper Manhattan, New York City. It is bounded roughly by the Hudson River on the west; the Harlem River and 155th Street on the north; Fifth Avenue on the east; and Central Park North on the south. The greater Ha ...

and

Atlanta Atlanta ( ) is the capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Georgia. It is the seat of Fulton County, the most populous county in Georgia, but its territory falls in both Fulton and DeKalb counties. With a population of 498,7 ...

and he concluded that a number of interviews, portrayed in ''I Rode With The Ku Klux Klan'' as having been conducted undercover, had in fact been done openly, and that racist material amassed by Kennedy had also been openly obtained from mail subscriptions to the Klan and similar groups and not surreptitiously, as Kennedy implied. Most seriously, Green accused Kennedy of concealing the existence of a collaborator, referred to as "John Brown" (a pseudonym presumably chosen in honor of the 19th-century abolitionist John Brown). This pseudonymous collaborator, Green alleged, was in fact responsible for the most daring of Kennedy's undercover revelations. Green also interviewed Georgia State Prosecutor Dan Duke, whom he reported as denying having worked with Kennedy as closely as the latter had claimed. "Duke agreed that Kennedy 'got inside of some

lan Lan or LAN may also refer to: Science and technology * Local asymptotic normality, a fundamental property of regular models in statistics * Longitude of the ascending node, one of the orbital elements used to specify the orbit of an object in spa ...

meetings' but openly disputed Kennedy's dramatized account of their relationship. "'None of that happened,' uketold Green", according to '' Freakonomics'' authors Stephen J. Dubner and

Steven D. Levitt Steven David Levitt (born May 29, 1967) is an American economist and co-author of the best-selling book ''Freakonomics'' and its sequels (along with Stephen J. Dubner). Levitt was the winner of the 2003 John Bates Clark Medal for his work in the ...

in their ''

New York Times Magazine ''The New York Times Magazine'' is an American Sunday magazine supplement included with the Sunday edition of ''The New York Times''. It features articles longer than those typically in the newspaper and has attracted many notable contributors. ...

'' column of January 8, 2006. On the other hand, Peggy Bulger—the then-head of the

American Folklife Center The American Folklife Center at the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C. was created by Congress in 1976 "to preserve and present American Folklife". The center includes the Archive of Folk Culture, established at the library in 1928 as a repo ...

of the

, who wrote her Ph.D. dissertation on Kennedy and interviewed him extensively—stated that when she interviewed Duke, "Duke laughed about the way ''The Klan Unmasked'' was written. But he added that Kennedy 'didn't do it all, but he did plenty.'" In the same column, Levitt and Dubner also quote Jim Clark, a professor at the

University of Central Florida The University of Central Florida (UCF) is a public research university whose main campus is in unincorporated Orange County, Florida. UCF also has nine smaller regional campuses throughout central Florida. It is part of the State Universi ...

and co-author of a PBS television documentary based on Green's book, as saying that " ennedybuilt a national reputation on many things that didn't happen". Jim Clark and Ben Green collaborated on the script of ''Freedom Never Dies: The Story of Harry T. Moore'', based on Green's book and partially funded by the

Freedom Forum The Freedom Forum is the creator of the Newseum in Washington, D.C., which it sold to Johns Hopkins University in 2019. It is a nonpartisan 501 (c)(3) foundation that advances First Amendment freedoms through initiatives that include the Power Sh ...

. In a letter to Kennedy dated July 27, 1946, Georgia Governor

Ellis Arnall Ellis Gibbs Arnall (March 20, 1907December 13, 1992) was an American politician who served as the 69th Governor of Georgia from 1943 to 1947. A liberal Democrat, he helped lead efforts to abolish the poll tax and to reduce Georgia's voting age ...

wrote: 'You have my permission to quote me as making the following observation: Documentary evidence uncovered by Stetson Kennedy has facilitated Georgia's prosecution of the Ku Klux Klan.'" Dubner and Levitt had included a favorable summary of Kennedy's anti-Klan activities with special emphasis on the events recounted in ''I Rode with the Ku Klux Klan'' in the 2005 edition of their bestselling book. In the revised 2006 edition, after being contacted by Green, they retracted their earlier admiration, claiming that they had been "hoodwinked". The allegations in their retraction were swiftly repeated by the business journal ''

Forbes ''Forbes'' () is an American business magazine owned by Integrated Whale Media Investments and the Forbes family. Published eight times a year, it features articles on finance, industry, investing, and marketing topics. ''Forbes'' also r ...

'' in a review of the revised edition of ''Freakonomics'': "It turns out that Kennedy doesn't quite live up to his own legend. In fact, he had exaggerated his story for decades and credited himself with actions taken by other people". Green's insinuations are contested by scholars, who emphasize that Kennedy never concealed that he had protected his colleagues' identities and maintain that Green either misread or did not really read the material at the Schomburg Center. Bulger maintains that Kennedy was always candid with her and others about his combination of two narratives into one in ''I Rode With the Ku Klux Klan'': "His purpose was to expose the Klan to a broad reading audience and use their folklore against them, which he did". In a letter to the editor of ''The New York Times Magazine'' (published on January 22, 2006) Bulger accused Dubner and Levitt of "holding Stetson Kennedy responsible for the inadequacies of their own research": In the same issue of the magazine, a letter of protest from famed oral historian

Studs Terkel Louis "Studs" Terkel (May 16, 1912 – October 31, 2008) was an American writer, historian, actor, and broadcaster. He received the Pulitzer Prize for General Non-Fiction in 1985 for '' The Good War'' and is best remembered for his oral h ...

affirms that "With half a dozen Stetson Kennedys, we can transform our society into one of truth, grace and beauty.... The thing is, Stetson did what he set out to do .... He did get help. He should have been much more up-front. But he certainly doesn't deserve this treatment". In his own response (published in the Jacksonville, Florida ''Folio Weekly'', January 27, 2006) Kennedy pulled no punches: In 2006, ''

The Florida Times-Union ''The Florida Times-Union'' is a daily newspaper in Jacksonville, Florida, United States. Widely known as the oldest newspaper in the state, it began publication as the ''Florida Union'' in 1864. Its current incarnation started in 1883, when th ...

'', after extensive research, published an article "KKK Book Stands Up to Claim of Falsehood" substantiating the general accuracy of Kennedy's account of infiltrating the Klan, while acknowledging that (as he himself never denied) he had made use of dramatic effects and multiple narratives in the book ''I Rode with the Ku Klux Klan''. According to David Pilgrim, curator of the Jim Crow Museum at Ferris State University:

Later career

After World War II, Kennedy worked as a journalist for the liberal newspaper '' PM'' and as a part-time correspondent for publications such as the ''

New York Post The ''New York Post'' (''NY Post'') is a conservative daily tabloid newspaper published in New York City. The ''Post'' also operates NYPost.com, the celebrity gossip site PageSix.com, and the entertainment site Decider.com. It was established ...

'' and ''

The Nation ''The Nation'' is an American liberal biweekly magazine that covers political and cultural news, opinion, and analysis. It was founded on July 6, 1865, as a successor to William Lloyd Garrison's '' The Liberator'', an abolitionist newspaper t ...

''. He also fed information about discrimination to columnist Drew Pearson. His stories appeared in newspapers and magazines such as the ''

'' for which he was for a time Southern correspondent, and he fed information about discrimination to columnists. To bring the effects of Jim Crow in the South to public awareness, he authored a number of exposés of the Klan and the racist Jim Crow system over the course of his life, including ''Southern Exposure'' (1946), ''Jim Crow Guide to the USA'' (1959), and ''After Appomattox: How the South Won the War'' (1995). During the 1950s, Kennedy's books, considered too incendiary to be published in the US, were published in France by the existentialist philosopher

Jean-Paul Sartre Jean-Paul Charles Aymard Sartre (, ; ; 21 June 1905 – 15 April 1980) was one of the key figures in the philosophy of existentialism (and phenomenology), a French playwright, novelist, screenwriter, political activist, biographer, and lite ...

and subsequently translated into other languages. Kennedy coined the term "Frown Power", when he started a campaign with that name in the 1940s, which simply encouraged people to pointedly frown when they heard bigoted speech. In 1952, when Kennedy ran for governor of Florida, his friend and houseguest

Woody Guthrie Woodrow Wilson Guthrie (; July 14, 1912 – October 3, 1967) was an American singer-songwriter, one of the most significant figures in American folk music. His work focused on themes of American socialism and anti-fascism. He has inspire ...

wrote a set of lyrics for a campaign song, "Stetson Kennedy". The song was later set to music by

Billy Bragg Stephen William Bragg (born 20 December 1957) is an English singer-songwriter and left-wing activist. His music blends elements of folk music, punk rock and protest songs, with lyrics that mostly span political or romantic themes. His music i ...

and recorded by Bragg and

Jeff Tweedy Jeffrey Scot Tweedy (born August 25, 1967) is an American musician, songwriter, author, and record producer best known as the singer and guitarist of the band Wilco. Tweedy, originally from Belleville, Illinois, started his music career in hi ...

's band

Wilco Wilco is an American alternative rock band based in Chicago, Illinois. The band was formed in 1994 by the remaining members of alternative country group Uncle Tupelo following singer Jay Farrar's departure. Wilco's lineup changed frequently d ...

on the album '' Mermaid Avenue Vol. II''. Kennedy says he became "the most hated man in Florida", and his home at Fruit Cove near Lake Beluthahatchee was firebombed by rightists and many of his papers were destroyed, causing him to leave the country and go to live in France. There, in 1954, Kennedy wrote his sensational exposé of the workings of the Klan, ''I Rode With The Ku Klux Klan'' (later reissued as ''The Klan Unmasked''), which was published by

. Questioned in later years about the accuracy of his account, Kennedy later said that he regretted not having included an explanatory introduction to the book about how the information in it was obtained. Bulger commented in a 2007 interview with

The Associated Press The Associated Press (AP) is an American non-profit news agency headquartered in New York City. Founded in 1846, it operates as a cooperative, unincorporated association. It produces news reports that are distributed to its members, U.S. newsp ...

, "Exposing their folklore – all their secret handshakes, passwords and how silly they were, dressing up in white sheets ... If they weren't so violent, they would be silly". Stetson Kennedy at desk

A founding member and past president of the Florida Folklore Society, Kennedy was a recipient of the 1998 Florida Folk Heritage Award and the Florida Governor's Heartland Award. His contribution to the preservation and propagation of folk culture is the subject of Peggy Bulger's dissertation, ''"Stetson Kennedy: Applied Folklore and Cultural Advocacy"'' (

University of Pennsylvania The University of Pennsylvania (also known as Penn or UPenn) is a Private university, private research university in Philadelphia. It is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and is ranked among the highest- ...

, 1992). Kennedy is also featured as one of the "Whistle Blowers", in

's book ''Coming of Age'', published in 1995. In 2005, Jacksonville residents attended a banquet in honor of Kennedy's life, and afterward a slide show with narration at Henrietta's Restaurant, located at 9th and Main Street in Springfield. This event was largely coordinated by Fresh Ministries. The slides included numerous pictures of his travels with author

, and direct voice recordings which were later digitized for preservation. In 2007 St. Johns County declared a "Stetson Kennedy Day". Kennedy participated in the two-day "New Deal Resources: Preserving the Legacy" conference at the

on the occasion of the 75th Anniversary of the

held in March 2008. Kennedy's most recent book, ''Grits and Grunts: Folkloric Key West'', was issued by the Pineapple Press, in 2008. In February 2009, Kennedy bequeathed his personal library to the Civic Media Center in Gainesville, Florida with which Kennedy had worked since the center's inception. In October 2009, a first party for Kennedy's 93rd birthday was held at the Civic Media Center and the next day admirers flocked to Beluthahatchee Park, now a landmarked historic site, to celebrate Kennedy's birthday there.

Personal life

According to friends, he was married seven times, though Kennedy only admitted to five marriages, stating, "I'll leave it to the historians to decide how many times I've been married". His first marriage was in 1936 to Edith Ogden-Aguilar, a Cuban émigré he met in

Key West, Florida Key West ( es, Cayo Hueso) is an island in the Straits of Florida, within the U.S. state of Florida. Together with all or parts of the separate islands of Sigsbee Park, Dredgers Key, Fleming Key, Sunset Key, and the northern part of Stock Isla ...

while doing

fieldwork Field research, field studies, or fieldwork is the collection of raw data outside a laboratory, library, or workplace setting. The approaches and methods used in field research vary across disciplines. For example, biologists who conduct f ...

for his own writing shortly after leaving UF. In 1942, he had a son, Loren Stetson Kennedy, his only child. After fleeing

Budapest Budapest (, ; ) is the capital and most populous city of Hungary. It is the ninth-largest city in the European Union by population within city limits and the second-largest city on the Danube river; the city has an estimated population o ...

with his Hungarian wife during the

Hungarian Revolution of 1956 The Hungarian Revolution of 1956 (23 October – 10 November 1956; hu, 1956-os forradalom), also known as the Hungarian Uprising, was a countrywide revolution against the government of the Hungarian People's Republic (1949–1989) and the Hunga ...

, Kennedy was held in detention in Paris for over a year after his passport was confiscated by the U.S. government due to

McCarthyism McCarthyism is the practice of making false or unfounded accusations of subversion and treason, especially when related to anarchism, communism and socialism, and especially when done in a public and attention-grabbing manner. The term origin ...

. In 2006, at 90 years old, Kennedy married writer and bookstore owner Sandra Parks, a former

city commissioner City commission government is a form of local government in the United States. In a city commission government, voters elect a small commission, typically of five to seven members, typically on a plurality-at-large voting basis. These commissione ...

St. Augustine, Florida St. Augustine ( ; es, San Agustín ) is a city in the Southeastern United States and the county seat of St. Johns County on the Atlantic coast of northeastern Florida. Founded in 1565 by Spanish explorers, it is the oldest continuously inhabi ...

. They remained married until Kennedy died in 2011.

Legacy

Beluthahatchee Park

In 2003, Friends of Libraries USA put Beluthahatchee on its national register of literary sites and, to commemorate the occasion,

Arlo Guthrie Arlo Davy Guthrie (born July 10, 1947) is an American folk singer-songwriter. He is known for singing songs of protest against social injustice, and storytelling while performing songs, following the tradition of his father, Woody Guthrie. Gu ...

gave a concert in Jacksonville. In 2005 Kennedy received a

life estate In common law and statutory law, a life estate (or life tenancy) is the ownership of immovable property for the duration of a person's life. In legal terms, it is an estate in real property that ends at death when ownership of the property may ...

on his 4-acre homestead in Saint Johns County, and it is now Beluthahatchee Park. The name "Beluthahatchee" describes a mythical "Florida Shangri-la, where all unpleasantness is forgiven and forgotten" according to Zora Neale Hurston. Among the amenities are a picnic pavilion, canoe dock, access to the Beluthatchee Lake, and use of the two wildlife observation platforms. A "Mother Earth Trail" throughout the property is planned, as envisioned by the Kennedy Foundation. The Park's perimeter is surrounded by a heavy canopy of native vegetation and the enclave provides a habitat for wildlife and continues to serve as a rookery and roosting place for many types of waterfowl and other birds. Kennedy's home has, upon his death, been opened as a museum and archive and offer educational exhibits, primarily about Woody Guthrie and William Bartram in addition to Kennedy himself, and has been operated by the Kennedy Foundation which shares office space in an adjacent home with the William Bartram Scenic and Historic Highway corridor group. A log cabin that's in the park may serve as a caretaker residence while the fourth building there may house an Artist-in-Residence through the Florida Folklife program. The park is part of a 70-acre tract that Kennedy purchased in 1948, recorded restrictive covenants setting aside land in perpetuity as a wildlife refuge, and the following year subdivided, subsequently selling all but his own 4 acre parcel.

Death and memorials

Kennedy died on August 27, 2011, at Baptist Medical Center South in Jacksonville, Florida, where he had been in palliative care for several days. Kennedy's stated wishes were that upon his death a party should be held rather than a funeral; therefore, a celebration of Kennedy's life was held on October 1, 2011 (four days before Kennedy's 95th birthday) at Kennedy's homestead, Beluthahatchee Park. Several hundred relatives, friends, and admirers gathered for the events which commenced with an hour of musical performances. The performances included several pieces written by Kennedy's friend Woody Guthrie, who composed many songs at Beluthahatchee, including several about Kennedy, e.g., "Beluthahatchee Bill", culminating with all present singing Guthrie's "

This Land Is Your Land "This Land Is Your Land" is one of the United States' most famous folk songs. Its lyrics were written by American folk singer Woody Guthrie in 1940 in critical response to Irving Berlin's "God Bless America", with melody based on a Carter Fam ...

". This was followed by an hour of eulogies. Then all present walked down to Lake Beluthahatchee and viewed Kennedy's ashes being scattered thereon from a canoe.

Books

* ''Mister Homer'', 1939 * ''Southern Exposure'', University of Alabama Press 2011 reprint, * ''The Klan Unmasked'', University of Alabama Press 2011 reprint: *
Jim Crow Guide to the U.S.A.
', University of Alabama Press 2011 reprint: * ''Palmetto Country'', 1942, University Press of Florida 1989 reprint: , Florida Historical Society Press 2009 reprint with a new publisher's preface, updated Afterward and eighty photographs ; * ''The Jim Crow Guide: The Way It Was Before the Overcoming'', 1956 at Paris, 1959, Florida Atlantic University 1990 reprint: * ''South Florida Folklife'', 1994, (coauthors Peggy A. Bulger and Tina Bucuvalas), University Press of Mississippi, * ''After Appomattox: How the South Won the War'', 1995, University Press of Florida 1996 reprint: * ''Grits and Grunts: Folkloric Key West'', Pineapple Press, 2008 * ''The Florida Slave'', The Florida Historical Society Press, September 29, 2011,

References

External links

*
Stetson Kennedy Papers
at Georgia State University
Stetson Kennedy collection
at the New York Public Library
Interview with Stetson Kennedy, September 22, 1981
Florida Folklife Collection, State Library & Archives of Florida

Oral Histories of the American South, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Stetson Kennedy Letters, Bienes Museum of the Modern Book, Broward County Library.
*
Clan of the Fiery Cross
, Parts 1–16, ''The Adventures of Superman'', recordings of the Superman radio program from Archive.org *
Know Your Enemy
, ''This American Life'', transcript of episode about Stetson Kennedy {{DEFAULTSORT:Kennedy, Stetson 1916 births 2011 deaths 20th-century American writers 21st-century American non-fiction writers Activists for African-American civil rights American environmentalists American folklorists American historians American human rights activists American investigative journalists American memoirists Robert E. Lee High School (Jacksonville) alumni American newspaper journalists American anti-fascists American anti-racism activists Ku Klux Klan in Georgia (U.S. state) University of Florida alumni Writers from Jacksonville, Florida Victims of McCarthyism