“I know we’re termites. But if all the termites got together, the house would fall down.” - Florynce ‘Flo’ Kennedy.
A presence you couldn’t miss and a force to be reckoned with. Flo was known to appear in her signature cowboy hat and fill a room with her fiery and unrelenting spirit. I’ve recently become acquainted with Flo and I can’t help but wish we met; or at least I could have checked out her hat shop that she opened with her sister before her deep dive into liberation work. Florynce was born in Kansas City Missouri on February 11, 1916 and grew up in a family that never made her or her siblings question who they were. She was unapologetic in her work, in her approach and in her beliefs. “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 … I never stop to wonder why I'm not like other people. The mystery to me is why more people aren't like me.”
During her days as shopkeeper she learned of a local Coca-Cola bottling facility that refused to hire Black truck drivers. She organized a boycott and from there her fight only grew stronger. Her legal journey began in 1948, at Columbia Law School where she ultimately graduated and earned her degree, but not without threatening to sue the institution for racial discrimination when they denied her application. The university explained it was not a racial matter, but rather because she identified as a woman. Flo refused to accept that and eventually became the second African American woman to graduate from Columbia Law School.
After experiencing racial bias and discrimination in post-graduate work as a laywer, she questioned her relationship with practicing law and it’s role in bringing about effective change. She left the practice and began to fight for change in a way that felt more at the core of her heart -- as an organizer. Flo was a diehard champion for women’s rights. She helped to find and organize many groups that put Black women and femmes’ voices at the forefront including; Women’s Political Caucus, the National Black Feminist Organization, National Organization for Women (NOW), Radical Woman, the National Feminist Party, which nominated the first Black woman to be elected to Congress, Shirley Chisholm, and more! She made sure each battle didn’t go down with a fight, or a witty comment. Once she protested the shortage of female bathrooms at Harvard University by leading a mass urination on the campus grounds -- I mean, c’mon, yes Flo! Claim what is rightfully ours!
Reading about her work, her life and her purpose inspires me (and I hope y'all reading this) to be unrelenting and to organize for what we know and believe is right. What I also take with me after reading about her journey, is the importance of bringing and cultivating joy in this work. Not only does it make it more fun but it roots us in why we are here. It explains why it takes more muscles to smile than to frown. Because our joy, our happiness is the most sacred and prized possession we can own and create for ourselves. As lawyers/legal workers, organizers, and most importantly as a community -- we must follow in the words of ‘Flo’ and “don’t agonize, organize”, and let’s do it with some beautiful Black joy!
