Witness for the people -- Stetson Kennedy's work earns him a spot in new film

By KATI BEXLEY

Stetson Kennedy, 93, has made countless historical contributions, all to improve human rights.

In his latest project, Kennedy is being honored for "holding up a mirror to America," something he says he has tried to do throughout his entire life.

He is part of a film and exhibit shown on the Smithsonian channel and touring 30 libraries throughout the country. So far, the only library in Florida scheduled to have the film and exhibit is the Broward County Library. Kennedy would like to see more libraries display it.

The exhibit, called "Soul of a People," tells of the 1937 Federal Writers Project that fell under the Works Progress Administration, created by President Franklin Roosevelt. The project sent numerous writers and photographers across the nation to produce a portrait of the United States for travel guides, according to the Smithsonian.

But Kennedy, a leader on the project, had something else in mind.

"They wanted bathing beauties and palm trees," he said Sunday. "We wanted to show the warts, like the Ku Klux Klan, lynching and Jim Crow laws."

Kennedy was only 21, but he was put in charge of the project's folklore, oral history and ethnic studies. He landed the job by sending in old sayings to the Library of Congress' director of folklore that he had collected from rural white and black families in St. Johns County.

He gathered the stories while working for his father who owned a furniture business that allowed poor families to purchase items by paying a dollar at a time.

"My job was to collect the dollar," Kennedy said. "I began to take down a list of old sayings from the people that I went to see."

Kennedy oversaw famous writers such as Zora Neale Hurston, with whom he traveled throughout Florida.

The "Soul of a People" project is touting Kennedy as one of its main focuses. Stetson said the reason why he was more successful than other directors in the Federal Writers Project is because he sent African-American writers to interview African-Americans.

"Others sent out white men and they weren't going to tell them the truth," Kennedy said. "I used the idea of black on black. It paid off."

Stetson said they interviewed some African-Americans in their 80s and even a few more than 100 years old who were former slaves.

"We'd run into characters," he said. "They all mostly said, 'I always had to work hard just to live.' I know there's a lot of people who can still say that."

And that's what keeps Kennedy going at 93. Last week he was seen protesting with the Coalition of Immokalee Workers outside Publix at Cobblestone Village. The coalition has been touring the state for the past few months to protest the food chain for, coalition members say, contributing to poor working conditions in tomato fields by continuing to buy from suppliers who pay unfair wages. The coalition says these wages amount to -- what they called "modern-day slavery."

Kennedy has written several award-winning books, but he also has a dozen manuscripts in the works.

His wife Sandra Parks said, "As long as he's got a book in mind and is adored he's not going anywhere."

Kennedy said he's happy to see the Federal Writers Project getting recognition.

"There aren't too many of us left who worked on the project," he said. "A good many people are paying attention to it and here it is three-quarters of a century after it ended."

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'SOUL OF A PEOPLE'

* Stetson Kennedy is being featured in a film and exhibit called "Soul of a People."

* It tells of the 1937 Federal Writers Project that fell under the Works Progress Administration, created by President Franklin Roosevelt.

* The film has aired on the Smithsonian channel and will travel to 30 libraries throughout the nation, including The Broward County Library in Fort Lauderdale.