Color Me Flo: My Hard Life and Good Times

by Florynce Kennedy

For the first time, lawyer, feminist, and civil rights advocate Florynce Kennedy tells the complete story of her life from being one of the first Black women to graduate from Colombia Law School to representing Billie Holiday and Charlie Parker.

Raised in Kansas City in the 1920s, Flo Kennedy was one of five sisters, the daughter of a father who held off the Ku Klux Klan with a shotgun and a mother who taught them to hold out for the best.

After graduating from Colombia Law School, Kennedy went on to be a delegate to the Black Power conferences, then took up the battle against sexism and racism by founding the Media Workshop, the Feminist Party, and the Coalition Against Racism and Sexism. She also became a member of the legal team that was instrumental in liberalizing the New York State abortion laws and was a coauthor of Abortion Rap.

Flo Kennedy mastered guerilla warfare tactics on the picket line and in the streets and suites of New York. With the words that resonated and entertained TV audiences for years, Kennedy has returned with a memoir that flawlessly presents her case to readers.

Genres: Feminism, Nonfiction, Memoir, History, Activism, Biography

168 pages, Paperback

First published December 1, 1976

Reviews

[Lulu · Rating 4 out of 5]

Not at all what I was expecting. She was quite the character. I think Flo is the definition of true feminism. This autobiography can be summed up in one quote. ''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 stopped to wonder why I'm not like other people. The mystery to me is why more people aren't like me.''

[Ife · Rating 3 out of 5]

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

Color Me Flo: My Hard Life and Good Times is a scrapbook style, boisterous and comedic memoir of an often overlooked figure in Black feminist politics - the problem is that if were she not so louche, there might be no incentive to finish the book. I like reading these type of old feminist texts where there is an often quaint grasping for language and you can see how feminist ideas have developed over time. Kennedy was no stranger to the neologism, she coins many terms in the book many of which didn't stick; some because they are not that useful (like her framework of 'pigocracy' virtually synonymous with the word 'corruption') but others because only so many people can say it like her framework of 'n*ggerization' which I actually found quite interesting .

She has a way of cramming ideas into good analogies or sound bites an example of this is her urge toward feminist coalitions on things that all women would agree with:

The housewife is worried about the feminists, the old woman is worried about the kids, the whore is worrying about the feminists, the feminist is deploring the prostitute's status, but everything that happens to a whore is happening to a housewife, and yet we're saying how degrading it is

The problem is that these 'essays' in the book are often punctuated by snippets from news articles which are unrelated, it jumps around in its ideas. It too frequently rehashes some of its analogies which are cringeworthy like one about applying Vaseline to a r*ped child's asshole as a metaphor for fixing issues after they have happened rather than at the root, where this idea could definitely have been delivered without the image and certainly without bringing up the image so many times.

It was interesting however to see the life of this figure that I definitely should have known as she defended many prominent Black figures and led notable protests like a mass urination at Harvard. She was most certainly a force to reckon with as she very sharply critiques legal institutions and several geopolitical cases.

At first I had a knee-jerk reaction to how self-aggrandizing this work felt, how it felt like a celebration of herself written by herself. She sprinkles in throughout the book and compiles at the end miscellaneous praise she received during her lifetime which was odd to me. However, I remembered a conversation I had with a friend where we were talking about a panel discussion bell hooks did with The New School in which she talked about how she set up her institute so that her ideas wouldn't be mischaracterised or expunged from the public consciousness. I then remembered how before picking up this book I didn't even know who Florynce Kennedy was, and then it seemed somewhat radical for her to talk about everything she did and to give herself her own flowers.

I would recommend that anyone who is interested in Black feminist intellectual history reads this book as it is one that will certainly create a vignette of the time and the main discourses that accompanied it. However, I won't promise that despite its immense character, it will be a fun read.

[Deanna · Rating 5 out of 5]

I had the honor of spending a little time with this amazing woman in the 70's. I never forgot her. She was one of a kind. She fought for what she believed and liver her life making a difference. Brilliant and funny. She had a mouth on her that could be cutting. Her book should be read by everyone who believes in equality. I have never forgotten her.

[Jewell Anderson · Rating 5 out of 5]

This woman was amazing and leaves an inspiring legacy of epic badassery. See also: I wanna know where I can get one of these T-Shirts she's wearing...

[Lynn · Rating 5 out of 5]

Flo was inspirational sharply funny and true. A black feminist leader early in the modern movement.

[Arjun · Rating 5 out of 5]

it is beyond me that this book have 6 reviews. i wanna cry.


this book changed my life in more ways one.

1) it taught me that “the establishment makes shit feel like chocolate” and vise versa.
2) it taught me that humor and connection are meaningful tools of advocating for justice.
3) it taught me many words and concepts, all of which were developed by kennedy herself
4) justice shouldn’t be odds with style, expression, or even luxury. oppressed people wouldn’t necessarily want us to be deprived of these things just because they might me. kennedy expresses this clearly and it was impactful.


flo kennedy is a deeply prolific writer, lawyer, and person. yes — there is no doubt in my mind that i should have learned about her in HS. she was an icon of her day and i aspire to be 1/10th as humorous.

[Sarah]

I admit, I gave this a more casual read than I usually do. The style is more scrapbook then memoir. It reproduces articles (but you can’t always read the text), and includes pictures. The book’s text is a bit like Flo just walking you through her life and her politics, steam of consciousness style. It feels self-published, and authentic but not very personal. I love her passion, and how uncoached she was. She’s so much more human and so much more honest than today’s politicians can afford to be. I was surprised that she spouted the propaganda of Rosa Parks just being a tired woman and not a lifelong activist, but other than that, I was entranced with the insider look at the feminist movement and the conflict between racism and sexism that women of color have to deal with.