Earth Day 2008

Indroducing Stetson Kennedy:

Stetson Kennedy was born Oct.5, 1916 in Jacksonville. He is an award=winning author and human rights activist, and is also known as a pioneering folklorist, a labor activist, and environmentalist. A prolific author, his books , distributed worldwide and translated into many languages, include Palmetto County, Southern Exposure, the Jim Crow Guide, the Klan Unmasked and After Appomatox.

As a teenager, he began collecting white and African American folklore material while he was collecting “a dollar down and a 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 soon, at the age of 21, was put in charge of folklore, oral history and ethnic studies. He was Zora Neale Hurston’s friend and boss in the WPA.

After World War II Kennedy infiltrated the Ku Klux Klan. Living dangerously, working undercover, he provided information, including secret code words and details of Klan rituals, to the writers of the Superman radio program and to the FBI

A Stetson Kennedy Foundation has been established, dedicated to human rights, social justice and environmental stewardship. His home at Beluthahatchee has become a museum, housing his books and papers, manuscripts and memorabilia, including guitars, letters and songs by Woodie Guthrie, a dear friend and neighbor.

Stetson Kennedy was to have presented the prize to the winning Peace Essay contest. He had an ear infection, and consequently couldn't make it.

Peg's follow-up letter to The St. Augustine Record:

I do not want to be a whiner, but I can't understand why no mention was made of the Peace Essay contest winner. Several months of effort and preparation by high school students and guidance counselors were involved. The winning essay was sent to you.

It was enthusiastically applauded when read from the stage on Earth Day at l pm by Leda Balch, l7 years old, a graduate of St. Augustine High School. She was awarded $500 by the sponsoring groups, People for Peace & Justice, Grandparents for Peace, and Veterans for Peace. She and the two young ladies who tied for 2nd place were given Certificates of Appreciation.

The suggested theme for the essay contest was taken from a song by a popular lyricist and musician, Michael Franti:

"We can bomb the world into pieces,We can't bomb it into peace."

Is that why the Record ignored this event?

Peg McIntire,
Chair Peace Essay Competition

PS You may print this as a letter to the editor, or reply to me personally.