He recalled that when he was a child in the 1920s, local Klan thugs beat and raped the beloved Kennedy family maid for "sassing whitefolks". He was born in 1916 to a well-off Florida family, a descendant of plantation-owning signers of the Declaration of Independence, Confederate officers and John Batterson Stetson, maker of the famous cowboy hats. William Stetson Kennedy was a traitor to his race and to his class. He became Klan Enemy No 1, with Grand Dragon Sam Green offering a reward for killing him: "Kennedy's ass is worth $1,000 a pound!" Kennedy published two books based on his undercover activities, Southern Exposure in 1946 and in 1954, the lurid I Rode With the Ku Klux Klan, written in hardboiled detective style (it was later retitled The Klan Unmasked). Mississippi Congressman John Rankin, chair of Huac, said, "After all, the KKK is an old American institution."Ĭover image of Stetson Kennedy's I Rode With the Ku Klux Klan (1954), later renamed The Klan Unmasked. In 1946, Kennedy wore his white robe and hood to crash a meeting of the House Un-American Activities Committee. He gave closely guarded Klan passwords to the writers of the popular "Superman" radio show, who used them in a story line in which the "Man of Steel" battles the hateful forces of the Grand Dragon. He impersonated an encyclopedia salesman and joined a "Klavern", swearing to "uphold the principles of White Supremacy and the purity of White Womanhood." He funnelled information on Klan rituals (a juvenile mix of Freemasonry and college fraternity, complete with secret handshakes, elaborate titles and a rule book called "The Kloran") and, more importantly, whatever violence they were planning, to the police, the Anti-Defamation League and the Washington Post.
Denied the chance to fight fascism in the second world war because of a bad back, he decided to fight it at home. Kennedy is most famous for infiltrating the Ku Klux Klan in the 1940s. According to historian Gary Mormino, "At one time Stetson Kennedy was the most hated man in America." He was also a genuine American hero. Political provocateur, author of books on social justice and folklore, civil rights campaigner, friend of Zora Neale Hurston, Jean-Paul Sartre and Woody Guthrie, subject of a Billy Bragg song, southern gentleman and object of constant death threats from angry racists, Kennedy dedicated his long life to the struggle for equality. Stetson Kennedy, who died 27 August at the age of 94, was one of the great ones. You wouldn't think it to look at us now, but the United States used to grow a fine crop of progressives.