The Original Angry Young Man

meeting of the Oral History Association in Little Rock, Arkansas. While turning 90 years old is, in and of itself, laudable, for a man who infiltrated the Ku Klux Klan and gathered oral testimony from the hard-put laborers of the turpentine camps, it is particularly noteworthy. A native of Jacksonville, Florida, Kennedy's interest in oral tradition and folklore dates back to his youth. While out collecting payments for furniture sold through his father's shop, young Kennedy would listen carefully, collecting Cracker and African American folksay material. Starting his education at the University of Florida, Kennedy left the institution in 1937 to join the Folklore Project of the WPA Florida Writers' Project. He proved so successful at the tasks placed before him he was soon placed in charge of oral history, ethnic studies, and folklore. One of his compatriots in this endeavor was Zora Neale Hurston. Together with a crew of at least 200, they gathered thousands of stories, legends, folk songs, and tales. Upon the conclusion of the Federal Writers' Project in 1942, Kennedy published his first book, Palmetto Country, as a volume in the Erskine Caldwell-edited American Folkways Series. Shortly thereafter, Kennedy, at the behest of the Georgia Bureau of Investigation, infiltrated the Ku Klux Klan. Learning their secret codes and gathering information from their weekly

Archaeology · Art · Art history · Charge (physics · Ethnic group · Folklore · George (robot · Oral history · Sociology · Visual arts · Anthropology · Folklore, Mythology, and Literature Studies · History · Music History and Culture · Oral History, Memory, Narrative Analysis