May 3rd Stetson Kennedy's retreat- "Beluthatchee"

"Beluthahatchee" as defined by noted author Zora Neale Hurston (1891-1960) is a mythical "Florida Shangri-La, where all unpleasantness is forgiven and forgotten." When Florida author/activist Stetson Kennedy (b. 1916) moved here, the site was named and set aside as a wildlife sanctuary. After WWII, he infiltrated and exposed the KKK and other domestic terrorist groups. Kennedy´s books include Palmetto Country (1942), Southern Exposure (1946), Jim Crow Guide (1956), and The Klan Unmasked (1957). The latter two were translated around the world. This site served as headquarters for his pioneering 1950 "total equality" write-in bid for the U.S. Senate. His book, After Appomattox, was completed here in 1995, with the help of his wife Joyce Ann. That year he won the Gustavus Meyer Award for doing the most to combat bigotry in the USA. In April 2005 Kennedy was inducted into the Florida Artists Hall of Fame. Beluthahatchee also served as a Florida hangout for America´s legendary folk balladeer, Woody Guthrie. Here, Guthrie completed his autobiographical book, Seeds of Man, and over 80 Florida songs, including "Beluthahatchee Bill. This site was designated a Literary Landmark by Friends of Library-USA in 2003.

Sponsors: the St. Johns County Board of County Commissioners and The Florida Department of State

On a near perfect fall afternoon, friends and families gathered at Beluthahatchee to remember the life of Stetson Kennedy, the Jacksonville-born writer and human rights activist who died Aug. 27 at age 94. Beluthahatchee is the name Kennedy gave to a piece of natural Florida that he managed to preserve in northern St. Johns County against the encroachment of civilization for more than six decades.

“We are so fortunate today to walk around in the soul of Stetson Kennedy,” his widow, Sandra Parks, said during the memorial celebration. She said his efforts to protect the tree canopy at Beluthahatchee while creating Lake Beluthahatchee made Kennedy one of Florida’s “first green developers.”

Kennedy advised young people, “pick a cause and stick to it,” she said.

Kennedy picked several and pursued them all his life, she said: “He had a passion for the common good. Stetson loved democracy. I’m pretty sure I can say Stetson loved democracy more than the seven women he was married too.”

Loren Kennedy, Stetson’s 68-year-old son, said having such a focused man as his father wasn't always easy.

“He was an uncommon man and an uncommon father,” Loren Kennedy said. “All his conversations were serious.” But the older he grew, the more he appreciated that serious focus, he said.  “He taught me to think at 30,000 feet,” he said.

Katherine Jones, one of Kennedy’s stepdaughters, flew in for the day from Boston, where she is assistant dean of the Harvard Divinity School. She said when she thinks of her stepfather, she can’t help but compare him to William Lloyd Garrison, a passionate Bostonian who was a leader of the 19th century abolitionist movement. 

But when she thinks of Kennedy’s work as a folklorist, “there is no comparison” with anyone else, she said.

As head of the Florida Folklore Project, part of the federal Works Progress Administration’s Writers Project in the late 1930s, Kennedy worked to compile folklore for a WPA guide to Florida. He then wrote his first book, “Palmetto Country,” on Florida folklore, before turning his attention to Southern hate groups with “Southern Exposure” and “The Klan Unmasked.”

“Stetson was steeped in folklore,” said Peggy Bulger, director of the American Folklife Center at the Library of Congress, who wrote her doctoral dissertation on his folklore work. She now plans to retire and write a book on Kennedy’s life.

“His attitude was, ‘What good is it if it doesn't make the world a better place,’ ” she said. “With Stetson, it was all about making the world a better place.”

While Kennedy never completed the memoir he had been discussing for years, John Sutherland, a Flagler College student who spent last summer working with Kennedy on the project, said, “There is an amazing amount of material. … Stetson was always working. The memoirs were always a big agenda for him.”

The celebration began with an hour of music, including several pieces by Kennedy’s great friend Woody Guthrie, who composed many songs at Beluthahatchee. At the end of the ceremony, everyone sang Guthrie’s “This Land Is Your Land.” Then they walked down to Lake Beluthahatchee and watched as Kennedy’s ashes were scattered on the lake.

Beluthahatchee is now a park, and the house Kennedy built in 1972 has been designated a Literary Landmark by the Friends of the Library USA. The Stetson Kennedy Foundation is raising funds to buy additional land for the park. Donations can be sent to the foundation at 1523 State Road 13, Fruit Cove, Fl. 32259.