Not to Rely Completely on the Courts: Florynce “Flo” Kennedy and Black Feminist Leadership in the Reproductive Rights Battle, 1969–1971

Abstract

Flo Kennedy was a major lawyer for Abramowicz v. Lefkowitz , the class action suit that was a key part of the successful campaign to repeal New York’s restrictive abortion laws. Although by the late 1960s she was one of the country’s best-known Black feminists, her role in helping to legalize abortion has long since been forgotten. Histories of feminism emphasize the centrality of the predominantly white women’s movement’s effort to decriminalize abortion and overlook the innovative strategies that Kennedy adopted outside and inside the courtroom. These strategies laid the basis for the Supreme Court decision in the landmark case, Roe v. Wade . By viewing Kennedy’s activism in this struggle as in constant negotiation with the Black Power movement, rather than as estranged from or rejecting it, we can understand how she helped to shape the predominantly white reproductive rights movement.