Natalie Kennedy, OC Civil Rights Pioneer, Among Those We Lost in 2010
Categories: Gunkist Memories
 |
| Photo by Kimberly Valenzuela |
| Sharon and Natalie Kennedy |
Natalie was the matriarch of our own liberal Kennedy clan. Originally from Rhode Island, she and her husband Ralph moved to Fullerton in 1952 and immediately began fighting the lords whom allowed segregation to stand for so long. As recounted by her daughter, Sharon, in my cover story this year about the Alex Bernal case, the young couple stood by a Chinese family that was trying to move into their neighborhood despite the protestations of Know Nothing neighbors. That brush with the ugly side of la naranja spurred Natalie and Ralph into a lifetime of service to others. They helped start the Orange County Fair Housing Council, which helped African-Americans and Latinos fight housing discrimination during the 1960s; one of their cases became Reitman v. Mulkey, a 1967 Supreme Court case that legally ended apartment discrimination. The Kennedys helped Orange County farmworkers, the poor, the damned, the meek--those who needed help. Natalie and her husband also founded the Fullerton Observer, one of the last remaining family-run community newspapers in the county, and the only newspaper to print an obituary on the civil rights giant.
"When confronted with hate she turned the other cheek, when an opportunity to help arose, she stepped forward," the obituary read. "She always said that from those who are given much, much is expected."
Natalie's children continue their mother's cause--Sharon Kennedy publishes the Observer, while Rusty Kennedy is the longtime head of the Orange County Human Relations Commission, also partly founded by the Kennedys. If this county were any good, her passing would've been front-page news--but like that nameless nun stated, those who work on the margins don't seek credit in this life.
Email to Friend
Write to Editor
Print Article
