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Left to right: unidentified, Folklorist and author Stetson Kennedy, Tom Gaskins, unidentified, Flora Mae Hunter.

Based on recommendations from the Florida Folklife Council, the Secretary of State confers Florida Folk Heritage Awards annually. The awards are given to outstanding folk artists and folk culture advocates who have made long-standing contributions to the folk cultural resources of the state. Established in 1985, the program parallels the National Heritage Fellowships. In 1988, Secretary of State Smith presented awards to Stetson Kennedy, Alton Morris, Flora Mae Hunter, and Tom Gaskins.

Biographical Note

Stetson Kennedy has spent the majority of his life fighting for human rights in the deep south of America. Crusading for human rights, fighting the Jim Crow laws and helping equality take hold in the south. Stetson Kennedy, was born in Jacksonville, Florida in 1916. As a teenager he began collecting Cracker and African American folksay material while he was collecting ''dollar down and dollar a week'' accounts for his father, a furniture merchant. He left the University of Florida in 1937 to join the WPA Florida Writers' Project, and was soon, at the age of 21, put in charge of folklore, oral history, and ethnic studies. Slowly becoming one of the pioneer folklore collectors during the first half of the twentieth century, In addition to his passion for folklore, Stetson - during a career spanning over six decades - has become friends with many literary giants. including: Erskine Caldwell, who became interested in his work in an essay competition and was so impressed went on to edit his novel on Floridian folklore, "Palmetto Country". He was Zora Neal Hurston's boss in the Florida Works Progress Administration (WPA). In addition, while he was living in Paris in the mid 1950's, Jean Paul Sartre published his book, "The Jim Crow Guide", after Kennedy could not find any American publisher to publish this controversial and eye opening true story. During and after the late 1940's when Kennedy infiltrated and exposed the Ku Klux Klan and other hate groups- Woody Guthrie, Richard Wright, and W.E.B. Du bois were among his friends.