Award-winning author and civil rights activist Stetson Kennedy is donating his personal library to Gainesville's Civic Media Center.
James Schmidt, co-coordinator of the Civic Media Center, said 93-year-old Kennedy would donate more than 1,000 books to the center by early to mid March.
"This is a tremendous honor for us," Schmidt said.
Born and raised in Fruit Cove, near Jacksonville, Kennedy made his living as a folklorist and writer.
Kennedy traveled Florida collecting stories, songs and tall tales on the culture of various groups in the state, Schmidt said.
"Kennedy is one of my idols," he said. "He is sharp as a tack, has a brilliant mind, is an easygoing man and an all-around great human being."
Schmidt and a few CMC collections committee members plan to visit Kennedy and his wife, Sandra Parks, in St. Augustine soon. The group will spend the weekend with Kennedy and Parks to sort out the books, Schmidt said.
The ones that are not taken for the CMC will either go to Anastasia Books, Parks' bookstore in St. Augustine, or to Kennedy's old house in Beluthahatchee, a national literary landmark.
Kennedy will be at the Civic Media Center's grand reopening ceremony Saturday signing copies of his 1942 book "Klan Unmasked," a nonfiction book that tells stories about how Kennedy infiltrated the Ku Klux Klan in Florida and Georgia and exposed secret code words and prominent figures' names over the Superman Radio Program.
"Stetson was a staunch white ally to the African-American freedom struggle," Schmidt said. "He is a living link to a past that is rapidly disappearing."
