About

Janie and Scott are not the only accomplished members of the Kennedy family. Education, public service, and a commitment to excellence have been a Kennedy family tradition which goes back to the 1800s.

• Mark Works Atkins – a former slave who graduated from Knoxville College in the mid-1800s and became a teacher.
• James A. Atkins, Ph.D. – (son of Mary Atkins) educator, newspaper columnist, civil rights advocate, author of Human Relations in Colorado, 1859 – 1959 (1960), The Age of Jim Crow (1964), and member of President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s “Black Cabinet,” advising on education.
• Joseph C. Kennedy, Ph.D. – co-founder and International Director of Africare, who also helped build the Peace Corps as deputy director for Africa, director in Sierra Leone, and regional director for East Asia and the Pacific Region.
• Lillian Kennedy Beam, Ph.D. – former Vice Chancellor of the United States International University Africa in Kenya who helped build the university over 18 years.
• Mary Kennedy Carter – social studies teacher, civil rights activist, and educator who built schools in Uganda as part of Columbia University’s Teachers for East Africa and took part in creating the award-winning curriculum “New York and Slavery: Complicity and Resistance.”
• Adrienne Kennedy – Obie Award winning playwright who was inducted into the Theater Hall of Fame and made her Broadway debut at the age of 91 in 2022 with “Ohio State Murders,” directed by Tony winner, Kenny Leon, and starring Tony winner, Audra McDonald.
• Leon Isaac Kennedy – evangelist, film producer, entrepreneur, and pioneer in radio, TV and film with acting roles in Hammer (1972), Death Force (1978), Penitentiary (1979), Body and Soul (1981), Penitentiary II (1982), Lone Wolf McQuade (1983), Penitentiary III (1987), Skeleton Coast (1988), and Against The Law (1991). 
• Jayne Kennedy Overton – television personality, actress, model, corporate spokeswoman, producer, and sports broadcaster most noted for her 1978-1980 groundbreaking tenure as co-anchor on the previously all male desk of the most popular network sports show in television history, the Emmy Award winning CBS NFL Today.
• Teresa Kay-Aba Kennedy, Ph.D., MBA – former media executive, founder of VH1 Online & VH1@Work Radio, and award-winning author, producer, entrepreneur, educator, speaker, and moderator at places like the United Nations and World Government Summit in Dubai, and Discussion Leader at the World Economic Forum Annual Meeting in Davos, Switzerland.

In The Kennedy Archives interview series, Janie will provide insights on notable African American friends, as well as outstanding family members.