Ida B. Kinney

Ida B. Kinney (May 25, 1904 –January 1, 2009), née Ida Ford, was an African-American civil rights activist.

Ida Ford was born in Lafayette County, Lewisville, Arkansas, as the only child to Henry B. Ford and Bessie White. From age three, Ida lived with her grandparents, James T. and Anna Mariah White, who were former slaves. They were very industrious people who taught her valuable lessons about the ethics of life and putting God first. During the early 1900s, women were not allowed to read or write so Kinney, a young girl, taught her grandmother to read and write, using the Bible.

In 1920 Kinney, then 16, moved to California. Kinney and her mother lived in Santa Monica until she graduated from Santa Monica High School. She attended Philander Smith College in Arkansas for one year. Kinney returned to the old Vermont Campus of the University of California, Los Angeles for her second year of college where she met her first husband, Carl Binion. Carl Binion died ten years later from a war injury from World War I. Kinney moved to the Valley in 1940, and returned to school to continue her education where she graduated with a bachelor's degree from the San Fernando Valley State College, which is now known as California State University, Northridge.

Having been refused a teacher's license, Kinney protested and petitioned the Governor of California, Pat Brown, for help which resulted in her receiving her credentials by order of the governor within ten days. Thus began her 84-year journey for civil rights, which included hundreds of marches and protests and associations with Rosa Parks, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and Medger Evers.

In December 1942, Kinney became a pioneer member of Great Community Missionary Baptist Church, in Pacomia, under the leadership of the late Rev. T.G. Pledger, Organizer/Pastor. She was appointed to the Mother's Board by her Pastor Rev. Dr.D.D Chatman. In 1952, she met and married Perry Kinney. They shared over 50 years of love and life together until he died at age 104 in 2004.

Kinney was an elementary school teacher, first as a substitute in Ken County and then for the Los Angeles Unified School District. She was influential in the struggle to allow black women in the hospital located in Van Nuys, California. In addition, she started the Head Start Program.

One of the first blacks to work for Lockheed Aerospace, she campaigned and was successful in opening the doors to allow black workers to join the union.

As a retired teacher, she was appointed to the commission on aging for the County of Los Angeles where she served actively for 12 years. Ida was very active and in the forefront of establishing a center for seniors in the Valley. Former Councilmen Howard Finn credits Kinney with the building of the multipurpose senior center which opened in 1971 in the Pacomia neighborhood of Los Angeles. She continued her involvement and financial support of the center throughout the rest of her life.

On her 100th birthday in 2004, Kinney was described in an article written by Dennis McCarty of the Daily News as our very own "Rosa Parks, Miss Jane Pittman, and Eleanor Roosevelt all rolled up into one." She received numerous awards and tributes throughout her life.

One moment that epitomizes Kinney's life and ideology is her forcefully and heartfelt exclamation of her excitement at President-elect Barack Obama's journey and accomplishments, saying, "Look at God, he has blessed me to see my work and all of the other who fought for the right to be any and all you can be in America."

Kinney was also honored by the NAACP on her 100th birthday as being a member of its organization since May 1955. This honor resulted in a commendatory U.S postal stamp, being commissioned and soon to be released.

She died in Lake View Terrace, California.