Cleopatra Kennedy

Cleopatra “Cleo” Kennedy is civil rights activist and gospel singer. She was born in Birmingham, Alabama on April 25th in 1943. During the intense summer of 1963 in Birmingham, Cleopatra sang with the Alabama Christian Movement Choir nearly every night. Gifted with a large, golden-noted soprano voice, Cleo grew up knowing she was born to sing. She was 20 that summer when she first became involved with the movement, where she used her voice to inspire and uplift. She performed solos in the 16th Street Baptist Church, usually as a preamble to Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s speeches. Cleo attended training classes in which Dr. King taught nonviolent procedures. Cleo's musical career would take her far from the South. She has performed with Ray Charles, Shalamar, Patti LaBelle, Aretha Franklin, Gladys Knight, Olivia Newton-John, Rev. James Cleveland, Carlton Reese, and Bruce Springsteen. Her professional life began when she was 16 and joined Dorothy Love Coates & The Gospel Harmonettes. She moved to Los Angeles in 1979 and started singing with Graham Nash, Paul Williams (2), and Diana Ross whom coined her as “Tweety Bird.”She also joined the Actor's Union and got roles in "Roots," "The Blues Brothers," "The Idol-maker," the "No-Nukes" movie for Save the Children and "The Making of a Dynasty." Her voice can be heard transfiguring the old spiritual "City Called Heaven" on the Smithsonian's recording, "Voices of the Civil Rights Movement." She toured with Freedom Singers then returned to Birmingham in the early 1990s to care for her dying mother. Since then, she has performed with Della Reese and in concerts, tours and gospel music workshops in South Africa, Tokyo, Milan, Paris, Japan, London, Ireland, the Holy Land, Ecuador, Barcelona and Germany. To this day, Cleo sings for concerts and services in churches throughout Alabama. In 2007, Kennedy was honored with the "Cleo Kennedy Love Day Celebration" at Souls Harbor Deliverance Ministry in Ensley.