John A. Kenney was born in
Albemarle County, Virginia on June 11, 1874. He was educated at
Hampton Institute and
Shaw University, and earned his medical degree from
Leonard Medical College in 1901. After fleeing Tuskegee in 1924 under threat from the KKK, he first took refuge in Dr. George E. Cannon's home. He went on to found the
Kenney Memorial Hospital in
Newark, New Jersey. Between 1927 and 1934, Kenney Memorial served 4,543 bed patients, 584 free clinic patients and performed 1,109 operations with only 19 deaths. and is on the
National Register of Historic Places. A museum honoring Kenney is planned for the site. In 1939, Kenney returned to Tuskegee to head the Tuskegee Institute Hospital. In 1944, Kenney moved back to Montclair, New Jersey and saw patients at his home, alongside his son
John A. Kenney Jr. The Kenneys were a medical family: sons John A. Jr. and Howard were doctors, and daughter Elizabeth Kenney Quisenberry worked with Dr. M.O. Bousfield, who became president of the National Medical Association. Middle son Oscar A. Kenney was a Tuskegee Airman killed in a plane crash near Tuskegee Army Air Field during a "routine training flight." Kenney's wife Frieda Kenney was the first African-American woman to graduate from Boston University. He died at
Mountainside Hospital in
Montclair, New Jersey on January 29, 1950. ==References==