Ida B. Kinney

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

Early life Ida Ford, the granddaughter of slaves, was born in Lafayette County, Arkansas, 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 that bought themselves out of slavery with the sale of cotton. 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.

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, who died a decade later from a war injury from World War I. She was influential in the struggle to allow black women in the hospital located in Van Nuys, California. Former Councilmen Howard Finn credits Kinney with the building of the multipurpose senior center which opened in 1971 in the Pacoima neighborhood of Los Angeles.. She also played a key role in developing the Boys & Girls Club in the Pacoima neighborhood.

Death Ida B. Kinney died in Lake View Terrace, California, aged 104.