Annie Brown Kennedy was the founder of Kennedy, Kennedy, Kennedy and Kennedy, LLP in Winston-Salem, North Carolina in 1954. She graduated from Spelman College in Atlanta, Georgia in 1945 and from Howard University School of Law in 1951. She has practiced law for more than 50 years in North Carolina. Although retired, she still provides advice and counsel to the law firm. At the time that she began practicing law in 1954, she was only the second African-American female to practice law in North Carolina. During her extensive legal career, she tried both civil and criminal cases throughout North Carolina. She and her partners have successfully handled numerous civil cases of major magnitude in the areas of sexual harassment, civil rights, wrongful discharge from employment, medical malpractice, wrongful death, and personal injury.

        She is a member of the American Bar Association, the National Bar Association, the North Carolina Bar Association, the North Carolina Association of Black Lawyers, the Forsyth County Bar Association, and the Winston-Salem Bar Association.
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       She has an “AV” rating from Martindale-Hubbell. She is a member of the Bar of the United States Supreme Court and the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit.

        She is a past President of the Forsyth County Bar Association, and a past Vice-President of the North Carolina Bar Association.

       Annie Kennedy is a former member of the Board of Visitors of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, the Board of Directors of Winston-Salem State University Foundation, United Way of Forsyth County, the North Carolina Commission on the Status of Women, the North Carolina General Statutes Commission, the North Carolina Criminal Code Commission, the Clinical Research Practices Committee of the Bowman Gray School of Medicine, the Winston-Salem Forsyth County Bicentennial Commission and the Regional Committee of the Morehead Scholarship Selection Committee of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

       In 1973, she was one of ten persons to organize Forsyth Bank and Trust Company in Winston-Salem and served on the Board of Directors of Forsyth Bank and Trust Company and the local board of its successor bank, Southern National Bank from 1973 to 1992.  She was a former member of the Board of Directors of the North Carolina Institute of Minority Economic Development.

       She has received numerous awards and honors, some of which include: The Margaret Brent Award from the American Bar Association, which is the highest award that the ABA bestows on a female attorney; North Carolina Bar Association’s General Practice Hall of Fame; Hall of Fame of the National Bar Association; Hall of Fame of the North Carolina Association of Black Lawyers; the Founder’s Spirit Award from Spelman College and the Howard University Distinguished Alumni Award in Law and Politics. In May, 1999 she was awarded an honorary degree of Doctor of Humane Letters from Winston-Salem State University. On January 15, 1992, she was one of seven attorneys to achieve Justice Endowment Funds, which was established to honor her for outstanding service to the profession and public by the North Carolina Bar Association.

       In 1979, Annie Kennedy was appointed to the North Carolina House of Representatives by Governor James B. Hunt, Jr. She was elected to the House of Representatives in 1982 and served as a legislator representing Forsyth County, North Carolina until her retirement from the North Carolina General Assembly in 1994.

       She was a delegate to several National Democratic Conventions. She was the first African-American female to become a Presidential and Vice Presidential Elector in North Carolina, having been elected in 1976.  As one of the thirteen members of the Electoral College from North Carolina, she seconded the nomination of President Jimmy Carter and Vice-President Walter Mondale.

       Annie Kennedy has represented the State of North Carolina at several national conferences. She was also a member of the North Carolina delegation to the United Nations Fourth World Conference on Women in Beijing, China in 1995.