LITTLE ROCK, Ark. — Chris Kennedy, widely known as “Black Santa Arkansas,” announced this week that he is retiring the moniker that made him well-known throughout central Arkansas and beyond.
Days before Christmas, Kennedy announced the news on Facebook, referring to the name as a chapter rather than an end. He stated that even though the name is changing, the goals of community, joy, and representation will remain.
“Retiring ‘Black Santa Arkansas’ doesn’t erase what it meant. It honors it,” Kennedy wrote.
‘Silver Bells,’ now a Christmas classic, almost had a very awkward title
Kennedy’s journey began in 2020 after receiving a racist letter demanding the removal of a Black Santa inflatable that a neighbor had damaged in his yard. Kennedy started dressing up as Santa himself after neighbors displayed their support by inflating their own Black Santa decorations…