2013 marks 500 years since Juan Ponce de León first landed in our state and claimed the territory for Spain. While the first PERMANENT colonial settlement did not occur until 1565, this year is rightfully the 500th anniversary of our state’s founding.

Four hundred years later African-Americans in the south still did not have full civil rights and had been systematically disfranchised from the voting roles by various Jim Crow measures. Martin Luther King Jr. made a concerted effort to integrate St Augustine during the 400th year of St Augustine as a permanent settlement. MLK’s efforts in St Augustine will be the subject of a future Throwback Tuesday.

Let’s focus today on the momentous congressional legislation pushed around the same time by President Lyndon Johnson and passed over the objection over the vast majority of the Florida Delegation. The Civil Rights Act of 1964 received zero votes from members from the Deep South and very few from the peripheral south. The only vote in favor of final passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 from Florida was by Rep. (former Senator) Claude Pepper, who courageously fought reactionary forces throughout his political career.

The Voting Rights Act of 1965 received a higher percentage of support among Florida’s delegation than among any other southern state except Texas (which at this time was less “southern” than Florida) , something we can be proud of. The act pushed by LBJ after the Selma Massacre got the support of several Florida congressmen including Rep. Charlie Bennett who represented the very conservative and racially polarized city of Jacksonville. This vote caused Bennett his only intense problems at home in his long and distinguished political career, but he survived in office until 1992.

Full votes of the Florida Delegation for both momentous pieces of legislation is listed below.

Civil Rights Act of 1964 Final Passage

Senate

NAY   D    Holland, Spessard FL

NAY   D    Smathers, George FL

Voting Rights Act of 1965

Senate

NAY   D    Holland, Spessard FL

AYE    D    Smathers, George FL