Florida was by 1950 the most urban and cosmopolitan state in the South. By 1970, Florida in many ways resembled a northern state or at least in many areas where Republicans were beginning to dominate electorally. But throughout much of the state, even urban areas Old South norms still prevailed. University of Georgia professor Numan V. Bartley’s definitive 1969 work “The Rise of Massive Resistance” demonstrated that Florida had a more violent streak and more organized Democratic Party based resistance to integration and Civil Rights than Tennessee, North Carolina and Texas. Still Florida did better than the five deep south states and Virginia, where “Massive Resistance” as term and practice actually originated. Bartley passed away in 2004 just months after Georgia Democrat Zell Miller, who spent much of his political career as a liberal took advantage of southern trends to publish “A National Party no More” and speak at the Republican National Convention.

The unanimous US Supreme Court Brown vs Board of Education decision in 1954 had outlawed desegregation in public schools but in the south resistance sprung up. Florida was no exception and the state was the last in the nation to fully integrate its public schools and universities.

Sumter Lowry’s “Federation for Constitutional Government,” was a major instrument of massive resistance in Florida. State Representative Prentice Pruitt (D-Monticello) took on a leadership role becoming the groups official lobbyist after leaving the House in 1956 and worked closely with his former colleagues to push measures such as interposition and an effort to shut down all of Florida’s public schools while giving stipends (what we would call vouchers today) to white students so they could attend newly opened “segregation academies” throughout the state. The later measure passed but was vetoed by Governor LeRoy Collins.

Pruitt then lobbied for a piece of legislation reacting to Little Rock which automatically closed a school if Federal Troops came to integrate the school. Collins allowed this to become law without his signature. Collins also strongly criticized the interposition resolution but could not do anything about it as it was a legislative resolution and probably would have seen an override of his veto anyhow, had it been a binding piece of legislation.

The Johns Committee worked with former House Un-American Activities Committee Cheif Investigator J.B. Matthews to find links between the NAACP and Communists. The Committee was not able to find the links though they did label the “NAACP” subversive because of established links with organized labor.

Florida was one of only two states to hold a special session in wake of Little Rock. The hope of Governor Collins was that reapportionment of the legislature which disproportionately put power in the hands of rural, reactionary forced could be undertaken and urban areas could gain more representation. But Attorney General Richard Ervin demanded publicly that the Special Session deal with Little Rock and maintaining segregation. Legislators responded to Ervin’s cue and pushed more dangerous anti-integration legislation. Ervin himself was from Carabelle and as a Big-Bend area Democrat he was publicly very pro-segregation but privately had authored a number of briefs to school districts and the US Supreme Court mapping out Florida’s compliance with the decision. However, most local school boards had no intention of integrating. Ervin however does deserve a lot of credit in his private stands as an accomplished attorney even though publicly the political winds demanded another posture.

By 1960, despite having six years to comply with the Brown ruling, only Dade County had integrated its school system. Florida became legendary for forcing the Justice Department to sue school districts one by one to integrate. It wasn’t until George Allen’s lawsuit against the Broward School District in 1969, that Broward and Palm Beach were finally forced to integrate, and were the last two school districts in the state to do so, when the Federal Court ordered remaining school districts must integrate “at once” since it had been 15 years since the Brown decision. This came three years after Broward County had cleverly redistricted its schools to prevent integration. Palm Beach copied Broward’s lead and did the same.

Ku Klux Klan activity in Florida has peaked in the 1920s but saw a revival in the late 1940s and 1950s abetted by local officials in Central Florida. Orange, Lake and Brevard Counties were the biggest hotbeds of Klan activity. The murder of Harry T. Moore in 1951 was one of the most vivid examples of law enforcement aiding the Klan in terror.

Civil Rights issues have continued in Florida since 1970. No state has seen more urban riots and a stronger sustained effort to disenfranchise African-American voters than Florida. No other locale in the nation other than Miami refused to honor Nelson Mandela after he was freed from jail and toured the United States. As the Zimmerman trial demonstrated, Florida has a long way to go on Civil Rights issues and equality.