Florida and the Civil Rights fights in Congress

February 14, 2024 · by · in Civil Rights, Florida History

The Southern Manifesto (1956) from Florida. According to the official US House of Representatives site:

” Howard Smith of Virginia, chairman of the House Rules Committee, introduced theSouthern Manifesto in a speech on the House Floor. Formally titled the “Declaration of Constitutional Principles,” it was signed by 82 Representatives and 19 Senators—roughly one-fifth of the membership of Congress and all from states that had once composed the Confederacy. It marked a moment of southern defiance against the Supreme Court’s 1954 landmark Brown v. the Board of Education of Topeka (KS) decision, which determined that separate school facilities for black and white school children were inherently unequal. The Manifesto attacked Brown as an abuse of judicial power that trespassed upon states’ rights. It urged southerners to exhaust all “lawful means” to resist the “chaos and confusion” that would result from school desegregation. Smith had cooperated with several Senators to develop the Manifesto, and Walter F. George of Georgia introduced it in the other chamber.”

Florida:

  • Charles Edward Bennett (D) (Jacksonville)
  • James A. Haley (D) (Sarasota)
  • Albert Herlong, Jr. (D) (Leesburg)
  • D.R. “Billy” Matthews (D) (Gainesville)
  • Paul G. Rogers (D)   (West Palm Beach)
  • Robert L. F. Sikes (D)  (Pensacola)

Non-Signatories:

  • William C. Cramer (R) (St Petersburg)
  • Dante Fascell (D)  (Miami)

Senate

  • George A. Smathers (D-Florida) (Miami)
  • Spessard Holland (D-Florida)  (Lakeland)

It is worth mentioning that despite his poor record on Civil Rights, Senator Spessard Holland was the primary sponsor of a constitutional amendment to ban the poll tax. The feeling among many historians is that he was motivated about protecting poor whites from the planter class and Holland from Polk County did battle with the North Florida/Jacksonville aristocracy in the state that descended from the planter class in Alabama, Georgia and North Florida.

As noted before these were the votes on the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and Voting Rights Act of 1965:

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

Civil Rights Act of 1964 Final Passage

Florida Reps
NAY  DSikes, RobertFL 1st
NAY  DBennett, CharlesFL 2nd
AYE  DPepper, ClaudeFL 3rd
NAY  DFascell, DanteFL 4th
NAY  DHerlong, AlbertFL 5th
NAY  DRogers, PaulFL 6th
NAY  DHaley, JamesFL 7th
NAY  DMatthews, BillyFL 8th
NAY  DFuqua, DonFL 9th
NAY  DGibbons, SamFL 10th
NAY  RGurney, EdwardFL 11th
NAY  RCramer, WilliamFL 12th

Senate

NAY   D    Holland, Spessard FL

NAY   D    Smathers, George FL

NOTES:

On the Civil Rights Act of 1964, Claude Pepper was the only Democratic Congressman from south of Nashville and east of Beaumont, Texas to vote for the legislation. Outside the Texas delegation which was split heavily on Civil Rights, the south voted as a bloc against the measure.

Voting Rights Act of 1965

Florida Reps
NAY  DSikes, RobertFL 1st
AYE  DBennett, CharlesFL 2nd
AYE  DPepper, ClaudeFL 3rd
AYE  DFascell, DanteFL 4th
AYE  DHerlong, AlbertFL 5th
AYE  DRogers, PaulFL 6th
NAY  DHaley, JamesFL 7th
NAY  DMatthews, BillyFL 8th
NAY  DFuqua, DonFL 9th
AYE  DGibbons, SamFL 10th
NAY  RGurney, EdwardFL 11th
AYE  RCramer, WilliamFL 12th

Senate

NAY   D    Holland, Spessard FL

AYE    D    Smathers, George FL

Notes:

Florida had the most yes votes of any southern state except Texas where Civil Rights was never the type of issue as it was in the rest of the South and large numbers of politicians in Texas openly advocated for Civil Rights measures. But this vote indicates that by 1965, unlike the 1950s and early 1960s, Florida was truly becoming a “new south” state.