Category Florida History
Holiday book recommendations – Finding Dan McCarty and Jimmy Carter in Plains
Finding Dan McCarty, by Robert Buccellato has been released and is available via Amazon.com (click on the link on the book title to purchase a copy). I’m honored to have contributed to this work writing a Forward which was about the 1940’s, 1950’s and 1960’s in Florida politics. From the book: A thin layer of glass separated him […]
Holiday book recommendations: Claude Pepper, Florida’s liberal champion
Review of Red Pepper and Gorgeous George: Claude Pepper’s Epic Defeat in the 1950 Democratic Primary (Florida Government and Politics) and Claude Pepper and Ed Ball: Politics, Purpose, and Power (Florida History and Culture) While most modern historians and political activists would point to November 7, 2000 as the most significant election in Florida’s history as far […]
Holiday book recommendation: It Happened in Florida
E. Lynne Wright’s It Happened in Florida: Remarkable Events That Shaped History (It Happened In Series) is a collection of largely untold short non-fiction stories about Florida’s rich history. The well-researched and written book is presented in a chronological order. Whether it is Ponce De Leon’s near landing on the present day Space Coast, Henry Flagler’s […]
20 years of GOP rule of the Florida Legislature
I’m somewhat surprised we have not gotten more commemorations because this week’s organizational session marked 20 years since the GOP captured complete control of the Florida Legislature. The Republicans captured a House majority on Election Day 1996 ironically as Bill Clinton was becoming the first Democratic Presidential nominee to carry the state in twenty years. […]
Their Golden Age
By Robert Buccellato One sunny spring afternoon, I got it in my head to walk to the Historic Capitol building. This was a near weekly pilgrimage for me, considering that my own office was a mere block away at the old Leon County court annex. Not to mention that my own boyhood hero, my Grandpa […]
Florida’s October hurricane history
With Major Hurricane Matthew burrowing through the Caribbean this provides a perfect time look back at October hurricanes in the state of Florida. While the most dangerous part of Hurricane Season ends in September, historically Florida has been far more vulnerable to late season storms than other parts of the United States. In fact, according […]
Flashback Friday: Leroy Collins debates Charley Johns
I recently wrote the afterword to Robert Buccellato’s excellent new book Finding Dan McCarty focusing on Governor Leroy Collins – here is a clip from youtube with his debate versus Charley Johns in 1954. We’ve spent plenty of time on this site discussing the reactionary nature of Johns. This Democratic Primary may have been the most […]
Flashback Friday: Made in Miami, Muhammad Ali
Muhammad Ali passed away last week. Without droning on endlessly as all of us could about him, I wanted to share some links about Ali’s time in Florida. Miami Herald’s Greg Cote on Ali http://www.miamiherald.com/sports/spt-columns-blogs/greg-cote/article1960724.html February 1964 – Ali meets in the Beatles on Miami Beach The Fab Four met Muhammad Ali on Miami Beach […]
Flashback Friday: 1967 Jacksonville Expressway System
The Jacksonville Expressway system was the first in Florida. Below are images from a 1967 Jacksonville expressway system map of mine.
Florida voter rolls during reconstruction
Every now and then especially on Holiday weekends I explore through Florida Memory, the outstanding site from the Division of Library & Information Services. This weekend I came across this gem from the Reconstruction era – The voter roles for the state from 1867. The Fifteenth Amendment had yet to be ratified but Republican-led reconstruction […]
The Florida Squeeze 