Tag Archives: Leroy Collins
More listener questions answered – Pepper, Smathers, George Washington, Key West, Collins, Askew and fiction books about Florida
On this week’s Florida History Podcast, we dive into several topics suggested by listeners. You can listen to the Florida History Podcast on Anchor (which hosts our show), Spotify, Google, Apple Podcasts, Radio Public, Breaker, Overcast, Castro or Pocket Casts. Overcast, Castro, Spotify, Radio Public and Breaker have App Store apps for free which enable you to subscribe and listen on your iPhone if you do […]
Leroy Collins at Selma and 1968
On this week’s edition of The Florida History Podcast, we discuss Governor Leroy Collins historic work after leaving the Governorship. Collins played a critical and often under-discussed role in ensuring the Selma to Montgomery march went ahead and ran in 1968 for the US Senate – a race where his moderate racial views ran head […]
Famous Floridian Friday: Governor LeRoy Collins after leaving office
In 2016, I penned the afterward to Robert Buccellato’s excellent Florida History timepiece, Finding Dan McCarty focusing on the Governorship of Leroy Collins, who took the unfulfilled McCarty mantle and promise, and made Florida a modern state. I have in the past focused much my analysis on Collins’ views toward improving Florida’s business climate and had long […]
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 […]
Finding Dan McCarty, an important work on Florida History is released
Finding Dan McCarty the new book 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 […]
Flashback Friday: Charley Johns, The “Pork Chop” Gang, The Purple Pamphlet and the shame of Florida’s circa 1960’s Legislature
Senator Charley Johns (D-Starke) is one of the best known figures in the Florida Political History for multiple dubious reasons. The leader of the infamous “Pork Chop Gang”. Johns became Governor in 1953 after Governor Dan McCarty the first Governor elected from southern Florida died just months after taking office. Prior to 1968, Florida had […]
Flashback Friday: George Wallace, Leroy Collins, Selma and the 1968 US Senate Race
In 1968, Alabama’s Democratic former Governor George Wallace who had become a national figure with his “stand in the schoolhouse door” ran for President on the ticket of the “American Independent Party.” The candidacy despite coded words like “crime,” “law breakers,” and “patriotism” was about one thing- race. Wallace had been a populist earlier in […]
The Florida Squeeze 