Biff_Poindexter
Diamond Member
Lawmaker advances a state apology for the Johns Committee that targeted civil rights leaders and LGBTQ Floridians • Florida Phoenix
In an effort to acknowledge and move past one of the darkest phases of Florida’s 20th Century history, a state senator has filed a resolution calling on the Legislature to apologize for the notorious Johns Committee’s investigation targeting civil rights leaders, academic leaders and LGBTQ...
floridaphoenix.com
"In an effort to acknowledge and move past one of the darkest phases of Florida’s 20th Century history, a state senator has filed a resolution calling on the Legislature to apologize for the notorious Johns Committee’s investigation targeting civil rights leaders, academic leaders and LGBTQ Floridians in the 1950s and 1960s. The panel was better known as the Johns Committee, named after state Sen. Charley Johns, who was the first chairman of the committee and who also served as Florida’s governor from 1953 to 1955. The committee initially focused on civil rights leaders and the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP). In 1957 and 1958, the committee “devoted itself to besmirching NAACP members as criminals and communist sympathizers in order to slow or halt their efforts to desegregate Florida schools and public spaces,” the resolution says.
By late 1958, the legislative committee turned its focus on the University of Florida. With the cooperation from the school and its police force, the committee launched an investigation into alleged homosexual activity at the school. It resulted in a four-year, statewide investigation into alleged homosexual activity in the public school system, resulting in the state revoking teaching licenses, the resolution says. The resolution notes that over the course of nine years, the Johns Committee “at the expense of the taxpayers of this state using unconstitutional and unjust methods to discredit and combat legal, peaceful desegregation efforts; to destroy or otherwise jeopardize the livelihoods and reputations of educators, administrators, and other professionals in Florida’s public schools and universities; and to create a climate of fear that caused pain and suffering among vulnerable residents and made Florida a national symbol of intolerance.”
Now I know the first time Conservative officials tried to fight back against the gays and BLM trouble makers (civil rights activists) it didn't work out so well and the person who formed the committee and who the committee was named after, resigned. However, instead of giving up, maybe it is time to dust off this playbook and try to do it again; except this time, maybe a Ron DeSantis can win where previous Conservatives failed. If you are unfamiliar with the Johns Committee, it was a committee started by right-wing Congress members in Florida; initially to attack civil rights activists and block desegregation from taking place in Florida schools, you know, shit Conservatives normally did.....Here is how it went down....
When Thurgood Marshall successfully argued against segregation; Conservatives went ape shit...Charley Johns himself said "I’ve just been informed by the press of the United States Supreme Court’s ruling, Washington on segregation. My present inclination is to call an extraordinary session of the Florida legislature to cope with this ruling." And that was how the Johns Committee was born...Conservatives intended to use this committee to imply that desegregation was a Communist-Marxist plot and that black civil rights leaders like Medgar Evers and others were just Jewish controlled black Communists, you know, like Conservatives claim now....but it didn't work out....conservatives lost that "culture war"
So it shifted to using the committee to go after gay professors and students at University of Florida...even paying students $10 for every person they turn in as being homosexual....some got fired, some went to jail...because at the time, being gay was illegal....but they didn't just do this to college professors, they branched out to public school teachers in an attempt to do the same thing...even brought them in for Congressional hearings ...and on live TV, these conservative politicians were questioning school teachers about why are they teaching children that integration is good, why are you allowing kids to read books by JD Salinger, etc, etc...it backfired then...but maybe this time, if Conservatives stick with it, they can accomplish the goals that Conservatives 50 or so years were trying to accomplish. However, it kinda blows the whole claim out of the water that Conservatives were on the right side of the Civil Rights movement...I guess that is why history is so touchy with them....oh well...
