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Focus on Florida
Civil War-Chapter 1
In 1860, the population if Florida was just over 140,000 inhabitants, of whom approximately 40% were slaves. The
Seminole Indians had, over the previous century, been confined to reservations through a series of bloody conflicts. The
state’s economy centered around the production of cotton and timber goods, both of which depended heavily on the
use of slave labor. It was therefore not surprising that on January 10, 1861, a constitutional convention called for by
Florida’s General Assembly adopted an ordinance of secession by a vote of 62 to 7. The “nation of Florida” thus seeded
from the United States. The following month, Florida joined the Confederate States of America.
For much of the war, the North sought to control Florida’s coastline and to enforce a blockade preventing the supply of
Confederate forces with food, arms and materials from Florida. For these purposes, union troops occupied Fort Pickens
near Pensacola off the Gulf of Mexico, and made the fort their headquarters in Florida for the duration of the war. Key
West remained in Union hands as well.
Federal forces also invaded and seized control of Apalachicola, Cedar Keys, Fernandina, Jacksonville, St. Augustine and
Tampa. Floridians often successfully ran the Union blockades, landing cargoes from Cuba and the Bahamas in the
numerous inlets, bays, and waterways of Florida.
The Confederate commander, Robert E. Lee, hoped to preserve the interior of Florida as a source of agricultural produce
and cattle for the South. A number of battles were fought in this region. In 1864, 5,200 Confederate troops led by
General Joseph Finnegan, defeated 5,500 Union soldiers at the Battle of Olustee. Further Confederate victories followed
at Gainesville, Cedar Keys, and Natural Bridge. This was despite the fact that these Confederate forces were often
compromised of young boys and old men. Many of the slaves in Florida, in fact, remained loyal to their masters and
stayed to help their owners’ wives and daughters manage the land and nurse the wounded. The war in Florida ended on
May 10, 1865, when Tallahassee was occupied by federal troops.
Reconstruction-Chapter 2
Florida was fortunate in suffering less damage than most Southern states during the Civil war. After 1865, growing
cotton in Florida became secondary to a wide variety of other occupations, including growing citrus fruits and winter
vegetables, raising cattle, cutting timber, and tourism. The state’s population nearly doubled in the two decades after
1860, reaching 270,000 inhabitants by 1880. Almost ½ of these were African Americans.
African Americans took a very active role in the government of Florida during Reconstruction. They made up 19 of the 53
members elected to the state legislature in 1868. Johnathan C. Gibbs, a preacher and graduate of Dartmouth College,
became Florida’s Secretary of State. Josiah T. Walls, a former slave and Union veteran, was the first black Floridian
elected to the U.S. House of Representatives, where he served three terms.
Southern Democrats regained control of Florida’s state government in 1877. They followed the example of other
Southern States in enacting their own “Jim Crow” laws. A state constitutional convention was held in 1885, which
imposed poll taxes, literacy tests, and residency qualification as requirements for voting. The convention also endorsed
racial segregation in schools. In 1889, Florida’s state legislature introduced multiple ballot boxes at elections in order to
confuse and discourage African-American voters. These laws were accompanied by acts of violence against those African
Americans who still dared to exercise their political rights. Despite these threats, some African Americans bravely
continued to assert their rights. For example, Joseph H. Lee, an African American who moved to Florida in 1873, actually
served in the state legislature from 1880-1913.
A unique form of debt peonage developed in the pine forests of Florida at the end of Reconstruction, which lasted until
the 1940s. African Americans who sought work in the turpentine camp were offered a bus ride to the camp. For their
ride, they became indebted to the owner and were unable to leave the camp until the debt was paid. They became
further indebted to the owner for their housing and food. Thus they became virtual prisoners. One victim later
remembered: “You is born into the teppentime, with no hope of getting out.”
Industry-Chapter 4
Any study of Florida in the late 19th century would be incomplete without mentioning Henry Morrison Flagler (18301913). Flagler was a partner of John D. Rockefeller in the creation of the Standard Oil Company, which gained monopoly
control of all oil refineries in the United States by 1892. Rockefeller gave Flagler full credit for his information. “I wish I
had the brains to think of it,” he said, but “it was Henry M. Flagler”.
From his first visit to Florida on 1876 until his death in 1913, Flagler was fascinated with Florida. He devoted much of his
time and money developing the Sunshine State. In 1887 and 1888, he built the Ponce de Leon Hotel (now Flagler
College), a luxury resort in St. Augustine. He later built similar luxury hotels in Palm Beach and Miami, forming the basis
for the tourism industry in Florida. Flagler’s enterprises also included railroads, real estate, and shipping. Flagler’s
contributions to the growth of Miami were so important that he was given an unofficial title as the “Father of Miami”.
It was in railroad building that Flagler had his greatest impact. With his vast wealth and grants of land and rights-of-way
obtained from both the State of Florida and private landowners, Flagler was able to buy and build railroads connecting
the entire length of Florida from Jacksonville to Miami, and eventually all the way south to Key West. Flagler merged
several smaller railroads together to form the Florida East Coast Railroad. His railroad brought tourists to fill his hotels,
but also made it possible for Floridians to export their agricultural products, including citrus fruits, vegetables, tobacco
and cigars, cotton, beef and cattle. The same railroads transported supplies, laborers, tourists, and settlers in Florida. A
deep-water port at Key West anticipated future shipping from the Panama Canal. Even before the Panama Canal was
completed, Flagler constructed a railroad junction at Key West to help Floridians ship their exports to the Caribbean and
beyond. Flagler hoped his railroads would transport both goods and passengers. His railroad to Key West was destroyed
by a hurricane in 1935, but provided the foundation for the Overseas Highway that goes to Key West today.
Progressive Era-Chapter 7
The Progressive Movement that swept through the entire country affected Florida as well. William Sherman Jennings,
Governor of Florida from 1901 to 1905, struck one of the first blows against Big Business by reclaiming land from the
railroad barons to whom Florida had generously given vast expanses of land in the late 19th century. Jennings greatly
increased the power of the Florida Railroad Commission in regulating the practices of the state’s railroads. His wife, May
Mann Jennings was a pivotal figure in promoting reforms. She championed women’s suffrage, child labor laws, public
education, and better treatment of the Seminole Indians. Her early efforts in nature conservation later led to the
creation of the Everglades national Park in 1947.
Another prominent reformer in Florida during the Progressive Era was Napoleon Bonaparte Broward, Governor from
1905 to 1909. Broward stood up for farmers and small businesses. Although he had parts of the Everglades drained to
create land for agriculture, he generally advocated conservation of forests, fish and game. He spoke against the
exploitation of child labor. Broward built roads to improve trade for farmers and supported social welfare programs,
prison reform, and public education. In fact, many historians refer to the Progressive Era in Florida as the “Broward Era”.
Little was done during the Progressive Era, however, to improve conditions for the state’s minority populations.
American Imperialism-Chapter 8
By the late 19th century Florida already has substantial Cuban communities in Key West and other towns. Because there
was a tariff on cigars but not on tobacco, Vicente Martinez Ybor moved his cigar-making operations to Ybor City in
Tampa in the 1880s. The Cuban immigrants in Florida contributed their money and support to Jose Marti and other
Cuban revolutionaries.
In the months before the outbreak of the Spanish-American War, Floridians began to fear the bombardment of their
coastal cities by Spanish forces. The industrialist Henry Plant had already established a railroad line, a steamship line,
wharves, and luxury hotels in Tampa. Plant sent a letter to the U.S. Secretary of War, asking the government to build
defensive fortification there. As war grew more certain, a new question arose: where should U.S. forces intended for an
invasion of Cuba be based? Tampa’s local press and politicians used all their influence in Washington. Plant sent a
prominent company official to plead for Tampa, which was eventually chosen as the port of embarkation. Troops began
arriving in Tampa by train as early as April 20, even before war was declared. Several camps were set up around Tampa,
while army headquarters were established in Henry Plant’s beautiful Tampa Bay Hotel. Theodore Roosevelt stayed at
the Tamp Bay Hotel as well. Additional camps were set up in Jacksonville (“Camp Cuba Libre”), Lakeland, Miami, and
Fernandina. As a result of over-crowding in the camps, typhoid quickly broke out among the soldiers. More men would
eventually die from disease than from the fighting.
The triumph of American imperialism likewise affected Florida. Inspired by the construction of the Panama Canal, Henry
Flagler decided to extend his Florida’s largest city. Tampa, the center of Plant’s transportation network, became a major
port for shipping goods to Latin America. On the other hand, Cuba and America’s new overseas colonies became
competitors to Florida in the production of duty-free sugar.
WW I-Chapter 9
During World War I, Florida had one of its most colorful governors. In 1916, Sidney J. Catts was elected as Governor of
Florida after campaigning against alcoholic drinks and Catholics. He toured the state in his Model-T automobile, shouting
speeches through a bullhorn. Florida passed “Prohibition” of alcoholic beverages in 1917. Catts remained Governor until
January 1921. During the war, he encouraged anti-German sentiment and even accused African Americans of conspiring
with Germany. Meanwhile, Florida contributed to the war effort in many ways. Just over 42,000 Floridians served in the
military during the war. According to state records, these included 13,024 African-American officers in the U.S. Army.
The Navy and the Marine Corps were strictly segregated at the time and refused to accept African Americans. Women
served as secretaries in the Navy and as nurses. More than 1,000 Floridians sacrificed their lives in the war. Eighteen
Floridians received the Distinguished Service Cross for extreme gallantry and courage.
Florida further contributed to the war by providing food and other products. Its farm produced cotton for making
uniforms, vegetables, and fruits-especially citrus fruits. Its forest provided timber. Shipyards in Tamp and Jacksonville
built Allied ships. A submarine base in Key West, five flight schools in Pensacola and other Florida cities, and other
military camps helped to train troops. Thomas Edison spent time in Key West developing depth charges for use against
submarines in naval warfare. Wartime experiences in turn affected Florida. Many who trained in Florida later returned
as tourists or residents.
Racial relations actually worsened as a result of the war. African Americans who had served in the war had witnessed
how Northern states and Europe treated them with greater respect and grew hopeful for changes in Florida after the
war. A historic African American voter registration drive was launched in Jacksonville in January 1919. Black churches,
unions, clubs, and meeting places held workshops on voter registration. African American veterans from the war and
newly enfranchised women attempted to assert their rights. But the 1920 election proved to be one of the bloodiest in
Florida history. Many of those African Americans who attempted to vote were beaten and few were even killed. The
state remained rigid in its segregationist policies.
The Roaring 20s-Chapter 10
By 1920, many Americans had come to think of Florida as a desirable place to visit or live. Advertisements, magazine
articles, and the memories of those who had visited for business, pleasure or military service had all done their part in
promoting the state. Americans were aware of Florida’s luxury hotels, parks, beaches and other recreational
opportunities. The state eliminated its inheritance and income taxes to provide additional appeal. Between 1923 and
1925, more than 300,000 Americans moved to Florida.
The increasing use of automobiles put pressure on the state to construct a roadway system. Florida’s first highway
department was established in 1915. The state’s first concrete highway, between Jacksonville and Lake City, was
completed in 1923. The Tamiami Trail, connecting Tampa and Miami, was completed in 1928. It was 273 miles long and
took five years to build. In 1920 there had been fewer than 1,000 miles of paved roadways in Florida; by 1930, there was
more than 3,800 miles.
Airplanes also arrived. The first airport was established at Miami Beach in 1912. By 1926, nine cities in Florida had their
own airports, carrying both mail and passengers.
With trains, planes, and car, “snow birds” found they could escape the winter cold by coming south. Florida became a
place where many people wanted to buy land. In the early Twenties, speculation in real estate led to a land boom in
Miami Beach, which spread along the coasts and moved as far west as Tallahassee and Pensacola. Properties were
brought and resold only a few days later at a profit. Land on Miami Beach, which the developer Carl Fisher had been
willing to give away for free in 1915, was worth $26,000 an acre by 1925.
During these years, the land boom dominated Florida’s economy. It affected transportation, construction, labor, and all
the allocations of resources. Architects designed luxurious mansions in the Mediterranean style for wealthy buyers, with
tile roofs, wrought iron balconies, fountains, and patios. Banks made speculative loans to developers and speculators
without strict requirements. Inevitably, some loans went unpaid and a few banks began to fail. In 1925, a strike on the
Atlantic Coast Line Railroad temporarily halted the movement of passengers and freight. A natural disaster struck a year
later on September 18, 1926, when a deadly hurricane smashed Miami, Coral Gables, Fort Lauderdale, Dania, and
Pompano. In Miami alone, as many as 2,000 buildings were destroyed, the city docks were demolished, and all the boats
in the harbor were lost.
Real estate prices collapsed almost as rapidly as they had risen. Some people began to exit the state and more banks
began to fail. The boom became a bust. There was a slight revival in 1927 and 1928, followed by another destructive
hurricane in September 1928. The Mediterranean fruit fly arrived in 1929, destroying 80% of Florida’s citrus crop. The
stock market crash in October later the same year marked the beginning of the Great Depression, which would soon
envelop the entire nation.
The Seminole Indians-are related to the Creek. Most once lived in Georgia and Alabama, but they were driven south into
Florida by the Creek Wars. Several thousand Seminoles were living in Florida at the starts of the Second Seminole war
(1835-1842). Many were killed but a few hundred survivors escaped into the Everglades. By the 1890s, the Seminoles
were living peacefully in the Everglades and Big Cypress, surviving as hunters who traded their otter pelts, deerskins,
egret plumes, and alligator hides with whites. The state and federal governments set aside reservation lands in Florida
for the Seminoles, but few moved into them. As the scale of tourism and real estate development increased in the
1920s, the Seminole way of life became endangered. The Tamiami Trail, connecting Tampa and Miami, became the first
road through the Everglades. Efforts to drain parts of the wetlands to create more farmland and build homes further
threatened the Seminoles. The demand for their alligator hides and furs fell. The Seminoles began selling their
patchwork art, baskets, and other crafts to tourists, who visited their roadside homes. The Seminoles themselves divided
into two groups still existing today: the Miccosukee and the Seminoles.
Rosewood-In the early 1920s, Florida became the scene of some of the nation’s worst racial violence. As much as 30%
of the state’s population was African-American. Most lived inland in the ‘backcountry”, where they were subjected to
“Jim Crow” laws, economic exploitation, and terrible abuse. Florida historian Michael Gannon points out that Florida led
the country in lynchings. The turpentine camps still relied on the practice of debt peonage, in which African-American
workers could not leave because they owed the camp owners for their food and clothes.
Rosewood was a rural African-American community southwest of Gainesville. By 1920, it had about 350 residents, living
in neat, wooden plank homes. Most worked in the timber industry: there were several turpentine mills, two pencil mills,
and a sawmill nearby. Rosewood had two general stores, three churches, and its own turpentine mill. Early one January
morning, a white woman in the nearby town of Sumner was attacked after her husband had gone to work. She claimed
her attacker was an unknown African-American man; other witnesses said it was in fact a white train worker who often
visited her and may have beaten her. The same day, a black prisoner had coincidentally escaped from a chain gang. The
country sheriff organized white volunteers, who began searching for the escaped prisoner as probable attacker. Trained
dogs led a group of the search party to Rosewood. Under torture, one of the local residents told the men that he had
helped to conceal the escaped convict. The unfortunate resident was lynched in the woods. The sheriff tried to disperse
the growing mobs of angry white men, some of them drunk, who came pouring in from neighboring communities. They
laid siege to one of the home in Rosewood, which was defended by a resident who was a skilled hunter and marksman.
Several were killed in the exchange of gunfire, including children. News of this local resistance spread, and crowds of
white men descended on the town, where they burned its churches and houses. Men poured kerosene on the houses,
ignited them, and shot those who came out. A few brave whites helped to smuggle some of Rosewood’s surviving
residents to safety. All of the survivors moved to other towns. On January 7, 1923, the mob returned to burn down all
the remaining structures at Rosewood. Despite coverage in several national newspapers at the time, the attack on
Rosewood was quickly forgotten. Neither surviving victims nor neighboring whites spoke publicly of the incident for
decades. In the 1980s, a survivor’s child told the story to a reporter. At first, others tried to deny its truth. The Rosewood
survivors filed for damages based on the state government’s failure to protect them from the mob. The suit was
dropped, but Florida’s state legislature commissioned a special report. Afterwards, they voted to provide the survivors
and their descendants with $1.5 million in compensation. It was the first time a state government had ever voted to
compensate victims of racial violence.
The Great Depression-Chapter 11
In the last chapter, you learned how the Florida land boom had become a bust by 1926. In Florida, the Great Depression
began even before the stock market crash. By the early 1930s, unemployment had risen and “Hoovervilles” had sprung
up in Florida. In 1931, the Florida Legislature legalized gambling on horse and dog racing and Jai Alani games in hopes of
improving the state economy. The measure raised additional revenues but failed to halt the Depression.
By 1932, 113 Florida banks had failed. The flow of out-of-state tourists into Florida dropped. In their place desperate
migrants without food or work began arriving. State police guarded roads and highways to prevent them from entering
the state.
In the 1932 Presidential election, President Roosevelt won the state of Florida with three-quarters of the popular vote.
Florida Governor David Scholtz declared a state bank holiday even before President Roosevelt announced a national
one. On March 14, 1933, Florida’s banks reopened their doors. New state banking regulations required greater solvency,
higher reserve deposits, and more conservative lending practices. Alfred Du Pont, who inherited a fortune from his
family’s chemical business, helped to restore Florida’s ailing banking system.
The Civilian Conservation Corps, or CCC, was especially active in Florida. Between 1930 and 1939, it employed 50,000
young men in Florida. They planted more than 13 million trees to develop the state’s timber industry. The CCC also
rebuilt the 100-mile long Overseas Railroad connecting Key West and Miami which had been badly damaged by
hurricane in 1935, the CCC also left another important legacy. Public land used by the CCC formed the basis of the
Florida state park system. In 1935, the Florida Legislature created the Florida Park Service and established its first four
state parks: Myakka River State Park, Hillsborough River State Park, Torreya State Park and Gold Head Branch State Park.
Another New Deal agency, the Works Progress Administration, or WPA, employed 40,000 Floridians. It was responsible
for the construction of hundreds of public buildings, bridges, roads, hospitals, and parks in Florida. The WPA built more
than 500 schools and playgrounds in Florida and employed almost 16,000 teachers. It also built seawalls to protect
beaches from erosion and encouraged the establishment of oyster beds and shrimp farms for commercial fishing. The
WPA worked with the Federal Emergency Relief Administration, or FERA, to build dikes that reduced the threat of
flooding in the Everglades. FERA also completed US Highway I in 1938.
The Florid Citrus Commission was established in 1935. It promoted the sale of the state’s citrus products through
extensive advertising. By 1940, proceeds from the sale of Florida’s oranges, tangerines, and grapefruits totaled close to
$35 million. FERA and the WPA also helped to start Florida’s sugar industry and promoted the planting of corn, potatoes,
peanuts, and cotton. Meanwhile, Alfred Du Pont bought forestland and launched the paper industry in Florida.
By 1935, tourism in Florida showed some signs of recovery. In that year, more than two million tourists visited the state,
spending more than $526 million. Airlines began to expand their operations in Florida. By 1939, several commercial
airlines had regularly scheduled flights to Florida cities.
Florida also became an important cultural center in the 1930s. The famous writer Ernest Hemingway purchased a house
in Key West in 1935. His novel To Have and Have Not, published in 1937, had a Florida setting. Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings
was another notable writer who lived in Florida. She wrote about the local people in the interior of the state in the book
The Yearling (1938), which won the Pulitzer Prize, as well as in her autobiographical Cross Creek (1942). The WPA
supported writers such as Zora Neale Hurston, who moved back to Florida in the 1930s and wrote about her experiences
growing up there.
World War II-Chapter 12
Almost as soon as war was declared, German U-boats began attacking ships in Florida’s harbors and along its coasts. In
1942, 24 Allied oil tankers and merchant ships were sunk in Florida waters. Hundreds of sailors and large quantities of
cargo, especially oil, were lost. A team of German saboteurs with explosives even landed on Florida’s shores in that year.
They were arrested by the FBI and later executed.
Florida played a vital role in the preparation and training of troops, sailors, and pilots. Florida had 172 military training
centers, with air stations, naval piers and port facilities, bombing ranges, airfields, and army training grounds. More than
2 million Americans from all over the United States trained in Florida. When Lieutenant Colonel “Jimmy” Doolittle and
his squadron bombed Tokyo in 1942, Floridians took great pride in the fact that Doolittle and his men trained at Eglin
Field near Valparaiso.
The economic impact of war on Florida was immense. Between 1940 and 1945, the federal government spent more
than $98 billion in the Florida economy to further the war effort. They bought hotels, such as the Breakers at Palm
Beach and the Biltmore in Coral Gables, and rented tens of thousands of hotel rooms for troops. The Breakers became a
military hospital. Camp Blanding became the fourth largest city in Florida. Shipyards began building “Liberty Ship.” Nine
million civilian workers flocked to Florida to work in construction and agriculture. Florida increased its agricultural
production, especially of citrus fruits. Farmers began using a new pesticide-DDT.
Millions of Americans spent time in Florida during the war. This had a profound effect on the state by encouraging both
tourism and population growth. In 1940, there were 1,897,414 people living in Florida. By 1950, this number had grown
to 2,771,305-an increase of 46%, in a single decade.
The Cold War-Chapter 13
Florida was greatly affected by the events of the Cold War. When a socialist government took over the country of
Guatemala in 1954, the American Central Intelligence Agency, or “CIA,” began secretly training exiles in Florida to
overthrow it. The CIA operation in Guatemala was such a success that five years later, when Fidel Castro seized power in
Cuba, the CIA began training teams of Cuban exiles in the Everglades, the Florida Keys, and Guatemala. This time,
however, their effort to lead to disaster at the Bay of Pigs.
Because Cuba is less than 100 miles from Florida’s shores, Florida became a focal point of the Cold War. During the
Cuban Missile Crisis, U.S. troops flooded into South Florida. Afterwards, Florida’s tropical forests continued to be used by
the U.S. military to train soldiers preparing for Southeast Asia or Latin America. Radio stations in Florida were used to
make broadcasts into Cuba.
Castro’s Communist dictatorship in Cuba led to a stream of refugees to the United States. Between 1959 and 1962, more
than 200,000 Cubans came to the United States-many of them professionals or business owners. Most of these
immigrants settled in the Miami area. Immediately after the Cuban Missile Crisis, air travel between Cuba and the
United States was cut off, but refugees continued to pour in from Cuba. IN 1965, limited air travel was restored until
1973, and another 368,000 Cubans moved to the United States. In 1980, Castro announced that anyone who wished to
leave Cuba could do so from the port of Mariel. Cuban Americans in Miami sent a fleet of small boats to pick up more
than a hundred thousand “Marielitos.” Most of these arrivals again settled in Dade County. Miami is now officially
bilingual, and the area around Eighth and Flagler Streets has become known as “Little Havana.”
Another impact of the Cold War on Florida was in the birth of the space industry. In 1949, the U.S. Air Force acquired
Cape Canaveral, and in 1950, it began testing missiles there. In 1958, NASA was formed and America entered the “space
rent.” Florida has played a role because all of the American rockets launched into space took off from Cape Canaveral. In
1963, NASA acquired 90,000 acres on nearby Merritt Island, which became the Kennedy Space Center. The space
program brought tens of thousands of scientist to Florida, turning Central Florida into the “Space Coast.”
Postwar Prosperity-Chapter 14
Floridians played an important role in the struggle for civil rights even before the 1950s. James Weldon Johnson
(1871-1938) was born in Jacksonville, Florida. He wrote the poem, “Lift Every Voice and Sing.” It was set to music by his
brother and became known as the “Negro National Anthem.” Many African Americans schools across the South sang
this anthem at the start of each day. Johnson became a filed secretary of the NAACP in 1916 and led demonstrations
and marches against lynching and racial injustice. In July 1917, he led a march of ten thousand African Americans down
New York City’s Fifth Avenue in protest. Zora Neale Hurston (1891-1960) was an African-American author who grew up
in Eatonville, Florida, and became active in the Harlem Renaissance. Later, she returned to Florida. A Philip Randolph
(1889-1979) was born in Crescent City, Florida. At a time when many trade union’s discrimination against African
Americans, Randolph successfully led the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters. In 1941, he challenged President Franklin
D. Roosevelt to end racial discrimination in government contractors. Randolph’s efforts to end discrimination in the
armed forces contributed to President Truman decision to desegregate them in 1948. In 1963, Randolph was one of the
organizers of the “March on Washington.”
The strong desire for civil rights in Florida was partly in reaction to the harsh system of segregation that existed there.
Like other Southern states, Florida denied African Americans their voting rights and limited their economic
opportunities. Communities segregated their buses, schools, theaters, parks, and other public facilities. The Klu Klux Klan
was powerful, and Florida led the South in lynchings in proportion to its population.
Harry T. Moore was an African-American teacher and school principal who was active in making African Americans in
Florida more aware of their constitutional rights. He registered voters, founded the Brevard chapter of the NAACP,
helped organize the Florida NAACP, and filed a series of lawsuits for civil rights. In 1937, he filed a series of lawsuits
demanding equal pay for black and white school teachers. In 1941, Moore became the head of the Florida NAACP.
Because of his efforts, a higher percentage of African Americans were registered to vote in Florida than in any other
Southern state. Moore became involved in the case of four African-American males convicted of rape on flimsy
evidence. Thurgood Marshal won an appeal in the U.S. Supreme Court overturning their convictions. But then two of the
men were shot and killed by the sheriff, who claimed they were trying to escape. Moore called for the sheriff to be
arrested. Shortly afterwards, on Christmas night in 1951, Moore and his wife were killed by a bomb planted under their
house by Ku Klux Klan members. No one was ever charged with the murder.
School Desegregation In the 1940s, Florida’s state legislative established the “Minimum Foundations Program” to
improve its segregated schools. In part, this was to discredit the argument that Southern states were not providing equal
resources to black schools. After the Brown v. Board of Education decision, Florida Governor LeRoy Collins managed to
integrate the state’s schools peacefully.
The Tallahassee Bus Boycott In May 1956-at the same time as the Montgomery bus boycott in Alabama-two African
American female students refused to give up their seats at the front of the bus in Tallahassee. Reverend C.K. Steele, a
local NAACP leader, rook charge of the boycott of the city’s buses. Although a federal court struck down the segregation
continued on the bus in Tallahassee. Law enforcement officials attempted to arrest those running car pools for
operating an illegal business. The actions of the Supreme Court resulted in their desegregation.
St. Augustine, 1964 In the early 1960s, race riots, sit-ins, wade-ins (to desegregate public beaches), and demonstrations
took place in Jacksonville and Tallahassee. There was a sit-in in Miami as early as 1959. Rioting rocked St. Augustine in
the summer of 1964 during the celebration of the city’s 400th anniversary. Dr. King spent time in St. Augustine in 1964 to
participate in demonstrations. Andrew Young said the treatment of African Americans in St. Augustine was worse than
in Birmingham, Alabama. Segregationists shot into King’s home and burned his beach cottage. King was arrested but
under pressure from President Johnson, he was released. Only days later, President Johnson pushed the Civil Rights bill
through Congress.
The Sixties-Chapter 15
The launch of the Apollo 11 from Cape Canaveral on July 16, 1969, marked the end of a remarkable decade in Florida
history. As Neil Armstrong stepped off the lunar module to become the first person to set foot on the moon, his famous
words were: “That’s one small step for a man, one great step for mankind.” A similar description might have been
applied to how Florida and perceptions of its future had changed in the Sixties. The Civil Rights Movement in Florida,
highlighted by the Tallahassee bus boycott and the demonstrations in St. Augustine led by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.,
permanently altered race relations between the state’s blacks and whites. The decade also saw the beginning of a mass
exodus of people from Cuba, which would change the politics and demographics of Florida for decades to come.
Finally, the 1960s saw an increase in the migration of retired people from other states to Florida. Today, people over 65
years of age make up almost one fifth of Florida’s population. They form a very active political group, often represented
by the AARP (American Association of Retired Persons). A higher percentage of the elderly vote than members of other
age groups. According to Florida’s Department of Elder Affairs, more than 40% of those who vote are over 60 years of
age. Seniors have exercised a tremendous influence on Florida from tourism to tax laws. They pay for half of all new
home constructions as well as $1 billion a year in local school taxes.
American Social Issues-Chapter 17
The issue described in this chapter all have their parallels in Florida. The Civil Rights Movement, culminating in
demonstrations in St. Augustine led by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., permanently changed race relations across the
state. Supreme Court decisions made Florida’s state legislative more democratic by requiring a redrawing of
election districts. Federal policies towards American Indians affected the Seminoles. The construction of
highways, the invention of the migration of retirees to Florida as well as the volume of out-of-state tourism.
Events in Cuba during the Cold War led to a mass exodus that has greatly influenced Florida’s demographics and
politics. Tourism Today, Florida’s largest industry is tourism. In addition to the state’s mild winter climate,
luxurious sand beaches, luxury hotels, Everglades National Park and Space Coast, the Walt Disney Company
opened its Magic Kingdom theme park in Florida in 1971. Other entertainment complexes in the Orlando area
soon followed. With close to 90 million visitors each year, Florida has become the number-one travel destination
in the world. In 2011, tourism brought close to a $67 billion to Florida’s economy and accounted for one-quarter
of the state’s sales-tax revenues. Immigration Much of Florida’s recent increase in population has been due to
immigration from Cuba and other Caribbean nations. Since Castro’s take over in 1959, more than 800,000
Cubans have fled to the United States. Most have settled in Florida. Today, two-thirds of the population of
Florida’s second largest city, Miami, is Hispanic. Florida’s Retirees With improvements in health care and lifestyle changes, the U.S. population is growing older. Many retirees from other states have moved to Florida. In
2010, residents over 65 years old were 17% of the state’s total population; by 2030, they are expected to
become a quarter of the state. Some of these retirees live in special retirement communities. A higher
percentage of these citizens vote than in other age groups: in 2010, they constituted 31% of the statewide vote.
Florida’s growing number of retirees and immigrants may have important implications, and lead to future
disagreements on priorities.
Terrorism-The terrorists who piloted the planes that crashed into the World Trade Center in 2001 were flight-trained
and lived for years in Florida. With its location on the southeastern border of the United States and its large
immigrant and migrant populations. Florida poses special challenges to safeguard against terrorist acts.