Special Issue: Articles to read on Florida Black Political History
Plenty of history we must not forget
Today marks the beginning of Black History Month in America. As both Donald Trump and Ron DeSantis try to scrub minority communities from education materials and formal declarations, its more important than ever to not let them erase the real history of our nation’s past.
For this first day, I wanted to consolidate into one article several pieces I’ve written over the years about Black civil rights in Florida. While most attention to Jim Crow and the Civil Rights movement is directed at other states; namely places like Alabama or Mississippi, Florida has a detailed and important history. At the time of the Civil War, Florida was around 45% Black; owed to the vast array of slave plantations in North Florida. The history after the end of the war played out similar to many southern states. I have documented several of events in the articles below.
Florida’s Black Political History
These articles I am arranging in chronological order, though from the numbering you will notice I didn’t write these in order.
Issue #268 was written just a few weeks ago. Here I look at the rise of slavery in Florida and how it drove the state to secession. Florida was the 3rd state to leave the union and was in the hands of extreme pro-slavery politicians throughout much of the 1850s.
There I track the march toward secession, from elections leading up to the moment and into the secession convention itself.
Issue #109 focused on the period right after the end of the Civil War. Like much of the south, Florida saw a period of reconstruction, with newly-freed slaves gaining voting and civil rights. This piece goes into the reconstruction efforts and how white carpetbaggers aimed to suppress full black political power, rather just using votes to secure their own victories. It follows with the collapse of the reconstruction governments and the rise of Jim Crow in Florida.
Like the rest of the South, the rise of Jim Crow meant the end to Black voting rights. Elections in Florida would become all-white affairs, with a poll tax and the establishment of the all-white Democratic Primary. Jim Crow would persist in Florida through the post WWII era.
Issue #188 responds to Black Republican Congressman Byron Donalds claiming that Black families had it good under Jim Crow. I took him to task in this article, which highlights the obvious ways he is wrong and discusses the emerging rise of Democratic support among Black voters.
Black voters began to leave the Republican Party around the time of FDR. This was caused not only by his administration beginning efforts to make inroads with the community, but the further movement of Republicans away from Civil Rights. Herbert Hoover was notably part of the “lily-white movement” which aimed to abandon all Black issues and win over southern states. The movement to Democrats would quicken with Harry Truman and cement with LBJ.
While Florida was firmly in Jim Crow, it was not as repressive as much of the deep south. Thanks to this, efforts to register Black voters were able to really ramp up in the late 1940s. Issue #155 covers this period. After the whites-only primary was struck down in the courts, Harry Moore and Harriette Moore and the NAACP began to registered voters in Florida. Over just a few years, the effort registered nearly 100,000 Black voters.
That article delves into the county-level gains and talks about which counties were hostile to such efforts. At the time Florida was very much a county-by-county dynamic on civil rights. Harry and Harriette were tragically killed by the KKK in 1951.
As Issue #120 covers, where the Moores began, future activists continued. Florida saw increased Black registration efforts through the 1950s and 1960s, even before the Voting Rights Act of 1965 passed. A massive registration drive in 1964 ensured LBJ’s narrow in Florida that year. Florida was not as hostile to registration as places like Alabama or Mississippi. There was at least no formal state opposition - with county level politics driving intimidation.
The passage of the 1965 Voting Rights Act was critical for several rural counties. Places like Liberty County had no Black registered voters before 1965. Other counties were already freely letting Black voters register. That article delves into more details on the different counties and the effects of the VRA.
Issue #191, which I posted last year as Kamala Harris was becoming the Democratic nominee, covers a key race in 1972 in Florida. That year, the Democratic Presidential Primary saw Shirley Chisholm, Americans’ first Black female Congresswoman, make a run for the Presidential nomination. This article covers her efforts in the Florida Primary, which saw her face off against a long list of names - including the infamous George Wallace.
While Chisholm would not win, the results would show a clear base of support among Black voters. This article further gives a lay of the land for politics and race during 1970s Florida.
On the topic of 1970s Florida, Issue #117 looks specifically at racial politics in Leon County, the home of the state capital. These days, Leon is a very progressive island in the rural and conservative panhandle. However, that change came thanks to expanded state worker populations and the expanded Universities. Before then, the region was still much more culturally southern. In this article I look at how 1976 marked a major shift in county politics.
The 1976 elections are important because they saw George Wallace lose the Democratic Primary for President within the county. Just four years earlier Wallace had swept the county. Leon going for Carter in the primary was a major victory for the more moderate suburbanites, students, and Black voters.
A few years after Carter bested Wallace, Al Lawson became the first Black state representative for the Florida panhandle since reconstruction. In Issue #37, I look at Al Lawson’s 1982 win for State House and how he eventually made his way all the way to Congress.
That article was written as DeSantis and the legislature were on their way to eventually dismantle Al’s Congressional district, ending his time in Congress. Lawson is a titanic figure in panhandle politics and deserves far more recognition for his early 1980s and 1990s campaigns and successes.
Speaking of panhandle politics, in Issue #156, I delve into race relations in Liberty County. Just to the west of Tallahassee, this rural white county has a long history of Klan violence and Black repression. I wrote about the push to finally get a Black county commissioner elected. This was a county with no Black registered voters until the VRA.
That article delves into not just race relations in Liberty, but also the web of dominant families that hold influence in this county of under 10,000 people.
On the issue of local government, you can also check out Issue #157, which covers the first time a Black man ran for Tallahassee commission since reconstruction. This election looks back at the 1957 race for Tallahassee commission - a time when Tallahassee was still a conservative southern town.
That article was the first in what is so far a 10-part series on the rise of Black political power in Tallahassee. My series so far has covered elections from the 1950s and through the 1970s. I hope to re-start the series again soon, but there is plenty to read in the meantime.
Looking Ahead
I have at least two articles, perhaps three articles, in the works for this month looking at issues of race and politics, so keep an eye out for that.
Since it is also Sunday, I invite you to give this article linked below a read. Last year, I wrote about how the Black churches were instrumental in inspiring anti-Nazi theologian Dietrich Bonhoeffer.
The German national visited the churches of Harlem in the 1920s and was utterly transformed by the Black churches. His exposure to the Church being a refuge for those being persecuted would transform how he saw the Church’s role when the NAZIs came to power in Germany years later. Bonhoeffer would become a major anti-Hitler force in the church and a spy for the allies; eventually being murdered by the Reich in 1945.
Give these articles a read, less you forget about history that is already not covered nearly enough.