State of Defiance: Challenging the Johns Committee's Assault on Civil Liberties

Preface

Preface One . . . [person] with courage makes a majority. Andrew Jackson Courage empowered by conscience often makes heroes of ordinary people; their cumulative efforts also generate groundswells for political change and social progress. In Florida, such a gathering momentum was created by five people who never knew each other: civil rights activists Virgil Hawkins and Ruth Perry; college professor Sig Diettrich; lesbian bartender G. G. Mock; anduniversityadministratorand professorMargaretFisher.However,these people hadone majorexperienceincommon:WhenFloridawasinthegrip of its own brand of McCarthyism, these individuals challenged the prejudices of the legislature’s investigating group, the Florida Legislative Investigation Committee. Because of the influence of its creator, Senator Charley Johns, that committee soon became known as the Johns Committee and is referred to as such throughout this book.1 A study of these Floridians’ battle with their own government is long overdue. Few published works exist that focus entirely on the Johns Committee , and very little has been published on the people who defied the committee.2 While certainly selective and not a comprehensive study, the profiles in this book illuminate the impact of ordinary people—black and white, women and men, gay and straight—who risked careers and lives because they saw beyond the politics of the moment.3 By drawing upon primary sources (particularly the unsealed records of the Johns Committee) and previously unpublished materials, this book examines the stands taken by these five people against the Johns Committee and its witch hunts. The Johns Committee was an “equal opportunity abuser.” As a result, it produced survivors who championed a variety of civil rights. Each survivor fought against Florida’s “little McCarthyism” while simultaneously battling an additional form of bigotry, be it racism, homophobia, or threats to teachers and academic freedom.4 The duality of these battles made them very demanding, for the risk of failure—as well as the effort required—was doubled. These individuals not only insisted on the right to live their lives as free citizens but they also resisted the committee’s tactics, by enduring questioning by the committee and its staff (either in a public hearing or privately, with a record of such questioning still extant), not cooperating with the committee,and notlivinglikevictimsafterbeingpersecutedbythe committee. To defytheMcCarthy-liketacticsofthecommitteewasdifficult enough, but to challenge their prejudices as well took extra resolve. Major leaders are not featured in State of Defiance, although they are included to some extent. The reason is simple: their stories are in no danger of being lost, unlike those of their less well-known colleagues. The stories of recognized leaders have already been preserved through their own autobiographies , contemporary accounts, and secondary sources. For example, the chapter on Ruth Perry includes information on Father Theodore Gibson , president of the Miami chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), and his U.S. Supreme Court case, but only from the standpoint of Perry’s having written about her friend’s case in her newspaper column. Also, Robert Saunders, an important figure in the history of the Florida NAACP, appears in Perry’s chapter primarily because he had a major role in determining his organization’s response to the Johns Committee’s treatment of Perry. Gibson’s and Saunders’ narratives have already been published; Perry’s full story has not. It is the stories of these “ordinary” people that this book will preserve. State of Defiance uses the stories of five citizens to illustrate the Johns Committee’s bigotry and abuse of civil rights and civil liberties in its targeting of integrationists, Communists, homosexuals, and liberal teachers in Florida from 1956 to 1965. Chapter 1 introduces the committee’s creator, Charley Johns, and its first target, Virgil Hawkins. Their lives intersected when Hawkins’ determination to attend the University of Florida (UF) College of Law collided with Johns’ scheme to stop integration and destroy the Florida NAACP through the committee. A description of the Johns xii | Preface Committee’s origins and strategies concludes the chapter. Chapter 2 resumes the confrontation between Johns and Hawkins, with Hawkins as the first witness at the committee’s first hearing, which focused on Hawkins’ suit to integrate UF. Hawkins was the first of this book’s subjects to defy the Johns Committee,thwartingitsbarratrystrategyandcontinuinghislawsuit. Chapter 3 tells the story of Ruth Perry, a Miami NAACP officer, and how she worked as an activist, journalist, and witness to fight the committee. She foiled the committee’s strategy, which was to destroy...