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3 A Question of Justice The 1972 Florida Busing Straw Vote To Reubin Askew, what made the New South new was actually something quite old. To the optimistic Florida governor, the humanitarian South had always been a reality, though concealed beneath a thin veneer of racism and ignorance. To Askew, this positive expression of the region asserted itself when southerners realized that their problems could best be solved by working together and rising above the divisive politics of race. This moral, humane, and just South merely waited for "a chance to assert itself ... a chance to lead." Askew believed that by the 1970S race was no longer a detriment to reform. The South's problems were being solved by a union of whites and blacks, he said, who reached an understanding that they shared common concerns, "that the man at the lunch counter is worried about many of the same problems which have been pressing down on us." Askew's goal as governor, his chance to lead, consisted of showing Floridians that it was entirely within the realm ofpossibility for blacks and whites to fight together to reach common goals and to solve common problems. To be sure, Askew acknowledged that racism remained "still the greatest obstacle to southern maturity." Racial discord still cast a dark shadow over the South. Askew knew that there were those who still saw the South as the "errant stepchild of the American dream, a tainted land ofrecalcitrance and reaction. They suspect the South. They have suspicions about southerners. And these suspicions have not been easily dispelled." Askew strove to confront these negative sentiments about and within the region during his eight years as governor. Public school integration rekindled age-old racial fears and animosities, ifindeed they had ever been extinguished. Askew chose to embrace integration, including busing, as an opportunity for the South to lead the nation by example in overcoming America's racial dilemma. 1 68 Reubin Askew ifFlorida Askew's opportunity to exhibit this leadership came in 1972 when the Florida legislature passed a measure placing a nonbinding straw vote on busing on the March 14 Florida presidential primary ballot. Political commentators predicted that the results of such a ballot would reflect national opinion because Florida's population was largely non-native. Askew had previously pledged that Florida's government would henceforth guarantee equal rights for all Floridians, black or white, urban or rural, rich or poor. Askew's action and leadership on civil rights was not exclusive to education . Upon entering office he found that a vast majority ofblacks in state government held menial jobs, and more than 89 percent received pay below the poverty level. Askew quickly rectified this condition, and by 1972 the number of blacks in state government had doubled, including the first blacks to hold statewide positions such as the governor's education coordinator , members of the Florida Board of Regents, and the state's first black supreme court justice.2 The 1972 straw vote and the national publicity it attracted provided attention for an issue that Askew used to show the rest of the nation just how far the South had moved from its segregationist days. The vote also demonstrated how complex the busing issue really was. He also hoped to show that white southerners were not natural racists but were like most other Americans. Askew's vigorous moral leadership and plain, honest talk benefited him greatly. This kind of leadership helped lead Florida to a smoother transition from a dual to a unified school system. Askew's election as governor marked a drastic departure from the administrations of his two most recent predecessors, Haydon Burns and Claude Kirk. The Republican Kirk had created a great deal of the racial tension that still existed when Askew took office. Kirk's greatest shenanigan , and probably the one that did most to raise tensions, was his personal takeover of the Manatee School Board in 1970 to prevent implementation of a desegregation court order. On April 7, 1970, facing personal fines of $10,000 a day from u.S. District Judge Ben Krentzman, Kirk relinquished control after only one day and allowed the school board to begin busing to achieve a ratio of 80 percent white to 20 percent black. Kirk also sought delays in the opening of the school year to avoid integration and filed an amicus curiae briefbefore the U.S. Supreme Court in the appeal of Swann v. Charlotte-MecklenburB. He further investigated the legality ofwithholding...

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