The Johns Committee's Witch Hunt

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Researchers have identified dozens of public school teachers and university professors who were fired on the grounds of homosexuality. Exact numbers are understandably hard to come by. That doesn't account for all those who resigned out of pressure or fear. The Johns Committee kept up these inquisitions year after year. It seemed like this was just the way things were going to be in Florida. But of course, things always seem like they're never going to change until the moment they do.

Long before Governor Ron DeSantis declared a new war on wokeness, Florida lawmakers in the 1950s and 60s tried going after the NAACP, suspected communists and gay people in Florida schools and universities. The lawmakers upended life for countless numbers of their fellow Floridians before being upended themselves by their own zeal for the cause. Now that DeSantis is bringing this playbook to a presidential campaign, Rachel Maddow and Isaac-Davy Aronson ask what we can learn from the last time Florida went down this path.

Featuring guests:

Stacy Braukman, author of Communists and Perverts Under the Palms: The Johns Committee in Florida, 1956-1965

Shevrin Jones, Florida State Senator

Robert Buccellatto, historian and co-host of the Florida History Podcast