Florida Governor Ferris Bryant tells reporters that he has no authority over this matter. He had nothing to do with this thing, but there's a public clamor over it. It is not something over which I have authority, even if I wanted to exercise it. If it's widely distributed on newsstands and generally to the public, that would probably not be proper too.
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