The History of the Sunshine State

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Each week more than 1,000 families move into the sunshine state. Florida was run by a group of conservative white legislators from Florida's rural north. The Pork Chop Gang tried to operate in a very conservative manner. In 1940, if you lined up all the states in the country in terms of population, Florida would be 27th. By 1960, Florida had moved from 20th up to 10th.

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