In 1954, the Supreme Court handed down its decision in Brown v. Board of Education. Charlie Johns decided to use the state legislature he presided over to go after people who were trying to make desegregation happen. Their movement to stop desegregation was called massive resistance. It was all about state governments trying to nullify federal law and federal court decisions.
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