The Johns Committee and the Un-American Activities Committee

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The Johns Committee was set up to expose all the communists in Florida's NAACP. Charlie Johns wanted to show that school desegregation had to be stopped because it was a giant communist plot against America. He made a big show of dragging Florida NAACP members before his committee, but he might not have been ready for what he got.

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