The Johns Committee, 1956-1965
In 1956 the State Legislature created the Florida Legislative Investigation Committee "to make as complete an investigation as time permits of all organizations whose principles or activities include a course of conduct on the part of any person or group which would constitute violence, or a violation of the laws of the state, or would be inimical to the well being and orderly pursuit of their personal and business activities by the majority of the citizens of this state." (Laws of Florida, 1956, Chapter 31498)
The committee was renewed in subsequent sessions (Laws of Florida, Chapters 57-125, 59-207, 61-62, and 63-545) and produced reports for the legislative sessions of 1959, 1961, 1963 and 1965.
In 1958 the committee turned its attention to looking for communists and homosexuals at Florida's universities. The 1961 legislation specifically expanded the charge to the committee to investigate "the extent of infiltration into agencies supported by state funds by practicing homosexuals...."
- The Committee byCall Number: UCF Main Library DVD Collection -- F316.2.C66 2011ch4ck availability
"The Committee" is a short documentary film made through a collaboration of University of Central Florida professors and students. In the late 1950s, in response the McCarthyism and the Red Scare, the Florida legislature created an investigative committee to root out Communists in suspect groups. When this failed, the committee, led by Senator Charley Johns, chose a new target: gay and lesbian teachers and students in Florida's public schools and universities. Over the next four years, nearly 200 Florida teachers' and students' lives were changed forever. This film explores that period, with testimonies from survivors and historians, and asks whether such a witch-hunt could happen again, given the great strides in LGBT rights since that era."-- Project website - State of defiance : challenging the Johns Committee's assault on civil liberties byCall Number: UCF Main Library General Collection -- KFF411.P68 2014ch4ck availability of print version
Contents:
Charley Johns and Virgil Hawkins: ambition realized, dream deferred -- Virgil Hawkins: pursuit of the dream continues -- Ruth Perry: the librarian raises her voice -- Sig Diettrich: the geographer draws the line -- G. G. Mock: surrounded by fear, empowered by love -- Margaret Fisher and her University of South Florida colleagues: intellectuals versus inquisitors -- Conclusion: Majorities of one. - Homosexuality & Citizenship in Florida: A Report of the Florida Legislative Investigation Committee, 1964the report is included in the book "Government versus Homosexuals" - General Collection HQ 76.3.U5 G68 1975
Carryin' On in the Lesbian and Gay South by Call Number: General Collection HQ 76.3 .U52 S273 1997Publication Date: New York: NYU Press, 1997pp. 132-163 - James A. Schnur, "Closet Crusaders: The Johns Committee and Homophobia, 1956-1965"
ch4ck availability- McCarthyism in Florida: Charley Johns & the Florida Legislative Investigation Committee, July 1956 to July 1965 byM.A. dissertation, University of South Florida, 1985
- Cold Warriors in the Hot Sunshine : The Johns Committee's Assault on Civil Liberties in Florida, 1956-1965 byM.A. thesis, History, University of South Florida, 1995
- "USF History 101 - The Witch Hunt Comes to USF."The Oracle, September 24, 2003
- State Archives of Florida Online Catalog This link opens in a new windowRecords, 1954-1965, Florida Legislative Investigation Committee.
19 cubic feet of records, available in the State Archives, Tallahassee, Record Group Number 000940, Series/Collection Number .S 1486
- search the Archives catalog
- And They Were Wonderful Teachers: Florida's Purge of Gay & Lesbian Teachers byCall Number: General Collection LB 2844.1 .G39 G73 2009Publication Date: University of Illinois Press, 2009
- Communists and perverts under the palms : the Johns Committee in Florida, 1956-1965 byCall Number: UCF Main Library General Collection - 3rd Floor -- F316.2.B68 2012ch4ck availability
Contents:
Introduction : where the Sunbelt meets the Old South -- The NAACP and the origins of the Johns Committee, 1956 -- Racial and sexual perversion, 1957-1958 -- Surveillance and exposure, 1959-1960 -- Subversion and indecency, 1961-1962 -- Sex and civil rights, 1963-1965 -- Epilogue : Anita Bryant and Florida's culture wars. - The Johns Committee: A Historiographic Essay byCall Number: UCF Main Library General Collection F 306 .F65Florida Historical Quarterly 93, no. 1 (Summer 2014): 74-92.
Timeline - Florida History
1917
Unnatural & Lascivious Acts
1954-1971
Miami Alcohol Ordinance
1956-1965
Johns Committee
1974
Crimes Against Nature repealed
1977
Anita Bryant & Dade County
Ban on Gay Adoption
1991
Florida Hate Crimes Act
Gay Days
1997
Marriage Statute