Florida Senate - 2021 SCR 244 By Senator Book 32-00526-21 2021244__ Page 1 of 4 CODING: Words stricken are deletions; words underlined are additions. Senate Concurrent Resolution 1 A concurrent resolution acknowledging the injustices 2 perpetrated against the targets of the Florida 3 Legislative Investigation Committee between 1956 and 4 1965, and offering a formal and heartfelt apology to 5 those whose lives, well-being, and livelihoods were 6 damaged or destroyed by the activities and public 7 pronouncements of those who served on the committee. 8 9

WHEREAS, following a special session of the Florida 10 Legislature in July 1956, the act establishing the Florida 11 Legislative Investigation Committee became law, and 12

WHEREAS, following its establishment, the committee, in 13 conjunction with Tallahassee police, surveilled, harassed, 14 intimidated, and arrested members of the Inter-Civic Council, 15 students from Florida Agricultural and Mechanical University, 16 and other participants in the bus boycott and carpool network 17 that began in May 1956 and continued until December 1956, and 18

WHEREAS, on February 1, 1957, the committee held its first 19 public hearing, questioning Virgil Hawkins, an African-American 20 man who had been seeking admission to the University of Florida 21 law school since 1949, as well as National Association for the 22 Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) attorneys Francisco 23 Rodriguez and Horace Hill, claiming that the NAACP was violating 24 the law by soliciting plaintiffs for desegregation lawsuits, and 25

WHEREAS, on February 25, 1957, the committee began public 26 hearings in Miami, demanding that the local NAACP branch 27 surrender all of its records, including membership lists, and 28 claiming that the branch had been infiltrated by current and 29

Florida Senate - 2021 SCR 244 32-00526-21 2021244__ Page 2 of 4 CODING: Words stricken are deletions; words underlined are additions. former communists, and 30

WHEREAS, during 1957 and 1958, the committee devoted itself 31 to besmirching NAACP members as criminals and communist 32 sympathizers in order to slow or halt their efforts to 33 desegregate Florida schools and public spaces, and 34

WHEREAS, in November and December of 1958, the committee’s 35 chief investigator began an inquiry into alleged homosexual 36 activity by faculty, staff, and students at the University of 37 Florida (UF) in Gainesville; allowed officers of the UF police 38 department to entrap and question without legal counsel those 39 suspected of such activity; and threatened and coerced those 40 individuals with a public hearing or perjury charges into 41 confessing and identifying others as alleged homosexuals, and 42

WHEREAS, the committee continued the UF and Gainesville 43 investigations into 1959, having entrapped and intimidated 44 dozens of individuals on and off campus, interrogating them in 45 motel rooms and basements, resulting in the firing of 14 faculty 46 and staff at UF, and 47

WHEREAS, in the spring of 1959, the committee reported to 48 the Florida Legislature that homosexual professors were 49 recruiting students into “homosexual practices,” and they in 50 turn were becoming teachers in Florida’s public school system 51 and recruiting even younger students, and 52

WHEREAS, the committee began 4 years of statewide 53 investigations into alleged homosexual activity by public school 54 teachers, administrators, and students, working with local law 55 enforcement agencies and employing the same tactics used at UF, 56 and cooperating with the State Board of Education to revoke 57 individuals’ teaching certificates, and 58

Florida Senate - 2021 SCR 244 32-00526-21 2021244__ Page 3 of 4 CODING: Words stricken are deletions; words underlined are additions.

WHEREAS, in the spring of 1961, the committee began an 59 inquiry into alleged homosexual activity, liberal teaching 60 methods, curricula, and policies at the University of South 61 Florida (USF) in Tampa, and 62

WHEREAS, the committee investigator and attorney, together 63 with local law enforcement, questioned USF faculty, staff, and 64 students in a motel room without appropriate legal counsel, and 65 gathered information about the allegedly anti-Christian, pro-66 integration, and pro-communist slant of reading assignments, 67 classroom lectures, and invited campus speakers, and 68

WHEREAS, the committee held public hearings to question USF 69 faculty and administrators about the content of their courses 70 and policies related to hiring faculty and inviting speakers in 71 an effort to discredit them as atheists, integrationists, and 72 communist sympathizers, damaging individuals’ careers and the 73 state’s national standing in higher education, and 74

WHEREAS, in 1964 and 1965, the committee published 75 misleading and inflammatory reports about homosexuals and civil 76 rights activists in Florida, drawing continued unfavorable 77 national attention and perpetuating falsehoods against residents 78 of this state, and 79

WHEREAS, the committee spent 9 years at the expense of the 80 taxpayers of this state using unconstitutional and unjust 81 methods to discredit and combat legal, peaceful desegregation 82 efforts; to destroy or otherwise jeopardize the livelihoods and 83 reputations of educators, administrators, and other 84 professionals in Florida’s public schools and universities; and 85 to create a climate of fear that caused pain and suffering among 86 vulnerable residents and made Florida a national symbol of 87

Florida Senate - 2021 SCR 244 32-00526-21 2021244__ Page 4 of 4 CODING: Words stricken are deletions; words underlined are additions. intolerance,

NOW, THEREFORE, 88 89

Be It Resolved by the Senate of the State of Florida, the House 90 of Representatives Concurring: 91 92 That the Legislature acknowledges the injustices 93 perpetrated against the targets of the Florida Legislative 94 Investigation Committee between 1956 and 1965 and offers a 95 formal and heartfelt apology to those whose lives, well-being, 96 and livelihoods were damaged or destroyed by the activities and 97 public pronouncements of those who served on the committee. 98