Erin ’s Reviews > American Scare: Florida's Hidden Cold War on Black and Queer Lives > Status Update

Then Senator Charley Johns claimed to oppose the Ku Klux Klan, but voted against the 1951 bill that would have unmasked the Klansmen and ended cross burning.

"The origins of homosexuality are obscure, as is the question of whether it is a sin or a sickness. "

State law mandated that Florida schoolteachers must exemplify "patriotism and the practice of every Christian virtue".

The NAACP maintained no official stance on homosexuality other than it being an illegal act worthy of arrest or military discharge.

Strickland became fixated on the notion of female softball players as a primary function of a women's softball league wasn't sporting competition and socialization but lesbian incubation.

For white Klansmen to go unpunished for destroying materials and for NAACP leaders to be charged for failing to produce materials reflected the flouting of an extrajudicial process that professed to be color blind.

President Eisenhower's Executive Order 10450 decreed homosexuality to be grounds for termination.

The term "flogging" was widely used by Florida Klansmen and state officials to mean nonfatal lynching.

Many youngsters of the southern cadre viewed homosexuality as a playful activity a personal indulgence distinct from "real" sex with women.

In 1887 Florida became the first state to mandate segregated railroad train cars.