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F L O R I D A H O U S E O F R E P R E S E N T A T I V E S
House 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 the special session of the Florida 10
Legislature in July 1956, the act establishing the Florida 11
Legislative Investigation Committee (FLIC) 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 FLIC held its first 19
public hearings, 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 Peop le (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
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F L O R I D A H O U S E O F R E P R E S E N T A T I V E S
WHEREAS, on February 25, 1957, the committee began public 26
hearings in Miami, demanding that th e local NAACP branch 27
surrender all records, including membership lists, and claiming 28
that the branch had been infiltrated by current and former 29
communists, and 30
WHEREAS, the committee devoted the years of 1957 and 1958 31
to besmirching NAACP members as crimi nals 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 chief 35
investigator of the FLIC began an inquiry into alleged 36
homosexual activity by faculty, staff, and students at the 37
University of Florida (UF) in Gainesville; allowed officers of 38
the UF police department to entrap and question without legal 39
counsel those suspected of such activity; and threatened and 40
coerced those individuals with a public hearing or perjury 41
charges into confessing and identifying others as alleged 42
homosexuals, and 43
WHEREAS, the committee continued the UF and Gainesville 44
investigations into 1959, having entrapped and intimidated 45
dozens of individuals on and off campus , interrogating them in 46
motel rooms and basements, resulting in the firing of 14 faculty 47
and staff at UF, and 48
WHEREAS, in the spring of 1959 the committee reported to 49
the Florida Legislature that homosexual professors were 50
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F L O R I D A H O U S E O F R E P R E S E N T A T I V E S
recruiting students into "homose xual practices" and they in turn 51
were becoming teachers in Florida's public school system and 52
recruiting even younger students, and 53
WHEREAS, the committee began 4 years of statewide 54
investigations into alleged homosexual activity by public school 55
teachers, administrators, and students, working with local law 56
enforcement and employing the same tactics used at the 57
University of Florida, and cooperating with the State Board of 58
Education to revoke individuals' teaching certificates, and 59
WHEREAS, in the spring of 1961, the committee began an 60
inquiry into alleged homosexual activity, liberal teaching 61
methods, curricula, and policies at the University of South 62
Florida (USF) in Tampa, and 63
WHEREAS, the FLIC investigator and attorney, together with 64
local law enforcement, questioned USF faculty, staff, and 65
students in a motel room without appropriate legal counsel, and 66
gathered information about the allegedly anti -Christian, pro-67
integration, and pro -communist slant of reading assignments, 68
classroom lectures, and invi ted campus speakers, and 69
WHEREAS, the committee held public hearings to question USF 70
faculty and administrators about the content of their courses, 71
and policies related to hiring faculty and inviting speakers in 72
an effort to discredit them as atheists, in tegrationists, and 73
communist sympathizers, damaging individuals' careers and the 74
state's national standing in higher education, and 75
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F L O R I D A H O U S E O F R E P R E S E N T A T I V E S
WHEREAS, in 1964 and 1965, the committee published 76
misleading and inflammatory reports about homosexuals and civil 77
rights activists in Florida, drawing continued unfavorable 78
national attention and perpetuating falsehoods against residents 79
of the state, and 80
WHEREAS, the Florida Legislative Investigation Committee 81
spent 9 years at the expense of the taxpayers of the state using 82
unconstitutional and unjust methods to discredit and combat 83
legal, peaceful desegregation efforts; to destroy or otherwise 84
jeopardize the livelihoods and reputations of educators, 85
administrators, and other professionals in Florida's public 86
schools and universities; and to create a climate of fear that 87
caused pain and suffering among vulnerable residents and made 88
Florida a national symbol of intolerance, NOW, THEREFORE, 89
90
Be It Resolved by the House of Representatives of the State of 91
Florida, the Senate Concurring: 92
93
That the Legislature acknowledges the injustices 94
perpetrated against the targets of the Florida Legislative 95
Investigation Committee between 1956 and 1965, and offers a 96
formal and heartfelt apology to those whose lives, well -being, 97
and livelihoods were damaged or destroyed by the activities and 98
public pronouncements of those who served on the committee. 99