Kaitlin Renner

HST 327
Brown v Board: The Opposition
One of the most important Supreme Court decisions ever made
was Brown v Board of Education of Topeka, decided in 1954. Racial
tension was always an issue in the United States, though it was not
always front and center. The decision of the Supreme Court to
desegregate schools was a major turning point for race relations. Since
Plessy v Ferguson was passed in 1896, segregation of blacks and
whites in public places was considered acceptable under the notion of
separate but equal rights. Despite this ruling, the conditions were not
equal. African American students were not accepted into white schools.
Brown v Board would eventually change this fact. The decision would
cause major confrontation and revolts from white Southerners, ending
in the requirement of federal troops in Little Rock, Arkansas.1 But on
what grounds did people in Florida resist the Brown v Board ruling?
What actions were taken to physically resist the ruling? People in
Florida resisted the ruling of Brown v Board because they said it
interfered with religious beliefs and social structures. There were riots
and protests in attempts to fight the decision and many schools took
years to desegregate. Floridas attitudes towards the desegregation
debate are not as widely published, unlike states such as Alabama and

1 Brown v. Board at Fifty: With an Even Hand, Library of Congress

(2014).
1

Mississippi. Focusing on Florida was meant to show another states

opinion, though it is similar to other southern states.
With states like Alabama and Arkansas violently disagreeing with the
ruling, it is assumed that all other states in the South did the same
thing, but this is not completely true. The state of Florida had varying
degrees of opposition. Little opposition to the ruling came from
Governor LeRoy Collins. Born and raised in Tallahassee, one could say
that this ideology was in his blood.2 Despite his upbringing, the
governors view of desegregation was moderate compared to others in
the Deep South. Collins initially pledged to use all the legal powers of
his office to preserve Floridas dual school system. But he also insisted
that the state deal with this matter soundly and sensibly and without
furor or hysteria.3 Governor Collins had optimistic views about the
beliefs of the United States Supreme Court. During a conference, he
said:
I am convinced that the prevailing sentiment in this nation is not
radical. It is

realistic and understanding. It does not condone

arrogance and the

irresponsible forcing of issues. It believes that

the decisions of the United

States Supreme Court are the law of the

land and insists that ours be a land of

the law. It does not sanction

violence, defiance and disorder. Above all, it

abhors hate.4

2 Thomas Wagy, Governor LeRoy Collins of Florida and the Little Rock
Crisis of 1957, The Arkansas Historical Quarterly Pg. 99, 38 (1979)
3 Wagy, 100
4 Wagy, 108
2

Despite winning re-election in 1956, Governor Collins was almost

beaten by Sumter L. Lowry, who ran his campaign based on racism and
white supremacy.5 This shows that despite the moderate views of the
elected governor, some Floridians were embracing a more drastic
approach to the racial problems. The Florida Representatives in the
House of Representatives passed a resolution in opposition in 1957 to
the Brown v Board ruling. At the bottom of the document, Governor
Collins wrote in his own handwriting that he did not agree with the
resolution written by the representatives, but he had no authority to
veto it,6 saying that the document is anarchy and rebellion.7 The
governor did not veto the resolution because he did not want to be
included in the explosive aftermath that might follow.
The state of Florida resisted the decision to desegregate the schools by
simply not doing it, waiting up to ten years in some cases to do so. In
the original decision, the justices say that the desegregation needs to
be done with all deliberate speed which Florida interpreted as
desegregating the schools on their own time. The leaders of Florida,
especially in the city of Tallahassee had also declined to lend any
moral support to Brown. Without either moral or legal stands on

5 Wagy, 100
6 Interposition Resolution in Response to Brown v. Board of Education.
Acts of the Territorial Legislature and Acts of the Legislature, 1822Present, Series S (1957).
7 Interposition Resolution in Response to Brown v. Board of Education.
Acts of the Territorial Legislature and Acts of the Legislature, 1822Present, Series S (1957).
3

Brown, Tallahassee ensured that segregation would remain a pillar of

Floridas public education system.8 This would be true for a while, but
the state would eventually comply with the desegregation mandate.
The Board of Education in Lee County, Florida was against
desegregation, but,
Shortly after passage of the Civil Rights Act in July, 1964 (opposed by
both of

the US Senators from Florida), the Board proposed its initial

plan for

desegregation. The plan called for gradual implementation,

starting with the first grade in 1965, then proceeding to grades 2-3 in
1966, grades 4, 5, and 6

in 1967, grades 7,8, and 9 in 1968, and

grades 10, 11, and 12 in 1969. Even

though the Board now faced

the possibility of stiff Federal intervention for

delaying school

integration, it felt confident that an attenuated plan would both

placate federal authorities and satisfy the black community. The Board
miscalculated on both accounts.9
Lee County Schools is an example of the slowest integration, but not all
schools were this slow. The first school in Florida to desegregate was
Orchard Villa School in Miami. By 1959, the school was integrated.10

8 Irvin D.S. Winsboro, An Historical Perspective on Public School

Desegregation in Florida: Lessons from the Past for the Present,
(paper presented at the Florida Conference of Historians, April 2006).
9 Irvin D.S. Winsboro, An Historical Perspective on Public School
Desegregation in Florida: Lessons from the Past for the Present,
(paper presented at the Florida Conference of Historians, April 2006).
10 Joseph Tomberlin, Florida Whites and the Brown Decision of 1954,
The Florida Historical Quarterly 51 (1972)
4

As with states like Mississippi and Arkansas, riots and violent outbreaks
did occur after the ruling was announced and put into place, though
there were notas many in Florida as other places. One example is
Ribault High School in Jacksonville, Florida. The school was the site of
some riots, which ended with the school having to be closed on a few
occasions.11 Newly appointed federal district judge, Gerald Bard Tjoflat,
took no time in implementing a plan to desegregate Jacksonville
schools after the riots took place.12 The judge was quoted as saying,
Nobody is going to interfere with the schools and that means
nobody.13 After finding that organized disruption had occurred, Judge
Tjoflat had his injunction about Ribault High School read to every
student and it was personally served on every student who had been
suspended or expelled. U.S. marshals were posted to enforce the order
at Ribault. Several persons were convicted of criminal contempt and
jailed.14 Less violent protests of desegregation happened in Pinellas
County. After the local branch of the NAACP joined with a few churches
in the area in order to combat the problem, white supremacists
11 William F. Jung, The Last Unlikely Hero: Gerald
Jacksonville Desegregation Crisis- 35 Years Later,
Journal 80 (2006).
12 William F. Jung, The Last Unlikely Hero: Gerald
Jacksonville Desegregation Crisis- 35 Years Later,
Journal 80 (2006).
13 William F. Jung, The Last Unlikely Hero: Gerald
Jacksonville Desegregation Crisis- 35 Years Later,
Journal 80 (2006).
14 William F. Jung, The Last Unlikely Hero: Gerald
Jacksonville Desegregation Crisis- 35 Years Later,
Journal 80 (2006).

Bard Tjoflat and the

The Florida Bar
Bard Tjoflat and the
The Florida Bar
Bard Tjoflat and the
The Florida Bar
Bard Tjoflat and the
The Florida Bar

protested the decision carrying replicas of rifles and signs that said,
Death to all race mixers! Keep your public schools white by massive
armed force-Be a Paul Revere! Rally your neighbors to arms. Shoot the
race-mixing invaders.15 Despite the protests, in the fall of 1959 eleven
black students attended Dixie Hollins High School.

16

There were quite a few reasons why the Brown v Board ruling was
opposed in southern states like Florida. One reason for disagreement
with the desegregation decision was due to religious beliefs. In Florida,
a large majority of the white citizens were Baptists. In 1961, there were
about 9.9 million Southern Baptists17, some with radical viewpoints
about segregation. As Mark Newman reports in his book Getting Right
With God:
Hard-line segregationists justified racial segregation as biblical and
cited selected verses, mostly drawn from the Old Testament, in their
support

They considered the public school system essential for

producing an

educated citizenry that could read and understand

biblical teachings and so

constitute a rich field for the gospel.

Baptists also viewed public education

as vital for the maintenance

15 James A. Schnur, Desegregation of Public Schools in Pinellas

County, Florida, University of South Florida Digital Archive (1991).
16 James A. Schnur, Desegregation of Public Schools in Pinellas
County, Florida, University of South Florida Digital Archive (1991).
17 Mark Newman, Getting Right With God Pg 20 (The University of
Alabama Press, 2001)
6

of a democratic and free society, conditions

under which, they

believed, Christianity prospered.18

Another example of Southern Baptists advocating for segregation
comes from Bob Jones Sr. On Easter Sunday in 1960, he gave a sermon
titled Is Segregation Scriptural? He tells his congregation that while
segregation might not be the best, it is in the Bible therefore it is
justifiable. He says:
I do not say that things are right. But things are not going to be made
right by trying to overthrow Gods established order. That is not the
way to make

things right. You cannot make them right that way.

The colored people in the

South today are better off than they are

anywhere else in the world. The

situation is not a perfect situation

for the white folks or the colored folks or for anybody else; but we
have never had a perfect situation in this world

since Adam and

Eve disobeyed God in the Garden of Eden.19

He continues later on, saying, If we would just listen to the Word of
God and not try to overthrow Gods established order, we would not
have any trouble. God never meant for America to be a melting pot to
rub out the link between the nations. That was not Gods purpose for
this nation.20 There are even examples where preachers were fired
18 Mark Newman, Getting Right With God Pg 21 (The University of
Alabama Press, 2001)
19 Bob Jones Sr, Is Segregation Scriptural? Sermon, Easter Sunday,
Greenville, South Carolina, April 17, 1960.
20 Bob Jones Sr, Is Segregation Scriptural? Sermon, Easter Sunday,
Greenville, South Carolina, April 17, 1960.
7

after giving sermons advocating desegregation. One example comes

from Mississippi, where a white preacher complimented Martin Luther
King Jr., and was fired the following Monday. Sermons were usually kept
moderate or anti-desegregation, if the preacher dared to mention the
topic at all.21
Despite religious arguments against desegregation, there were many
religious sects that were not opposed to integration, though the
opinions seem to be overpowered by those against it. For example,
the most pro-Brown religious group were the Methodists. Throughout
the South, they quickly enacted official positions backing the law the
134th Kentucky Conference of the Methodist Church [said], We call
upon all our people to seek to have the mind of Christ with respect to
any social adjustments which this decision may necessitate: and to
maintain a Christian attitude in all actions and public utterances
concerning the same.22 But why were the Methodists so accepting of
the court decision? In a declaration of support written by the North
Georgia Methodist Conference, the denomination says, the highest
court in our land has spoken our tradition as a Methodist people
includes an article of religion which, when interpreted, makes it the
duty of all Christians to observe and obey the laws and commands of
21 Barclay Key, Race and Restoration: Churches of Christ and the
African American Freedom Struggle Pg 30(PhD diss., University of
Florida, 2007)
22 Gareth Pahowka Voices of Moderation: Southern Whites Respond to
Brown v. Board of Education The Gettysburg Historical Journal Pg. 51 5
(2006).
8

the governing or supreme authority in the country.23 Consequently,

while religion played a large part in the resistance to desegregation in
southern states, religion advocated desegregation as well.

24

Another argument against desegregation included social and cultural

problems. The large majority of people arguing for segregation said
that nothing was wrong with the practice because public places were
meant to be separate but equal under the Plessy v Ferguson ruling.
White people in the South claimed that the separated schools were
inherently the same, only with different races inside. This claim would
be proven wrong on many accounts, though the idea stood that they
were equal. Black schools were given less financial support than white
schools, were outdated, and had older supplies. The turnover rate for
teachers in black schools also was much higher than that in white
schools.25
After the court ruling, nearly every newspaper in Florida had something
to say about the inevitable desegregation of public schools. The
courts action would throw together black and white youth who would
have to adjust to each other and solve problems which had already

23 Gareth Pahowka Voices of Moderation: Southern Whites Respond to

Brown v. Board of Education The Gettysburg Historical Journal Pg. 51 5
(2006).
24 While the quotes from Methodist sects are from states other than
Florida, it was difficult to find specific examples from Floridas
Methodists. The sources I looked at were about the Florida Convention
during the years where desegregation was a discussed topic, though a
large majority of the information came from other states sects.
25 Beginnings of Black Education Virginia Historical Society (2015).
9

proved insoluble for the Souths political leaders. Above all,

desegregation must not become a political issue, and its coming must
be attended by reason and regard for the publics welfare,26 said
Joseph Tomberlin after looking at many different Florida newspaper
articles about the Supreme Court decision. Another example, The
Daily News of Fort Lauderdale hopefully insisted that a segregated
school system would continue in local Broward County without running
afoul of the Supreme Court decision. The journal based its optimism
on an extant state law, which provided that students attend schools
nearest their homes. Because Florida had built black schools largely to
serve only black residential areas, there was every reason to assume
that desegregation would not be required.27 This blind optimism was
apparent in other cities as well.
In order to prove their point that desegregating the schools would be
harmful to the students, Florida Governor Charley Johns, who was in
office from 1953 until 1955, enlisted Florida Attorney General Richard
Ervin, State Superintendent of Education Thomas Bailey, and Florida
State Universitys Richard Killian to conduct a state wide survey of the
problems and fears people had about the eventual desegregation of
public schools after the Brown v Board decision was made in 1954, and
any recommendations people had about how the desegregation should
26 Mark Newman, The Florida Baptist Convention and Desegregation,
1954-1980, The Florida Historical Quarterly 58 (1999)
27 Joseph Tomberlin, Florida Whites and the Brown Decision of 1954,
The Florida Historical Quarterly 51 (1972)
10

take place. Approximately 8,000 surveys were sent out and there was
a response rate of about 51%. The opinions that were received came
from a range of community leaders, including elected officials,
journalists, educators and police chiefs.28
Reported fears from both African American and white respondents to
the survey were similar. African American respondents were afraid of
withdrawal of white children from the public schools, the maintenance
of discipline in mixed classes by Negro teachers, refusal to employ
Negro teachers for mixed schools, and difficulty in obtaining white
teachers White responses emphasized similar concerns over such
matters such as maintaining discipline in mixed classrooms,
questionable cooperation of white parents, and violent outbreaks.29
The results from this survey would lead Attorney General Ervin to file a
case named Brown II. This filing requested the slow integration of
public schools. The court mandated that compliance with the Brown
decision should occur with a prompt and reasonable start carried out
with all deliberate speed.30 The leaders of Florida would take this
response quite literally. In some cases, it took over ten years for school
districts to start the desegregation process.

28 Richard Ervin and the Gradualist Approach to Desegregation,

Florida Memory State Library & Archives (2014).
29 Richard Ervin and the Gradualist Approach to Desegregation,
Florida Memory State Library & Archives (2014).
30 Richard Ervin and the Gradualist Approach to Desegregation,
Florida Memory State Library & Archives (2014).
11

Despite all of the opposition and reasons given as to why segregation

was a good and equal practice, the state of Florida, along with the rest
of the southern states eventually desegregated the public schools. It
may have been delayed and it may have only been forced into practice
because of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, but desegregation in opposing
states did happen. Cultural biases and religious factors played a large
role in the anti-desegregation attitudes of southern states including
Florida.

Bibliography
Primary Sources
Interposition Resolution in Response to Brown v. Board of Education.
Acts of the Territorial Legislature and Acts of the Legislature, 1822Present, Series S (1957).
https://www.floridamemory.com/exhibits/floridahighlights/collins/page1
0.php
Jones Sr., Bob Is Segregation Scriptural? Sermon, Easter Sunday,
Greenville, South Carolina, April 17, 1960.
Richard Ervin and the Gradualist Approach to Desegregation, Florida
Memory State Library & Archives (2014).
http://www.floridamemory.com/blog/2014/07/09/richard-ervin/
Secondary Sources
Beginnings of Black Education Virginia Historical Society (2015).

12

Brown v Board at Fifty: With an Even Hand, Library of Congress

(2014). http://www.loc.gov/exhibits/brown/brown-aftermath.html
Jung, William F., The Last Unlikely Hero: Gerald Bard Tjoflat and the
Jacksonville Desegregation Crisis- 35 Years Later, The Florida Bar
Journal 80 (2006).
Key, Barclay. Race and Restoration: Churches of Christ and the African
American Freedom Struggle. PhD diss., University of Florida, 2007.
Newman, Mark. Getting Right With God. The University of Alabama
Press, 2001.
Newman, Mark. The Florida Baptist Convention and Desegregation,
1954-1980, The Florida Historical Quarterly 58 (1999): 1-22
Pahowka, Gareth D. Voices of Moderation: Southern Whites Respond
to Brown v. Board of Education, The Gettysburg Historical Journal 5
(2006): 44-66
Schnur, James A. Desegregation of Public Schools in Pinellas County,
Florida, University of South Florida Digital Archive (1991).
Tomerblin, Joseph. Florida Whites and the Brown Decision of 1954,
The Florida Historical Quarterly 51 (1972): 22-36
Wagy, Thomas. Governor LeRoy Collins of Florida and the Little Rock
Crisis of 1957, The Arkansas Historical Quarterly 38 (1979): 99-115
Winsboro, Irvin D.S. An Historical Perspective on Public School
Desegregation in Florida: Lessons from the Past for the Present. Paper
presented at the Florida Conference of Historians, April 2006.

13