From Jackie Robinson to Joe Idlette Jr., Desegregation in Vero Beach, Florida, 1941-1974
Vail, David
University of Nebraska at Kearney
2020
160
M.A.
University of Nebraska at Kearney
2020
Slavery formed the basis of Florida's economic system until the passage of the Thirteenth Amendment in 1865. Florida responded to the amendment's prohibition against both slavery and involuntary servitude through the introduction of a series of peonage laws. In a century-long struggle, the courts and legislature of the State of Florida relentlessly defied anti-peonage legislation passed by the United States Congress and confirming decisions by the United States Supreme Court. Florida extended this tradition of defiance under the banner of state's rights following the 1954 United States Supreme Court decision in Brown v. Board of Education.