Red scare in the sunshine state: Anti-communism and academic freedom in Florida public schools, 1945-1960

• Published in: Cogent education Vol. 3; no. 1; pp. 1262307 - 1262318
• Main Author: Dahlgren, Robert L.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Abingdon Cogent 01.01.2016; Cogent OA; Taylor & Francis Ltd; Taylor & Francis Group
• Subjects: Academic Freedom; Education; Educational History; Educational Policy; Educational research; Elementary Secondary Education; K-12 teachers; Learner Engagement; McCarthyism; National Security; Patriotism; Political Issues; Public Schools; Social Systems; State Policy; Teacher Associations; Unions; United States History; US history; War; Florida; United States > US
• ISSN: 2331-186X; 2331-186X
• DOI: 10.1080/2331186X.2016.1262307

Academic freedom has long been a sacrosanct principle in higher education; however, the same rights to intellectual autonomy have rarely been afforded K-12 practitioners. In times of national political crisis, the abilities of teachers to engage students in the crucial debates about contemporary public policy issues have been stretched to the breaking point. Florida public education between 1945 and 1961 represents a model case of the southeastern political establishment's efforts to thwart progressivism in public schools between World War II and reapportionment. Under the guise of "Americanism," self-defined "patriotic" groups such as The American Legion, the Chambers of Commerce, and Daughters of the American Revolution intervened in educational policies in order to impose strict limits on academic freedom in public schools in an effort to quash what they considered the "Communist threat" in American education. Utilizing archival sources, newspaper articles and correspondence, much of it housed in the Florida State Archives in Tallahassee, this proposed paper details the last stand of segregationist and anti-communist forces in Florida education. It focuses on three important cases spanning the period and the Florida peninsula from Jacksonville to Miami in order to investigate the influence of conservative groups and individuals on postwar educational policy in the state. The findings of this study are a clarion call for educators to guard themselves against future incursions into their ability to teach as they see fit.