Eight Minutes of Courage in The Florida Legislature: The Legacy of John B. Orr, Jr.
In 1956, John B. Orr, Jr. was a 38-year-old freshman member of the Florida House from Dade County. As former Florida Supreme Court Judge Fred Karl remembered, on July 26, 1956, “Jack Orr stood alone.”
That day, the Florida Legislature was forced into a special session by a lawsuit to desegregate the University of Florida College of Law by civil rights legend Virgil Hawkins. The Legislature was debating a pupil-assignment bill, the product of an advisory commission chaired by L.L. Fabisinski of Pensacola.
The goal of the commission was, as Tallahassee Democrat editor Malcolm Johnson put it, “to preserve segregation in Florida public schools just as long as the majority of the people in any county, acting through their elected officials, want to keep it.” Johnson was writing as a fan of segregation, by the way.
It would take too long to describe all the horrible ways that the 1950’s decade of politicians tried to prevent desegregation in Florida. But it includes a bill championed by Attorney General Richard Ervin to convert all public schools to private schools and an “interposition resolution” to declare Brown v. Board of Education null and void. That resolution was called “evil” by Governor LeRoy Collins who said he did his “best to avert this blot” on our history.
But it’s Orr’s mostly forgotten words that really cut through history.
And that’s what he wanted. Orr deliberately used the rules of the Florida Legislature to memorialize his remarks, an uncommon practice then.
Former Tampa Bay Times reporter Martin Dyckman writes in his book on Collins that when Orr began speaking, the chamber went dead silent for eight minutes — “silent as a sepulcher.”
“I believe segregation is morally wrong,” Orr said.
“The fact that the custom is one of long-standing makes it no less wrong.”
Below is a longer excerpt, read it or skip ahead for the not-so happy ending.
First, I favor the gradual integration of our public schools system. In view of the fact that our custom of segregation is one of long standing, I realize that this cannot be changed overnight as the consequence of governmental edict, but I do not understand the decision of the Supreme Court of the United States to require that abrupt a change. I believe, moreover, that had we devoted as much energy, time, and talent to discovering means to live under the law instead of in defiance of it, we could have discovered a way.
I believe segregation is morally wrong. The existence of second-class citizens is repugnant to our great democratic principles. The fact that the custom is one of long-standing makes it no less wrong. Surely not many of you would argue today that slavery was morally justifiable and yet this was a custom of long-standing.
The pigmentation of one’s skin is no rational basis for setting him apart. But proponents of segregation say that God intended this; that He created the European contentment for the White man, the Asians for the Yellow, the African for the Black, and the American for the Red Man. Of course the logical inference from this type of reasoning is that we should give the country back to the Indians. No, I believe that God intended us to live in harmony under the Brotherhood of Man, and that His plan has been sidetracked from time to time by human who have felt the necessity of having someone to look down upon. I believe that most of our problems, most of our wars, are a consequence of this type of inferiority complex.
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We have not provided equal but separate educational facilities, and I don’t believe this is possible. As a consequence of the disparity in educational facilities, we in the South have had over the years a large segment of our population which has been poorly educated. The result has been that the living standards of all of us have been pulled down. Our wage rates are lower, our disease rates are higher. Every facet of our life has been adversely affected by the artificial barrier we have created and maintained.
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I predict that none of the measures passed or proposed will accomplish the result you seek. Despite the clever language employed, the Supreme Court will surely see through the Fabinsinski Committee bills and will strike them down.
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When we finally have toe face up to this problem, and we surely will be required to, I hope that God gives us the wisdom and strength to conquer prejudice and bigotry and to renew our faith in our Constitution.
Meantime, I will take solace in the prayer our chaplain delivered last Tuesday: “Help us, thus, to see that it is better to fail in a just cause that will ultimately succeed, than to succeed in an unrighteous cause that will ultimately fail.”
And now for the unhappy consequences of that speech.
“His action seems to have been not only foolhardy but in conflict with the best interests of the county he serves,’’ wrote a Miami Herald columnist.
Having already secured the Democratic nomination, Orr coasted to reelection that year, however, a segregationist handily defeated him in his next contested election. Dyckman reports that Orr later lost a comeback race for the Florida Senate. “His career and several of his seven marriages were marred by alcoholism, but he joined Alcoholics Anonymous in 1966 and was elected Dade County mayor in 1972. He died of cancer two years later.”
That may sound rough, and it is, but it’s not Orr’s legacy.
His legacy was secured by eight minutes of courage. And it should inspire lawmakers and the rest of us, too.
Family friend Janet Reno later recounted Orr’s advice about public service:
“Keep on doing what you believe to be right, don’t pussyfoot, don’t equivocate, don’t talk out of both sides of your mouth and you’ll wake up feeling good. If you pussyfoot and equivocate and talk out of both sides of your mouth you’ll wake up the next morning feeling miserable.”
Although John B. Orr Jr. stood alone in 1956 and suffered the consequences of his words, history stands with him today.
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For more on Orr or just to read damn good books about the history of this era in Florida, read Floridian of His Century by Martin Dyckman or the 57 Club by Frederick B. Karl. I would have never heard of Orr, otherwise.
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