Karen Graves’ study of the Florida persecution of gay and lesbian schoolteachers illuminates a civil rights crisis for GLBT educators in late 20th-century American education. The work examines an investigative committee created by the Florida legislature in 1956 by representatives from northern, rural, and conservative communities with a desire to slow school integration. In a fever of Cold War paranoia, the committee also attempted to link the NAACP with the Communist Party, to identify “homosexual influence” and Communist activities in the newly-established University of South Florida (USF), and most of all, to purge Florida schools of gay and lesbian teachers.
Gay and lesbian teachers had no organizational support, such as the NAACP and the university faculty. The Florida Education Association and the state board of education shared the Investigation Committee’s agenda against homosexual teachers, and made only token efforts to uphold due process. And though the NAACP and USF were able to force the Investigation Committee to make hearings public, thus curbing some civil injustices, schoolteachers were coerced into private interviews without legal counsel—after which they lost their jobs and teaching certificates.
This is a compelling analysis of a pivotal moment in American history, reminding us that education is central to the evolution of society, and the acceptance (or at least civil rights) of gay and lesbian teachers is a critical aspect of GLBT liberation.
Reviewed by, Ruth Ann Jones
Special Collections Cataloger
Michigan State University Libraries