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Throughout the course of Judith G. Poucher’s book, State of Defiance: Challenging the Johns Committee’s Assault on Civil Liberties, Judith G. Poucher discusses the empowered individuals who “challenged the prejudices of the legislature’s investigating group, the Florida Legislative Investigation Committee. It is known and referred to as the Johns Committee. Judith G. Poucher introduces the stories of five citizens. Virgil Hawkins, who was focused on his childhood dream of integrating UF. Ruth Perry, a Miami NAACP officer. Sig Diettrich, a professor at the University of Florida. G.G Mock, a teacher, and Margaret Fisher, an educator at the University of South Florida. They all endured prejudices against the Johns Committee and still stood their ground and fought back.
McCarthyism was a campaign that had a detrimental impact on the lives of many Americans. The Johns Committee’s motives and methods mirrored those of McCarthyism in a number of different ways. McCarthyism used tactics like publicly accusing Americans, oftentimes, without evidence as well as conducting investigations and hearings in order to invoke fear into individuals that didn’t want anything more than to just end segregation and have equality. The Johns Committee did just that, they used the fear of Communism to portray the NAACP as Communists influenced to undermine the organization’s integration lawsuits. They ultimately were against anything they felt posed a threat. The Johns Committee used tactics or methods similar to Senator Joseph McCarthy to extort information out of people and even fabricate sources or evidence. During investigations, they used illicit tactics against citizens to gain information with no substantial evidence of whether or not, what was said was true. This moral injustice caused the many who were harassed by the Johns Committee their reputation. (pg. 142)
Integrity is the practice of being honest and showing consistent and uncompromising adherence to strong moral and ethical principles and values, despite the circumstance. These five citizens showed an immense amount of integrity as well as other qualities in order to resist the Johns Committees’ harmful agenda. Whether it was to defend a cause or in favor of protecting a specific person, these individuals were relentless on continuing their fight for their cause. I found Virgil Hawkins’s form of resistance to be very strategical on his part, he outsmarted the tyrant lawyer Mark Hawes. During his trial, Hawkin’s remained assertive when Hawes persisted on asking the same questions. The more Mark Hawes tried to get Virgil Hawkins to admit that his lawsuit to become an attorney was controlled by the NAACP, the more opportunities Hawes gave Hawkins to show his potential as a lawyer. Hawkins met Hawes’ relentless repetition with either simple denials or with emphatic, confident repetitions of his own: “For the fourth time, no sir….No, no. That’s the NAACP again, isn’t it? No, No!” Hawkins also found flaws in Hawe’s interrogation, reminding him that he should be asking Hawkins about his reasons for wanting to attend UF, not Hawkins’ reasons as relayed by third parties. Unfortunately, in order for Virgil Hawkins’s boyhood dream of integrating UF had to come with a sacrifice. He chose not to reapply to UF so that other African Americans could be admitted immediately. Ruth Perry, on the other hand, was fighting for justice for the African American community and constitutional rights for all. She was willing to put it all on the line, her life, freedom, and career, for what she believed in and that was in democracy and the Constitution. In hopes of protecting members and the organization from the false accusations from the Johns Committee, Perry did her part by protecting the NAACP membership lists and other records. Dietrich's integrity and sense of honor were tested when Hawes used serval tactics, like humiliation, to try and convince Diettrich to name gays at UF. His desire to protect UF was too strong. His other main goal was to protect his wife at all costs, by not providing Hawes any detailed information about his wife. Thus causing Diettrich did not cooperate. He left that integration with his honor still intact. (pg. 26, 145-149)
A number of factors enabled Florida’s “little McCarthyism” to keep flourishing well after McCarthyism began fading on the national level. The Johns Committee thrived off the fear of their colleagues and constituents. They feed off anxieties about integration, Communism, homosexuality, liberal teaching, and academic freedom. Ultimately, they feared things they did not understand, things they couldn’t control, and things that went against what the believed were a treat to national security. The Johns Committee used these concerns to their advantage and they were skilled at it too. The Johns Committee went as far as using schools and universities as a place to combat these anxieties. Once again, this was because of the popular fears that integrated schools, as a Communist plot, would lead to racial and sexual perversion while liberal teaching caused America’s youth to question traditional values. Thus proving that the Johns Committee trafficked in fear and used that fear to gain even more power. (pg. 143)
Although the Johns Committee’s epic demise really began in February of 1957 when Virgil Hawkins became the first person to oppose the committee, the Florida legislature debated the future of the Johns Committee long after in the spring of 1965. Slowly, but surely, the building of individual resistance by witnesses that helped to create a gathering momentum of opposition. It didn’t help that different organizations, like the American Association of University Women, began to join in, resulting in a domino effect that furthermore damaged the image of the Johns Committee.
Based on the findings thus far, it is evident that the Johns Committee’s motives and methods were damaging. The Johns Committee’s destroyed the lives of many in Florida as a byproduct of their corrupted efforts. In the midst of this, five individuals who began as misunderstood citizens came out as champions. They were willing to fight for what they believed in, no matter the cost. They fought with an admirable amount of integrity and honor all while facing the power of official oppression. Still, they stood their ground and never wavered from the truth, their truth.
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