For those wondering how we ended up with this current political state of affairs, a new book is about to shed some light on how a little known committee in 1950s Florida set the stage for so much of what is currently dominating the news.
“American Scare: Florida’s Hidden Cold War on Black and Queer Lives” by journalist Robert Fieseler details the story of how the government of Florida would use any tactic at their disposal to hold ordinary citizens ransom to its extraordinary powers hellbent on eliminating any threats to the state’s white, conservative regime.
“It was this true story of American tyranny that planted the seeds of Floridazation so deeply into our national culture that it continues to impact us in huge ways now,” said Fieseler.
The Buckeye Flame spoke with Fieseler about the importance of the new book and the surprising connections between this nefarious committee and LGBTQ+ Ohio.
To listen, click play directly below or read our (edited) conversation beneath the audio link.
Why write “American Scare” and why write it now?
Well, I was feeling disoriented in this political situation. I was a person who thought I understood history and thought I knew what the 2020s were going to look like. They totally didn’t end up looking that way, which made me think there was something in our past that I didn’t know that was probably very, very significant.
I guessed that it had to do something to do with Floridazation of our politics: how Florida politics became our national politics. And so I started digging and digging, thinking, “Is it Jeb Bush? Is it Anita Bryant in the seventies with the anti-homosexual Save our Children stuff?”
And I found, no, actually it was deeper than that. It had to do with what happened when the state of Florida surged to international relevance post-World War II during the Red Scare era. White segregationists latched onto this Red Scare hysteria idea and used it to attack whoever they wanted.
The story I discovered in this book was a largely forgotten social panic, which for nine years – from 1956 to 1965 – held residents of the state of Florida literally ransom to an extrajudicial committee that had the power to declare Black citizens advocating for integration and closeted queer professors at the University of Florida who just wanted to teach, or anyone else who they didn’t like – they could declare you enemies of the people.
And it was all led by a Florida politician whose name no one has heard of, who basically set the stage for this style of power exercise. He was a racist, Southern segregationist Democrat named Charlie Johns. His cabal became so notorious in its day for what they could do. They could abduct people randomly out of public places. They could kidnap you to random basement rooms and interview you for as long as it took to make you confess to something. They could force you to sign a loyalty oath. They could rummage through your medical records and your mental health records. And this committee became so notorious in the state of Florida that they nicknamed it after the guy who ran it: the Johns Committee.
And it was this true story of American tyranny that planted the seeds of Floridazation so deeply into our national culture that it continues to impact us in huge ways now.
We do not feature content here in The Buckeye Flame unless there is an LGBTQ+ Ohio connection. Tell us about the connection between LGBTQ+ Ohio and “American Scare.”
One of the major settings for the Johns Committee’s social panic and hysteria was the University of Florida. The committee investigators went after closeted queer professors and students. They would pull them out of classes or their offices and try to get them to confess to various homosexual crimes. Any admission to homosexuality was tantamount to an admission of being a communist or a Soviet spy.
And some of the greatest assets that the state of Florida developed and cultivated were homosexual teachers who flipped on their fellows who they knew were gay too. Two of the individuals who were suspected to be among the greatest informants ended up – after their work for the Johns committee – not being able to work in the state of Florida. And so they had to seek safe harbor academically. And they went to Ohio.
One of the greatest collaborators was a former English professor at the University of Florida named James Congleton, who was the father-in-law of a famous athlete who was drafted by the Cincinnati Reds and then the Cleveland Browns: Bernie Parrish. Bernie Parrish married James Congleton’s daughter.
James Congleton was a closeted gay [male] and very involved in the queer underground of the late 1950s Gainesville academic scene. He flipped, named names [to the Johns Committee], and basically thought he would save his own hide by reporting to the state of the Florida anyone he knew that was gay-related.
But the state of Florida did not show him loyalty in the end despite the copious amount of gabbing that he did. They fired him.
He went to Ohio. He eventually found his way to the University of Findlay where he was hired almost immediately as an English professor and department head, and eventually he was made a dean.
He landed much better than many of the other professors and academics who were fired by the Johns Committee. And I think a lot of that has to do with his family having ties to [Bernie Parrish].
The second connection was Stephen Fogel. He was a guy that the Johns Committee files labeled as a homosexual. He took a leave of absence from the state of Florida after the Johns Committee firings on campus, and he took a job for a couple years as a visiting professor at Bowling Green State University.
So you have two of the most notorious examples of individuals who collaborated with the state to try to save their own hides in this social purge of queer academics who found safe harbor in the state of Ohio.
“American Scare” comes out on June 17th. People finish it that day, they put the book down. What do you want folks to do with what they have read?
I want them to feel like they are given permission by me, by this story, by the thrust of American history, to take up the torch as a representative and guardian of the fourth estate and the truth of American history.
I want them to feel that they are allowed to know and understand these stories about the United States, to be patriotic, to feel patriotic knowing them and to go out and tell these stories.
The thing that makes this country so great is the ability to know its warts and all as a citizen, to be an informed member of the electorate. And also to be a guardian of the fourth estate, a member holding the other three branches of government to task. So I want people who read this book to understand the value of that kind of truth and their role as a citizen in it.
I can’t chat with you without talking about your book “Tinderbox: The Untold Story of the Up Stairs Lounge Fire and the Rise of Gay Liberation.” It’s almost Pride Month. Tell everyone why they should know about that story.
That’s probably one of the greatest examples of a profoundly hidden queer story. The 1973 Up Stairs Lounge fire was a notoriously unsolved arson fire that took place on the fringe of the city in 1973 and claimed 32 lives.
It was the deadliest fire on record in New Orleans history and the worst mass killing of homosexuals in 20th Century America. And yet in its day it was denied any kind of significance because it was deemed a political hot potato . And it was allowed to drop off the map after several days in spite of it being this terrible, tragic event and a solvable crime. It was an arson perpetrated very likely – 98% chance – by a gay-for-pay sex worker who was ejected from the bar earlier that day.
And yet, the powers that be in New Orleans refused to solve it because it involved a taboo issue at the time: public discussion of the homosexual underworld that was rampant throughout the New Orleans French Quarter.
But something special will be happening this Pride. About a year and a half ago there was a memorial marker that was placed that was stolen by a scrap metal thief. It took 30 years for the city of New Orleans to initially place that marker in 2003.
I’m part of the city committee that’s successfully raised the funds [to replace it]. And we actually poured the bronze several days ago to replace the Up Stairs Lounge plaque in front of the historic site. On June 22nd, we are going to be premiering the new plaque to the public. 🔥
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