Isom Lecture Series Presented By: Bobby Fieseler

Bobby Fieseler presents “How to Stop a Red Scare”: The Florida Johns Committee (1956 - 1965) and the Mississippi Redemption Talk Abstract The Florida Legislative Investigation Committee, or "Johns Committee," was a McCarthy-era inquisition group that held Florida citizens ransom for nine years (1956 - 1965) through its power to label any threat to the southern "way of life" (NAACP leaders, closeted queer teachers, etc.) as Communists, perverts and enemies of the people. Brought down in the 1960s through the legal challenges of Black civil rights and QPOC leaders, as detailed in American Scare: Florida's Hidden Cold War on Black and Queer Lives, the Johns Committee receded from public memory when records were sealed by perpetrators, and thus was history censored for decades... Until, that is, until the State of Mississippi agreed to release its own McCarthy-era records in full. By comparing and cross-referencing these data-sets of oppression, a riveting picture emerges of how ordinary citizens stopped a witch hunt--an empowering lesson for this moment. About Bobby Fieseler