LeRoy Collins Letters

Collection — Box: 141

Identifier: MSS 1985-001

Staff Only

Scope and Contents

This collection consists of letters from LeRoy Collins to Dr. Daisy Parker. Among the subjects mentioned are Judge Taylor and Parker's campaign assistance. The fifth item in the collection is a copy of a letter to Malcolm Johnson that was enclosed in a 1968 letter to Dr. Parker.

Dates

Created: 1966-1968

Conditions Governing Access

Collection is open to all researchers.

Conditions Governing Use

Copyright has not been transferred to the Florida State University Libraries. All requests for permission to quote, publish, broadcast or otherwise reproduce from manuscripts must be submitted in writing to the Associate Dean for Special Collections & Archives. Permission for publication is given on behalf of the Florida State University Libraries as the owner of the physical items and is not intended to include or imply permission of the copyright holder, which must also be obtained by the researcher.

Biographical or Historical Information

A native of the state capital, Tallahassee, LeRoy Collins studied business and law. He was first elected to public office in 1934 at age twenty-five as Leon County's representative in the state legislature. Collins served in the Florida House of Representatives and the Florida Senate until 1942, when he resigned to serve in the U.S. Navy during World War II. In 1946 he was re-elected to the Florida Senate and served until 1954, when he was elected governor to serve the remaining two years of the term of the late Governor Dan McCarty. In 1956 he was elected again, the first Florida governor in modern times to win two consecutive terms.

During Collins's years as governor, he emphasized education and worked to strengthen the state's public school system from the primary grades through the university system. He created the first community colleges in the state and promoted industry, agriculture, and tourism through state sponsorship. Among his most important accomplishments was the moderate course he took to deal with the racial unrest of the 1950s and early 1960s. Collins counselled progress under law and, unlike many other southern states, Florida experienced only minimal disorder.

Governor Collins went on to become the first director of the Community Relations Service under the 1964 Civil Rights Act. While serving in this capacity he went to Montgomery, Alabama, in 1965 and negotiated a peaceful conclusion to a national civil rights march led by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Collins ran unsuccessfully for the U.S. Senate in 1968, then retired to his law practice in Tallahassee. Collins is remembered today as one of the greatest and most far-sighted governors to have led the state of Florida. (Source: Museum of Florida History, Florida Governors Portraits)