Murder, perversion, and moral panic: The 1954 media campaign against Miami's homosexuals and the discourse of civic betterment

Journal of the History of Sexuality

Volumn 9, Issue 3, 2000, Pages 305-347

  Fejes, Fred ^a  

^a NONE

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

EID: 0034367193     PISSN: 10434070     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: None     Document Type: Article

References (173)

1. Miami Herald, July 8, 1954, sec. A, pp. 1, 8; "Judith Ann Roberts: A Loss of Innocence," Tropics (Miami Herald Sunday Magazine), February 25, 1990, pp. 14-15.
2. Miami Herald, July 8, 1954, sec. A, pp. 1, 8; "Judith Ann Roberts: A Loss of Innocence," Tropics (Miami Herald Sunday Magazine), February 25, 1990, pp. 14-15.
3. Miami News, July 7, 1954, sec. A, p. 1.
4. James (Barr) Fugate, "A Homosexual Looks at the Child Molester," Mattachine Review 11:2 (January 1956): 6-10. In searching for historical precedents to the Roberts case, the Miami Herald referred to the kidnap-mutilation murders of a six-year-old girl and two older women eight years earlier in Chicago. As in Miami, the first response by Chicago police was to round up homosexuals as possible suspects. As was typical, such roundups produced few viable suspects. In the Chicago case the murderer turned out to be a seventeen-year-old University of Chicago student who was later committed to the penitentiary for the criminally insane. Herald, July 10, 1954, sec. A, p. 7; Estelle B. Freedman, "'Uncontrolled Desires': The Response to the Sexual Psychopath, 1920-1960," in Passion and Power: Sexuality and History, ed. Kathy Peiss and Christina Simmons (Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 1989), 199-225. A rare glimpse into the reaction of homosexuals to such treatment is found in a letter one wrote to a friend at the time of the Chicago murders: "I suppose you read about the kidnaping and murder of the little girl - I noticed tonight that they thought in their damn self-righteous way that perhaps a pervert had done it and they rounded up all the females (male homosexuals) - they blame us for everything and incidentally it is more and more in the limelight everyday - why don't they round us up and kill us I don't know." Ibid., n. 25.
5. James (Barr) Fugate, "A Homosexual Looks at the Child Molester," Mattachine Review 11:2 (January 1956): 6-10. In searching for historical precedents to the Roberts case, the Miami Herald referred to the kidnap-mutilation murders of a six-year-old girl and two older women eight years earlier in Chicago. As in Miami, the first response by Chicago police was to round up homosexuals as possible suspects. As was typical, such roundups produced few viable suspects. In the Chicago case the murderer turned out to be a seventeen-year-old University of Chicago student who was later committed to the penitentiary for the criminally insane. Herald, July 10, 1954, sec. A, p. 7; Estelle B. Freedman, "'Uncontrolled Desires': The Response to the Sexual Psychopath, 1920-1960," in Passion and Power: Sexuality and History, ed. Kathy Peiss and Christina Simmons (Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 1989), 199-225. A rare glimpse into the reaction of homosexuals to such treatment is found in a letter one wrote to a friend at the time of the Chicago murders: "I suppose you read about the kidnaping and murder of the little girl - I noticed tonight that they thought in their damn self-righteous way that perhaps a pervert had done it and they rounded up all the females (male homosexuals) - they blame us for everything and incidentally it is more and more in the limelight everyday - why don't they round us up and kill us I don't know." Ibid., n. 25.
6. James (Barr) Fugate, "A Homosexual Looks at the Child Molester," Mattachine Review 11:2 (January 1956): 6-10. In searching for historical precedents to the Roberts case, the Miami Herald referred to the kidnap-mutilation murders of a six-year-old girl and two older women eight years earlier in Chicago. As in Miami, the first response by Chicago police was to round up homosexuals as possible suspects. As was typical, such roundups produced few viable suspects. In the Chicago case the murderer turned out to be a seventeen-year-old University of Chicago student who was later committed to the penitentiary for the criminally insane. Herald, July 10, 1954, sec. A, p. 7; Estelle B. Freedman, "'Uncontrolled Desires': The Response to the Sexual Psychopath, 1920-1960," in Passion and Power: Sexuality and History, ed. Kathy Peiss and Christina Simmons (Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 1989), 199-225. A rare glimpse into the reaction of homosexuals to such treatment is found in a letter one wrote to a friend at the time of the Chicago murders: "I suppose you read about the kidnaping and murder of the little girl - I noticed tonight that they thought in their damn self-righteous way that perhaps a pervert had done it and they rounded up all the females (male homosexuals) - they blame us for everything and incidentally it is more and more in the limelight everyday - why don't they round us up and kill us I don't know." Ibid., n. 25.
7. James (Barr) Fugate, "A Homosexual Looks at the Child Molester," Mattachine Review 11:2 (January 1956): 6-10. In searching for historical precedents to the Roberts case, the Miami Herald referred to the kidnap-mutilation murders of a six-year-old girl and two older women eight years earlier in Chicago. As in Miami, the first response by Chicago police was to round up homosexuals as possible suspects. As was typical, such roundups produced few viable suspects. In the Chicago case the murderer turned out to be a seventeen-year-old University of Chicago student who was later committed to the penitentiary for the criminally insane. Herald, July 10, 1954, sec. A, p. 7; Estelle B. Freedman, "'Uncontrolled Desires': The Response to the Sexual Psychopath, 1920-1960," in Passion and Power: Sexuality and History, ed. Kathy Peiss and Christina Simmons (Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 1989), 199-225. A rare glimpse into the reaction of homosexuals to such treatment is found in a letter one wrote to a friend at the time of the Chicago murders: "I suppose you read about the kidnaping and murder of the little girl - I noticed tonight that they thought in their damn self-righteous way that perhaps a pervert had done it and they rounded up all the females (male homosexuals) - they blame us for everything and incidentally it is more and more in the limelight everyday - why don't they round us up and kill us I don't know." Ibid., n. 25.
8. Herald, July 12, 1954, sec. B, p. 1.
9. Herald, July 8, 1954, sec. D, p. 3.
10. See Freedman, "Uncontrolled Desires"; George Chauncey, "The Postwar Sex Crime Panic," in True Stories from the American Past, ed. William Graeber (New York: McGraw-Hill, 1993), 160-79. The concept of moral panic has been used in cultural and media studies and in the sociology of deviance to analyze situations whereby a "condition, episode, person or groups of persons emerge to become defined as a threat to societal values and interests." Stanley Cohen, Folk Devils and Moral Panics (Oxford: Martin Robertson, 1980), 9. Although moral panics have occurred throughout history, in the 20th century the media have come to occupy a central element in their development as they "provid[e], maintain[...] and 'polic[e]' the available frameworks and definitions of deviance, which structure both public awareness of and attitudes toward social problems." Tim O'Sullivan, Key Concepts in Communication and Cultural Studies, 2d ed. (London: Routledge, 1994), 186. Analytically, a modern media-driven moral panic can be divided into three stages: (1) An event or/and a group attract extensive media coverage that leads to defining a primary frame of reference in which subsequent events are interpreted; (2) Expanded coverage amplifies the initial frame and interprets the event and/or the group as threats to the larger moral order of society and as reflecting the breakdown of society; and (3) In response to the panic, greater state regulation and control are initiated as a means of "solving the problem." Moreover, the perceived threat is all out of proportion to the actual reality. The literature on moral panics is extensive. For booklength summaries and discussions, see Erich Goode and Nachman Ben-Yehuda, Moral Panics: The Social Construction of Deviance (Cambridge, MA: Blackwell, 1994); Philip Jenkins, Intimate Enemies: Moral Panics in Contemporary Great Britain (New York: Aldine de Gruyter, 1992); and Kenneth Thompson, Moral Panics (London: Routledge, 1998); see also Gayle Rubin, "Thinking Sex: Notes for a Radical Theory of the Politics of Sexuality," in Pleasure and Danger: The Politics of Sexuality, ed. Carol Vance (Boston: Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1982), 267-319.
11. See Freedman, "Uncontrolled Desires"; George Chauncey, "The Postwar Sex Crime Panic," in True Stories from the American Past, ed. William Graeber (New York: McGraw-Hill, 1993), 160-79. The concept of moral panic has been used in cultural and media studies and in the sociology of deviance to analyze situations whereby a "condition, episode, person or groups of persons emerge to become defined as a threat to societal values and interests." Stanley Cohen, Folk Devils and Moral Panics (Oxford: Martin Robertson, 1980), 9. Although moral panics have occurred throughout history, in the 20th century the media have come to occupy a central element in their development as they "provid[e], maintain[...] and 'polic[e]' the available frameworks and definitions of deviance, which structure both public awareness of and attitudes toward social problems." Tim O'Sullivan, Key Concepts in Communication and Cultural Studies, 2d ed. (London: Routledge, 1994), 186. Analytically, a modern media-driven moral panic can be divided into three stages: (1) An event or/and a group attract extensive media coverage that leads to defining a primary frame of reference in which subsequent events are interpreted; (2) Expanded coverage amplifies the initial frame and interprets the event and/or the group as threats to the larger moral order of society and as reflecting the breakdown of society; and (3) In response to the panic, greater state regulation and control are initiated as a means of "solving the problem." Moreover, the perceived threat is all out of proportion to the actual reality. The literature on moral panics is extensive. For booklength summaries and discussions, see Erich Goode and Nachman Ben-Yehuda, Moral Panics: The Social Construction of Deviance (Cambridge, MA: Blackwell, 1994); Philip Jenkins, Intimate Enemies: Moral Panics in Contemporary Great Britain (New York: Aldine de Gruyter, 1992); and Kenneth Thompson, Moral Panics (London: Routledge, 1998); see also Gayle Rubin, "Thinking Sex: Notes for a Radical Theory of the Politics of Sexuality," in Pleasure and Danger: The Politics of Sexuality, ed. Carol Vance (Boston: Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1982), 267-319.
12. See Freedman, "Uncontrolled Desires"; George Chauncey, "The Postwar Sex Crime Panic," in True Stories from the American Past, ed. William Graeber (New York: McGraw-Hill, 1993), 160-79. The concept of moral panic has been used in cultural and media studies and in the sociology of deviance to analyze situations whereby a "condition, episode, person or groups of persons emerge to become defined as a threat to societal values and interests." Stanley Cohen, Folk Devils and Moral Panics (Oxford: Martin Robertson, 1980), 9. Although moral panics have occurred throughout history, in the 20th century the media have come to occupy a central element in their development as they "provid[e], maintain[...] and 'polic[e]' the available frameworks and definitions of deviance, which structure both public awareness of and attitudes toward social problems." Tim O'Sullivan, Key Concepts in Communication and Cultural Studies, 2d ed. (London: Routledge, 1994), 186. Analytically, a modern media-driven moral panic can be divided into three stages: (1) An event or/and a group attract extensive media coverage that leads to defining a primary frame of reference in which subsequent events are interpreted; (2) Expanded coverage amplifies the initial frame and interprets the event and/or the group as threats to the larger moral order of society and as reflecting the breakdown of society; and (3) In response to the panic, greater state regulation and control are initiated as a means of "solving the problem." Moreover, the perceived threat is all out of proportion to the actual reality. The literature on moral panics is extensive. For booklength summaries and discussions, see Erich Goode and Nachman Ben-Yehuda, Moral Panics: The Social Construction of Deviance (Cambridge, MA: Blackwell, 1994); Philip Jenkins, Intimate Enemies: Moral Panics in Contemporary Great Britain (New York: Aldine de Gruyter, 1992); and Kenneth Thompson, Moral Panics (London: Routledge, 1998); see also Gayle Rubin, "Thinking Sex: Notes for a Radical Theory of the Politics of Sexuality," in Pleasure and Danger: The Politics of Sexuality, ed. Carol Vance (Boston: Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1982), 267-319.
13. See Freedman, "Uncontrolled Desires"; George Chauncey, "The Postwar Sex Crime Panic," in True Stories from the American Past, ed. William Graeber (New York: McGraw-Hill, 1993), 160-79. The concept of moral panic has been used in cultural and media studies and in the sociology of deviance to analyze situations whereby a "condition, episode, person or groups of persons emerge to become defined as a threat to societal values and interests." Stanley Cohen, Folk Devils and Moral Panics (Oxford: Martin Robertson, 1980), 9. Although moral panics have occurred throughout history, in the 20th century the media have come to occupy a central element in their development as they "provid[e], maintain[...] and 'polic[e]' the available frameworks and definitions of deviance, which structure both public awareness of and attitudes toward social problems." Tim O'Sullivan, Key Concepts in Communication and Cultural Studies, 2d ed. (London: Routledge, 1994), 186. Analytically, a modern media-driven moral panic can be divided into three stages: (1) An event or/and a group attract extensive media coverage that leads to defining a primary frame of reference in which subsequent events are interpreted; (2) Expanded coverage amplifies the initial frame and interprets the event and/or the group as threats to the larger moral order of society and as reflecting the breakdown of society; and (3) In response to the panic, greater state regulation and control are initiated as a means of "solving the problem." Moreover, the perceived threat is all out of proportion to the actual reality. The literature on moral panics is extensive. For booklength summaries and discussions, see Erich Goode and Nachman Ben-Yehuda, Moral Panics: The Social Construction of Deviance (Cambridge, MA: Blackwell, 1994); Philip Jenkins, Intimate Enemies: Moral Panics in Contemporary Great Britain (New York: Aldine de Gruyter, 1992); and Kenneth Thompson, Moral Panics (London: Routledge, 1998); see also Gayle Rubin, "Thinking Sex: Notes for a Radical Theory of the Politics of Sexuality," in Pleasure and Danger: The Politics of Sexuality, ed. Carol Vance (Boston: Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1982), 267-319.
14. See Freedman, "Uncontrolled Desires"; George Chauncey, "The Postwar Sex Crime Panic," in True Stories from the American Past, ed. William Graeber (New York: McGraw-Hill, 1993), 160-79. The concept of moral panic has been used in cultural and media studies and in the sociology of deviance to analyze situations whereby a "condition, episode, person or groups of persons emerge to become defined as a threat to societal values and interests." Stanley Cohen, Folk Devils and Moral Panics (Oxford: Martin Robertson, 1980), 9. Although moral panics have occurred throughout history, in the 20th century the media have come to occupy a central element in their development as they "provid[e], maintain[...] and 'polic[e]' the available frameworks and definitions of deviance, which structure both public awareness of and attitudes toward social problems." Tim O'Sullivan, Key Concepts in Communication and Cultural Studies, 2d ed. (London: Routledge, 1994), 186. Analytically, a modern media-driven moral panic can be divided into three stages: (1) An event or/and a group attract extensive media coverage that leads to defining a primary frame of reference in which subsequent events are interpreted; (2) Expanded coverage amplifies the initial frame and interprets the event and/or the group as threats to the larger moral order of society and as reflecting the breakdown of society; and (3) In response to the panic, greater state regulation and control are initiated as a means of "solving the problem." Moreover, the perceived threat is all out of proportion to the actual reality. The literature on moral panics is extensive. For booklength summaries and discussions, see Erich Goode and Nachman Ben-Yehuda, Moral Panics: The Social Construction of Deviance (Cambridge, MA: Blackwell, 1994); Philip Jenkins, Intimate Enemies: Moral Panics in Contemporary Great Britain (New York: Aldine de Gruyter, 1992); and Kenneth Thompson, Moral Panics (London: Routledge, 1998); see also Gayle Rubin, "Thinking Sex: Notes for a Radical Theory of the Politics of Sexuality," in Pleasure and Danger: The Politics of Sexuality, ed. Carol Vance (Boston: Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1982), 267-319.
15. See Freedman, "Uncontrolled Desires"; George Chauncey, "The Postwar Sex Crime Panic," in True Stories from the American Past, ed. William Graeber (New York: McGraw-Hill, 1993), 160-79. The concept of moral panic has been used in cultural and media studies and in the sociology of deviance to analyze situations whereby a "condition, episode, person or groups of persons emerge to become defined as a threat to societal values and interests." Stanley Cohen, Folk Devils and Moral Panics (Oxford: Martin Robertson, 1980), 9. Although moral panics have occurred throughout history, in the 20th century the media have come to occupy a central element in their development as they "provid[e], maintain[...] and 'polic[e]' the available frameworks and definitions of deviance, which structure both public awareness of and attitudes toward social problems." Tim O'Sullivan, Key Concepts in Communication and Cultural Studies, 2d ed. (London: Routledge, 1994), 186. Analytically, a modern media-driven moral panic can be divided into three stages: (1) An event or/and a group attract extensive media coverage that leads to defining a primary frame of reference in which subsequent events are interpreted; (2) Expanded coverage amplifies the initial frame and interprets the event and/or the group as threats to the larger moral order of society and as reflecting the breakdown of society; and (3) In response to the panic, greater state regulation and control are initiated as a means of "solving the problem." Moreover, the perceived threat is all out of proportion to the actual reality. The literature on moral panics is extensive. For booklength summaries and discussions, see Erich Goode and Nachman Ben-Yehuda, Moral Panics: The Social Construction of Deviance (Cambridge, MA: Blackwell, 1994); Philip Jenkins, Intimate Enemies: Moral Panics in Contemporary Great Britain (New York: Aldine de Gruyter, 1992); and Kenneth Thompson, Moral Panics (London: Routledge, 1998); see also Gayle Rubin, "Thinking Sex: Notes for a Radical Theory of the Politics of Sexuality," in Pleasure and Danger: The Politics of Sexuality, ed. Carol Vance (Boston: Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1982), 267-319.
16. See Freedman, "Uncontrolled Desires"; George Chauncey, "The Postwar Sex Crime Panic," in True Stories from the American Past, ed. William Graeber (New York: McGraw-Hill, 1993), 160-79. The concept of moral panic has been used in cultural and media studies and in the sociology of deviance to analyze situations whereby a "condition, episode, person or groups of persons emerge to become defined as a threat to societal values and interests." Stanley Cohen, Folk Devils and Moral Panics (Oxford: Martin Robertson, 1980), 9. Although moral panics have occurred throughout history, in the 20th century the media have come to occupy a central element in their development as they "provid[e], maintain[...] and 'polic[e]' the available frameworks and definitions of deviance, which structure both public awareness of and attitudes toward social problems." Tim O'Sullivan, Key Concepts in Communication and Cultural Studies, 2d ed. (London: Routledge, 1994), 186. Analytically, a modern media-driven moral panic can be divided into three stages: (1) An event or/and a group attract extensive media coverage that leads to defining a primary frame of reference in which subsequent events are interpreted; (2) Expanded coverage amplifies the initial frame and interprets the event and/or the group as threats to the larger moral order of society and as reflecting the breakdown of society; and (3) In response to the panic, greater state regulation and control are initiated as a means of "solving the problem." Moreover, the perceived threat is all out of proportion to the actual reality. The literature on moral panics is extensive. For booklength summaries and discussions, see Erich Goode and Nachman Ben-Yehuda, Moral Panics: The Social Construction of Deviance (Cambridge, MA: Blackwell, 1994); Philip Jenkins, Intimate Enemies: Moral Panics in Contemporary Great Britain (New York: Aldine de Gruyter, 1992); and Kenneth Thompson, Moral Panics (London: Routledge, 1998); see also Gayle Rubin, "Thinking Sex: Notes for a Radical Theory of the Politics of Sexuality," in Pleasure and Danger: The Politics of Sexuality, ed. Carol Vance (Boston: Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1982), 267-319.
17. See Freedman, "Uncontrolled Desires"; George Chauncey, "The Postwar Sex Crime Panic," in True Stories from the American Past, ed. William Graeber (New York: McGraw-Hill, 1993), 160-79. The concept of moral panic has been used in cultural and media studies and in the sociology of deviance to analyze situations whereby a "condition, episode, person or groups of persons emerge to become defined as a threat to societal values and interests." Stanley Cohen, Folk Devils and Moral Panics (Oxford: Martin Robertson, 1980), 9. Although moral panics have occurred throughout history, in the 20th century the media have come to occupy a central element in their development as they "provid[e], maintain[...] and 'polic[e]' the available frameworks and definitions of deviance, which structure both public awareness of and attitudes toward social problems." Tim O'Sullivan, Key Concepts in Communication and Cultural Studies, 2d ed. (London: Routledge, 1994), 186. Analytically, a modern media-driven moral panic can be divided into three stages: (1) An event or/and a group attract extensive media coverage that leads to defining a primary frame of reference in which subsequent events are interpreted; (2) Expanded coverage amplifies the initial frame and interprets the event and/or the group as threats to the larger moral order of society and as reflecting the breakdown of society; and (3) In response to the panic, greater state regulation and control are initiated as a means of "solving the problem." Moreover, the perceived threat is all out of proportion to the actual reality. The literature on moral panics is extensive. For booklength summaries and discussions, see Erich Goode and Nachman Ben-Yehuda, Moral Panics: The Social Construction of Deviance (Cambridge, MA: Blackwell, 1994); Philip Jenkins, Intimate Enemies: Moral Panics in Contemporary Great Britain (New York: Aldine de Gruyter, 1992); and Kenneth Thompson, Moral Panics (London: Routledge, 1998); see also Gayle Rubin, "Thinking Sex: Notes for a Radical Theory of the Politics of Sexuality," in Pleasure and Danger: The Politics of Sexuality, ed. Carol Vance (Boston: Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1982), 267-319.
18. Allen Morris, comp., The Florida Handbook, 1947-1948 (Tallahassee, FL: Peninsular Publishing Company, 1946), 165; Bureau of Economic and Business Research, College of Business Administration, Florida Statistical Abstract 1967 (Gainesville: University of Florida, 1967), 24, 26.
19. Allen Morris, comp., The Florida Handbook, 1947-1948 (Tallahassee, FL: Peninsular Publishing Company, 1946), 165; Bureau of Economic and Business Research, College of Business Administration, Florida Statistical Abstract 1967 (Gainesville: University of Florida, 1967), 24, 26.
20. Edward Sofen, The Miami Metropolitan Experiment (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1963), 6-11. Sofen cites a 1960 study that reports that during the period January-June 1960, Mayflower Transit Company moved 410 families into Miami and 320 moved out. Ibid., 268, n. 4. Although the major southernmost city in the continental United States, Miami - developed and settled in this century by people from the Midwest and the Northeast - shares little in common with the history, culture, politics, and institutions of other cities of the American South. Christian churches, for example, particularly Baptist churches, which play a prominent role in the life of other southern cities, exercised little influence over public affairs. During the summer 1954 campaign against homosexual bars in Miami, there was no mention in the media of any role played, or even a public statement by, local church leaders. In contrast, in Atlanta during the 1950s, local churches often played a major part in spurring on crackdowns on homosexual public sex. John Howard, "The Library, the Park and the Pervert: Public Space and Homosexual Encounter in Post-World War II Atlanta," Radical History Review 62 (1995): 166-87. The Miami media coverage framed the events of summer 1954 in terms of civic morality and values, with no mention of religion or biblical prohibitions against homosexuality. The one area in which Miami shared similarities with other southern cities was in racial relations. Segregation was rigidly enforced and during the 1920s and 1930s the Ku Klux Klan was active in Miami, organizing a number of public demonstrations to discourage African Americans from voting. In contrast to the character and pattern of white migration to Miami, many African Americans migrated to Miami from other southern states and the Bahamas, seeking jobs in agriculture, construction, and the hotel and service industries. Their degree of transience was far less than that of the white population. Yet, even in this area, Miami's experience was different from that of other southern cities. Segregation, particularly residential segregation, was promoted by the major land developers, all of them northerners, to insure that the "tropical paradise" image of Miami remain "lily white" in order to attract white northern buyers. Marvin Dunn, Black Miami in the Twentieth Century (Gainesville: University of Florida Press, 1997).
21. Edward Sofen, The Miami Metropolitan Experiment (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1963), 6-11. Sofen cites a 1960 study that reports that during the period January-June 1960, Mayflower Transit Company moved 410 families into Miami and 320 moved out. Ibid., 268, n. 4. Although the major southernmost city in the continental United States, Miami - developed and settled in this century by people from the Midwest and the Northeast - shares little in common with the history, culture, politics, and institutions of other cities of the American South. Christian churches, for example, particularly Baptist churches, which play a prominent role in the life of other southern cities, exercised little influence over public affairs. During the summer 1954 campaign against homosexual bars in Miami, there was no mention in the media of any role played, or even a public statement by, local church leaders. In contrast, in Atlanta during the 1950s, local churches often played a major part in spurring on crackdowns on homosexual public sex. John Howard, "The Library, the Park and the Pervert: Public Space and Homosexual Encounter in Post-World War II Atlanta," Radical History Review 62 (1995): 166-87. The Miami media coverage framed the events of summer 1954 in terms of civic morality and values, with no mention of religion or biblical prohibitions against homosexuality. The one area in which Miami shared similarities with other southern cities was in racial relations. Segregation was rigidly enforced and during the 1920s and 1930s the Ku Klux Klan was active in Miami, organizing a number of public demonstrations to discourage African Americans from voting. In contrast to the character and pattern of white migration to Miami, many African Americans migrated to Miami from other southern states and the Bahamas, seeking jobs in agriculture, construction, and the hotel and service industries. Their degree of transience was far less than that of the white population. Yet, even in this area, Miami's experience was different from that of other southern cities. Segregation, particularly residential segregation, was promoted by the major land developers, all of them northerners, to insure that the "tropical paradise" image of Miami remain "lily white" in order to attract white northern buyers. Marvin Dunn, Black Miami in the Twentieth Century (Gainesville: University of Florida Press, 1997).
22. Edward Sofen, The Miami Metropolitan Experiment (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1963), 6-11. Sofen cites a 1960 study that reports that during the period January-June 1960, Mayflower Transit Company moved 410 families into Miami and 320 moved out. Ibid., 268, n. 4. Although the major southernmost city in the continental United States, Miami - developed and settled in this century by people from the Midwest and the Northeast - shares little in common with the history, culture, politics, and institutions of other cities of the American South. Christian churches, for example, particularly Baptist churches, which play a prominent role in the life of other southern cities, exercised little influence over public affairs. During the summer 1954 campaign against homosexual bars in Miami, there was no mention in the media of any role played, or even a public statement by, local church leaders. In contrast, in Atlanta during the 1950s, local churches often played a major part in spurring on crackdowns on homosexual public sex. John Howard, "The Library, the Park and the Pervert: Public Space and Homosexual Encounter in Post-World War II Atlanta," Radical History Review 62 (1995): 166-87. The Miami media coverage framed the events of summer 1954 in terms of civic morality and values, with no mention of religion or biblical prohibitions against homosexuality. The one area in which Miami shared similarities with other southern cities was in racial relations. Segregation was rigidly enforced and during the 1920s and 1930s the Ku Klux Klan was active in Miami, organizing a number of public demonstrations to discourage African Americans from voting. In contrast to the character and pattern of white migration to Miami, many African Americans migrated to Miami from other southern states and the Bahamas, seeking jobs in agriculture, construction, and the hotel and service industries. Their degree of transience was far less than that of the white population. Yet, even in this area, Miami's experience was different from that of other southern cities. Segregation, particularly residential segregation, was promoted by the major land developers, all of them northerners, to insure that the "tropical paradise" image of Miami remain "lily white" in order to attract white northern buyers. Marvin Dunn, Black Miami in the Twentieth Century (Gainesville: University of Florida Press, 1997).
23. Edward Sofen, The Miami Metropolitan Experiment (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1963), 6-11. Sofen cites a 1960 study that reports that during the period January-June 1960, Mayflower Transit Company moved 410 families into Miami and 320 moved out. Ibid., 268, n. 4. Although the major southernmost city in the continental United States, Miami - developed and settled in this century by people from the Midwest and the Northeast - shares little in common with the history, culture, politics, and institutions of other cities of the American South. Christian churches, for example, particularly Baptist churches, which play a prominent role in the life of other southern cities, exercised little influence over public affairs. During the summer 1954 campaign against homosexual bars in Miami, there was no mention in the media of any role played, or even a public statement by, local church leaders. In contrast, in Atlanta during the 1950s, local churches often played a major part in spurring on crackdowns on homosexual public sex. John Howard, "The Library, the Park and the Pervert: Public Space and Homosexual Encounter in Post-World War II Atlanta," Radical History Review 62 (1995): 166-87. The Miami media coverage framed the events of summer 1954 in terms of civic morality and values, with no mention of religion or biblical prohibitions against homosexuality. The one area in which Miami shared similarities with other southern cities was in racial relations. Segregation was rigidly enforced and during the 1920s and 1930s the Ku Klux Klan was active in Miami, organizing a number of public demonstrations to discourage African Americans from voting. In contrast to the character and pattern of white migration to Miami, many African Americans migrated to Miami from other southern states and the Bahamas, seeking jobs in agriculture, construction, and the hotel and service industries. Their degree of transience was far less than that of the white population. Yet, even in this area, Miami's experience was different from that of other southern cities. Segregation, particularly residential segregation, was promoted by the major land developers, all of them northerners, to insure that the "tropical paradise" image of Miami remain "lily white" in order to attract white northern buyers. Marvin Dunn, Black Miami in the Twentieth Century (Gainesville: University of Florida Press, 1997).
24. The "amorphous" character of Dade County in many ways reflected the state of politics in Florida in general during that era. As described by V. O. Key in his classic study of postwar southern politics, Florida was "the southern state with the most disintegrated and least-stable structure of political organizations." (V. O. Key Jr., Southern Politics [New York: Knopf, 1955], 99, n. 15; 83-87); Sofen, 1-7.
25. Polly Redford, Billion-Dollar Sandbar: A Biography of Miami Beach (New York: E.P. Dutton, 1970), 73; Sofen, 14-16.
26. Edward C. Banfield, "Miami (Dade County): Yes, But . . . ," in Big City Politics, ed. Edward C. Banfield (New York: Random House, 1965), 94-106.
27. Sofen, 8; Hennig Heldt, "Heaven or Honky-Tonk," in Our Fair City, ed. Robert Allen (New York: Vanguard Press, 1947), 77-99; Nixon Smiley, Knights of the Fourth Estate: The Story of Miami Herald (Miami: E. A. Seaman, 1974), 118.
28. Sofen, 8; Hennig Heldt, "Heaven or Honky-Tonk," in Our Fair City, ed. Robert Allen (New York: Vanguard Press, 1947), 77-99; Nixon Smiley, Knights of the Fourth Estate: The Story of Miami Herald (Miami: E. A. Seaman, 1974), 118.
29. The Miami News-Record, the Herald's predecessor, was the city's first daily newspaper, started in 1903. In 1910, it was acquired by Henry Flagler who made Frank Shutts, an Indiana attorney working for Flagler, the publisher. Shutts reorganized the paper and changed its name to the Miami Herald. Two years later Shutts bought the paper from Flagler. Smiley, 21-36.
30. Smiley, 54.
31. Ayer Directory of Newspapers and Periodicals 1954 (Philadelphia: Ayer Press, 1954), 179.
32. By the mid-1940s the Herald had a number of reporters assigned to foreign beats and began to develop extensive coverage of Latin America, including a special "Air Edition" for distribution in Latin America. Smiley, 215-16.
33. bid., 184-95.
34. Ibid., 283.
35. Ibid., 202.
36. Sofen, 8-9.
37. Smiley, 277-89. Alejandro Portes and Alex Stepick, City on the Edge: The Transformation of Miami (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1994), 83-87.
38. Smiley, 217-27.
39. Ibid., 237-48.
40. Ibid., 241.
41. Heldt, 90.
42. Smiley, 248.
43. John D'Emilio, Sexual Politics, Sexual Communities: The Making of a Homosexual Minority in the United States, 1940-1970 (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1983), 23-39. Prior to the war only a few major cities like New York had visible homosexual subcultures. See George Chauncey, Gay New York: Gender, Urban Culture and the Making of the Gay Male World (New York: Basic Books, 1994).
44. John D'Emilio, Sexual Politics, Sexual Communities: The Making of a Homosexual Minority in the United States, 1940-1970 (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1983), 23-39. Prior to the war only a few major cities like New York had visible homosexual subcultures. See George Chauncey, Gay New York: Gender, Urban Culture and the Making of the Gay Male World (New York: Basic Books, 1994).
45. Allan Bérubé, Coming Out Under Fire: The History of Gay Men and Women in World War Two (New York: Penguin, 1991). ONE estimated that by the mid-1950s, roughly 30,000 male adult Miamians "have engaged in overtly homosexual acts" and that "4,000 Miamians are homosexuals for life." These figures are extrapolations from Kinsey's figures for Miami's population. (Lyn Pedersen, "Miami's New Witchhunt," ONE, April-May 1956, pp. 8-12).
46. Allan Bérubé, Coming Out Under Fire: The History of Gay Men and Women in World War Two (New York: Penguin, 1991). ONE estimated that by the mid-1950s, roughly 30,000 male adult Miamians "have engaged in overtly homosexual acts" and that "4,000 Miamians are homosexuals for life." These figures are extrapolations from Kinsey's figures for Miami's population. (Lyn Pedersen, "Miami's New Witchhunt," ONE, April-May 1956, pp. 8-12).
47. James Jones, Alfred C. Kinsey: a Public/Private Life (New York: Norton, 1997), 534-63, 601-35; Miriam Grace Reumann, "American Sexual Character in the Age of Kinsey" (Ph.D. diss., Brown University, 1998); D'Emilio, 33-37.
48. James Jones, Alfred C. Kinsey: a Public/Private Life (New York: Norton, 1997), 534-63, 601-35; Miriam Grace Reumann, "American Sexual Character in the Age of Kinsey" (Ph.D. diss., Brown University, 1998); D'Emilio, 33-37.
49. D'Emilio, 63-70.
50. Eugene Patron, "Jackie Jackson: The Life and Times of a Dixie Belle," The Weekly News (Miami), October 12, 1994, pp. 7-8; George Burke, "Night Life," Herald, December 5, 1951, sec. A, p. 19; advertisements for Club Jewel Box, Leon and Eddie's, and Circus Bar, ibid. Jackie Jackson, a well-known drag star of the era, recalled that local politicians and city officials attended his shows and that he received an official police escort to his performance at the 1948 Policeman's Ball. In one of the novels in the popular "The Saint" detective series, the action was set in early 1940s Miami, and the Saint was taken by his (female) date to a gambling casino on the outskirts of the city, where he noticed that among the clientele ". . . some of the groups of highly made-up girls who sat at inferior tables with an air of hoping to be invited to better ones were a trifle sinewy in the arms and neck, while on the other hand some of the delicate-featured young men who sat apart from them were too well-developed in the chest for the breadth of their shoulders. Those eccentricities were standard in the honky-tonks of Miami." Leslie Charteris, The Saint in Miami (Leicester: Ulverscroft, 1973 [London: Hodder & Stoughton, 1941]), 206-7. Later the Saint's male accomplice made advances toward the attractive female performer in the casino, only to find that she was a man in drag.
51. Eugene Patron, "Jackie Jackson: The Life and Times of a Dixie Belle," The Weekly News (Miami), October 12, 1994, pp. 7-8; George Burke, "Night Life," Herald, December 5, 1951, sec. A, p. 19; advertisements for Club Jewel Box, Leon and Eddie's, and Circus Bar, ibid. Jackie Jackson, a well-known drag star of the era, recalled that local politicians and city officials attended his shows and that he received an official police escort to his performance at the 1948 Policeman's Ball. In one of the novels in the popular "The Saint" detective series, the action was set in early 1940s Miami, and the Saint was taken by his (female) date to a gambling casino on the outskirts of the city, where he noticed that among the clientele ". . . some of the groups of highly made-up girls who sat at inferior tables with an air of hoping to be invited to better ones were a trifle sinewy in the arms and neck, while on the other hand some of the delicate-featured young men who sat apart from them were too well-developed in the chest for the breadth of their shoulders. Those eccentricities were standard in the honky-tonks of Miami." Leslie Charteris, The Saint in Miami (Leicester: Ulverscroft, 1973 [London: Hodder & Stoughton, 1941]), 206-7. Later the Saint's male accomplice made advances toward the attractive female performer in the casino, only to find that she was a man in drag.
52. Eugene Patron, "Jackie Jackson: The Life and Times of a Dixie Belle," The Weekly News (Miami), October 12, 1994, pp. 7-8; George Burke, "Night Life," Herald, December 5, 1951, sec. A, p. 19; advertisements for Club Jewel Box, Leon and Eddie's, and Circus Bar, ibid. Jackie Jackson, a well-known drag star of the era, recalled that local politicians and city officials attended his shows and that he received an official police escort to his performance at the 1948 Policeman's Ball. In one of the novels in the popular "The Saint" detective series, the action was set in early 1940s Miami, and the Saint was taken by his (female) date to a gambling casino on the outskirts of the city, where he noticed that among the clientele ". . . some of the groups of highly made-up girls who sat at inferior tables with an air of hoping to be invited to better ones were a trifle sinewy in the arms and neck, while on the other hand some of the delicate-featured young men who sat apart from them were too well-developed in the chest for the breadth of their shoulders. Those eccentricities were standard in the honky-tonks of Miami." Leslie Charteris, The Saint in Miami (Leicester: Ulverscroft, 1973 [London: Hodder & Stoughton, 1941]), 206-7. Later the Saint's male accomplice made advances toward the attractive female performer in the casino, only to find that she was a man in drag.
53. Ann Armbuster, The Life and Times of Miami Beach (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1995), 121.
54. Herald, November 21, 1954; sec. B, p. 1.
55. Florida Statutes Chapter 800.01 (1957); Richard T. Jones, "Sodomy - Crime or Sin?" University of Florida Law Review 12 (1959): 83-92.
56. Under Miami's vagrancy ordinance those without a visible means of support could be arrested. When the ordinance was enacted in 1930 it was aimed at Al Capone, who had established winter residence in the city. James E. Buchanan, ed. and comp., Miami: a Chronological and Documentary History, 1513-1977 (Dobbs Ferry, NY: Oceana Publications, 1978), 27.
57. Miami Beach also enacted local legislation in 1952 and 1953 aimed at shutting down drag shows; Herald, November 5, 1953, sec. A, p. 9. The city took the lead in legally restricting public expressions of sexual nonconformity because of a number of factors. Since the city had most of the area's public beaches, many of its major resort hotels, and a number of the bars with drag shows, the "beach scene" often lent itself to forms of dress and behavior not found in other parts of the county. However, the concern over regulating public non-criminal behavior was also based in the cultural politics of the city. As noted by Deborah Dash Moore, To the Golden Cities: Pursuing the American Jewish Dream in Miami and L.A. (New York: Free Press, 1994), the city was a very attractive destination for many Jews from the Northeast, both winter tourists and those who desired to relocate to a warmer climate. In Miami Beach, they faced open anti-Semitism and discrimination, with many hotels and apartment buildings refusing accommodations. However, with the steady increase in their numbers - by 1947 nearly half of the 46,000 city residents were Jewish (Armbuster, 105) - they began to elect local officials and exercise greater political power. In 1949 the Miami Beach city council enacted a law prohibiting discrimination based on religion or race in the advertisement of public accommodations, a law for which the city received international recognition, and while not outlawing such discrimination, made it less overt (Moore, 154-55). While struggling against anti-Semitism, political and civic leaders of the Jewish community were also concerned that many non-Jewish Americans associated the vulgar and flamboyant behaviors found in Miami Beach with an image of the Jewish nouveau riche, thus fueling anti-Semitic sentiment. Drag shows were only one object of their concern. For example in the late 1940s the Anti-Defamation League commissioned a short animated film feature, titled "The Vacationers'" to guide Jewish tourists visiting Miami. Among the behaviors criticized were loud animated conversations on street corners, card playing on hotel porches, elbowing one's way to the front of the line, and loud arguments in hotel corridors (Moore, 35; Personal Communication from Art Rosen, February 4, 1998). Bernard Frank, the Miami Beach council member who introduced the legislation banning drag shows, also urged his fellow council members and city employees to wear white suits to work and to council meetings to restore the "lost glamour" of Miami Beach, Herald, July 10, 1954, sec. B, p. 1.
58. Miami Beach also enacted local legislation in 1952 and 1953 aimed at shutting down drag shows; Herald, November 5, 1953, sec. A, p. 9. The city took the lead in legally restricting public expressions of sexual nonconformity because of a number of factors. Since the city had most of the area's public beaches, many of its major resort hotels, and a number of the bars with drag shows, the "beach scene" often lent itself to forms of dress and behavior not found in other parts of the county. However, the concern over regulating public non-criminal behavior was also based in the cultural politics of the city. As noted by Deborah Dash Moore, To the Golden Cities: Pursuing the American Jewish Dream in Miami and L.A. (New York: Free Press, 1994), the city was a very attractive destination for many Jews from the Northeast, both winter tourists and those who desired to relocate to a warmer climate. In Miami Beach, they faced open anti-Semitism and discrimination, with many hotels and apartment buildings refusing accommodations. However, with the steady increase in their numbers - by 1947 nearly half of the 46,000 city residents were Jewish (Armbuster, 105) - they began to elect local officials and exercise greater political power. In 1949 the Miami Beach city council enacted a law prohibiting discrimination based on religion or race in the advertisement of public accommodations, a law for which the city received international recognition, and while not outlawing such discrimination, made it less overt (Moore, 154-55). While struggling against anti-Semitism, political and civic leaders of the Jewish community were also concerned that many non-Jewish Americans associated the vulgar and flamboyant behaviors found in Miami Beach with an image of the Jewish nouveau riche, thus fueling anti-Semitic sentiment. Drag shows were only one object of their concern. For example in the late 1940s the Anti-Defamation League commissioned a short animated film feature, titled "The Vacationers'" to guide Jewish tourists visiting Miami. Among the behaviors criticized were loud animated conversations on street corners, card playing on hotel porches, elbowing one's way to the front of the line, and loud arguments in hotel corridors (Moore, 35; Personal Communication from Art Rosen, February 4, 1998). Bernard Frank, the Miami Beach council member who introduced the legislation banning drag shows, also urged his fellow council members and city employees to wear white suits to work and to council meetings to restore the "lost glamour" of Miami Beach, Herald, July 10, 1954, sec. B, p. 1.
59. Miami Beach also enacted local legislation in 1952 and 1953 aimed at shutting down drag shows; Herald, November 5, 1953, sec. A, p. 9. The city took the lead in legally restricting public expressions of sexual nonconformity because of a number of factors. Since the city had most of the area's public beaches, many of its major resort hotels, and a number of the bars with drag shows, the "beach scene" often lent itself to forms of dress and behavior not found in other parts of the county. However, the concern over regulating public non-criminal behavior was also based in the cultural politics of the city. As noted by Deborah Dash Moore, To the Golden Cities: Pursuing the American Jewish Dream in Miami and L.A. (New York: Free Press, 1994), the city was a very attractive destination for many Jews from the Northeast, both winter tourists and those who desired to relocate to a warmer climate. In Miami Beach, they faced open anti-Semitism and discrimination, with many hotels and apartment buildings refusing accommodations. However, with the steady increase in their numbers - by 1947 nearly half of the 46,000 city residents were Jewish (Armbuster, 105) - they began to elect local officials and exercise greater political power. In 1949 the Miami Beach city council enacted a law prohibiting discrimination based on religion or race in the advertisement of public accommodations, a law for which the city received international recognition, and while not outlawing such discrimination, made it less overt (Moore, 154-55). While struggling against anti-Semitism, political and civic leaders of the Jewish community were also concerned that many non-Jewish Americans associated the vulgar and flamboyant behaviors found in Miami Beach with an image of the Jewish nouveau riche, thus fueling anti-Semitic sentiment. Drag shows were only one object of their concern. For example in the late 1940s the Anti-Defamation League commissioned a short animated film feature, titled "The Vacationers'" to guide Jewish tourists visiting Miami. Among the behaviors criticized were loud animated conversations on street corners, card playing on hotel porches, elbowing one's way to the front of the line, and loud arguments in hotel corridors (Moore, 35; Personal Communication from Art Rosen, February 4, 1998). Bernard Frank, the Miami Beach council member who introduced the legislation banning drag shows, also urged his fellow council members and city employees to wear white suits to work and to council meetings to restore the "lost glamour" of Miami Beach, Herald, July 10, 1954, sec. B, p. 1.
60. Quoted in James Sears, Lonely Hunters: An Oral History of Lesbian and Gay Southern Life, 1948-1968 (Boulder, CO: Westview, 1997), 20.
61. Herald, January 21, 1951, sec. B, p. 1. An oral history of the raid notes that the crowd was a mix of male homosexuals and lesbians: Sears, 25-26.
62. Herald, November 21, 1953, sec. B, p. 1.
63. D'Emilio, 41-49.
64. Freedman, "Uncontrolled Desires"; Chauncey, "The Postwar Sex Crime Panic"; Philip Jenkins, Moral Panic: Changing Concepts of the Child Molester in Modern America (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1998), esp. 49-93.
65. Freedman, "Uncontrolled Desires"; Chauncey, "The Postwar Sex Crime Panic"; Philip Jenkins, Moral Panic: Changing Concepts of the Child Molester in Modern America (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1998), esp. 49-93.
66. Freedman, "Uncontrolled Desires"; Chauncey, "The Postwar Sex Crime Panic"; Philip Jenkins, Moral Panic: Changing Concepts of the Child Molester in Modern America (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1998), esp. 49-93.
67. Herald, July 16, 1954, sec. B, p. 1; July 29, 1954, sec. D, p. 1; Moore, 173-74.
68. Under the 1951 law a convicted sex offender might be sentenced to an indeterminate term in the state's mental hospital and could be released only after a positive evaluation by a psychiatrist. Given the overcrowding and lack of funding for such treatment, many offenders were released after a few months. The child protection advocates were demanding both increased funding, separate treatment facilities for child molesters, and pre-trial determinations and sentencing. News, July 15, 1954, sec. A, p. 23.
69. Herald, July 9, 1954, sec. A., p. 4; Florida Statistical Abstract 1976, p. 24, 26.
70. Herald, July 9, 1954, sec. A., p. 4; Florida Statistical Abstract 1976, p. 24, 26.
71. Herald, November 4, 1953, sec. A., p. 1.
72. Herald, November 23, 1953, sec. B, p. 5; November 22, 1953, sec. B, p. 6.
73. Ibid., November 29, 1953, sec. B, p. 1.
74. Ibid., December 8, 1953, sec. C, p. 1.
75. Ibid., November 4, 1953, sec. A, p. 1.
76. Ibid., November 12, 1953, sec. B, p. 1; December 15, 1953, sec. B, p. 1.
77. Ibid., November 26, 1953, sec. B, p. 5.
78. News, November 28, 1953, sec. A, p. 1; Herald, November 29, 1953, sec. B, p. 1.
79. News, November 28, 1953, sec. A, p. 1; Herald, November 29, 1953, sec. B, p. 1.
80. D'Emilio, 72-73, 87-89. Among those involved in the founding and early history of ONE were Dorr Legg, Dale Jennings, Don Slater, and Jim Kepner. As Jennings later recalled, "Members of the Mattachine Society wanted the emphasis to be on the contributions that homosexuals had made to literature - to the culture. The editors did not agree. We wanted to focus on gaining political rights." Rodger Streittmatter, Unspeakable: The Rise of the Lesbian and Gay Press in America (Boston: Faber and Faber, 1995), 20; Jim Kepner, Rough News, Daring Views: 1950s' Pioneer Gay Press Journalism (New York: Haworth Press, 1998), 1-12.
81. D'Emilio, 72-73, 87-89. Among those involved in the founding and early history of ONE were Dorr Legg, Dale Jennings, Don Slater, and Jim Kepner. As Jennings later recalled, "Members of the Mattachine Society wanted the emphasis to be on the contributions that homosexuals had made to literature - to the culture. The editors did not agree. We wanted to focus on gaining political rights." Rodger Streittmatter, Unspeakable: The Rise of the Lesbian and Gay Press in America (Boston: Faber and Faber, 1995), 20; Jim Kepner, Rough News, Daring Views: 1950s' Pioneer Gay Press Journalism (New York: Haworth Press, 1998), 1-12.
82. "Miami Junks the Constitution," ONE: The Homosexual Magazine, January 1954, pp. 16-21. Starting with its report on Miami, ONE inaugurated a regular feature of the magazine called "The Bureau of Public Information" devoted to "the exposure of illegal acts and unscientific statements made publicly by persons of influence. No matter how highly placed, ONE will challenge them with all the weight of its thousands of readers." Ibid., p. 16. Years later, Jim Kepner, one of the writers at ONE who wrote under the pseudonym of Lyn Pedersen, recalled that the situation in Miami represented "really formative events in our consciousness of how to deal with this subject politically. . . . The Miami ordeal pushed us towards greater militancy, . . . towards the idea that the chief purpose of ONE was to confront situations like that, to publicize them, and to demand justice. At that time a lot of the attitude in the Mattachine Society was that you didn't demand. You ask people to help you. We pushed the idea of demanding - demanding rather stridently. The Miami purge brought out for me several questions. For example, 'Do homosexuals have the right to gather in bars that are publicly licensed places and still have a degree of privacy?'" (Quoted in Sears, 24; Streittmatter, 26-27).
83. "Miami Junks the Constitution," ONE: The Homosexual Magazine, January 1954, pp. 16-21. Starting with its report on Miami, ONE inaugurated a regular feature of the magazine called "The Bureau of Public Information" devoted to "the exposure of illegal acts and unscientific statements made publicly by persons of influence. No matter how highly placed, ONE will challenge them with all the weight of its thousands of readers." Ibid., p. 16. Years later, Jim Kepner, one of the writers at ONE who wrote under the pseudonym of Lyn Pedersen, recalled that the situation in Miami represented "really formative events in our consciousness of how to deal with this subject politically. . . . The Miami ordeal pushed us towards greater militancy, . . . towards the idea that the chief purpose of ONE was to confront situations like that, to publicize them, and to demand justice. At that time a lot of the attitude in the Mattachine Society was that you didn't demand. You ask people to help you. We pushed the idea of demanding - demanding rather stridently. The Miami purge brought out for me several questions. For example, 'Do homosexuals have the right to gather in bars that are publicly licensed places and still have a degree of privacy?'" (Quoted in Sears, 24; Streittmatter, 26-27).
84. "Who's Sick," ONE, February, 1954, pp. 4-5.
85. Herald, July 9, 1954, sec. A, p. 1.
86. Ibid., July 15, 1954, sec. A, p. 1.
87. Ibid., July 10, 1954, sec. A, p. 1; July 18, 1954, sec. F, p. 3; July 25, 1954, sec. F, p. 3. In the aftermath the Herald ran a number of wire stories from other parts of the county dealing with various sex crimes. Locally a false report to police by a woman who mistakenly thought she saw another kidnapping underway - a father was making a protesting child get into the family car - was featured on the top, front page of the local section. Ibid., July 16, 1954, sec. B, p. 1. The Herald also used the highly charged atmosphere of concern over sex crimes to strike at one of its favorite political targets, acting governor Charley Johns, the conservative rural North Florida politician who became governor with the death of popular - and Herald endorsed - Dan McCarty. Ten days after the murder the newspaper ran a major front-page story accusing the acting
88. Ibid., July 10, 1954, sec. A, p. 1; July 18, 1954, sec. F, p. 3; July 25, 1954, sec. F, p. 3. In the aftermath the Herald ran a number of wire stories from other parts of the county dealing with various sex crimes. Locally a false report to police by a woman who mistakenly thought she saw another kidnapping underway - a father was making a protesting child get into the family car - was featured on the top, front page of the local section. Ibid., July 16, 1954, sec. B, p. 1. The Herald also used the highly charged atmosphere of concern over sex crimes to strike at one of its favorite political targets, acting governor Charley Johns, the conservative rural North Florida politician who became governor with the death of popular - and Herald endorsed - Dan McCarty. Ten days after the murder the newspaper ran a major front-page story accusing the acting governor of staying the sentence of a convicted child molester in West Palm Beach, a town 60 miles north of Miami. It later turned out that the molester was receiving psychiatric care and that Johns, as head of the state pardon board, was following state law and policy in the matter. Ibid., July 17, 1954, sec. A, p. 1; July 21, 1954, sec. C, p. 2.
89. Chauncey, "The Postwar Sex Crime Panic."
90. Herald, July 9, 1954, sec. A, p. 4.
91. Herald, July 12, 1954, sec. B, p. 1.
92. News, July 23, 1954, sec. A, p. 1.
93. Herald, July 28, 1954, sec. A, p. 6.
94. Herald, August 4, 1954, sec. A, pp. 1, 14.
95. Ibid., August 8, 1954, sec. A, p. 1.
96. Ibid., August 19, 1954, sec. A, p. 1.
97. Ibid., August 8, 1954, sec. A, p. 1.
98. Ibid., sec. B, p. 1.
99. Ibid., August 11, 1954, sec. A, p. 1.
100. News, August 9, 1954, sec. A, p. 1.
101. Ibid., August 13, 1954, sec. A., p. 1.
102. Ibid., August 15, 1954, sec. A. p. 1.
103. Ibid., August 16, 1954, sec. A, p. 1.
104. Ibid., August 10, 1954, sec. A, p. 14.
105. Herald, August 11, 1954, sec. A, p. 6.
106. Ibid., August 13, 1954, sec. B, p. 1.
107. Ibid., August 16, 1954, sec. C, p. 1.
108. Ibid., August 14, 1954, sec. A, p. 1; August 15, 1954, sec. B, p. 1.
109. News, August 8, 1954, sec. A, p. 1. Sheriff Kelly's quick and very public response was due in part to the fact that during this period he was the object of an investigation by both a local grand jury and acting governor Charley Johns over charges that he was lax in his law enforcement duties, in particular with regards to gambling, and that the acting governor was planning on removing him. Herald, August 16, 1954, sec. A, p. 1.
110. News, August 8, 1954, sec. A, p. 1. Sheriff Kelly's quick and very public response was due in part to the fact that during this period he was the object of an investigation by both a local grand jury and acting governor Charley Johns over charges that he was lax in his law enforcement duties, in particular with regards to gambling, and that the acting governor was planning on removing him. Herald, August 16, 1954, sec. A, p. 1.
111. Ibid., August 12, 1954, sec. D, p. 1; August 13, 1954, sec. B, p. 12; August 17, 1954, sec. A, p. 7; September 1, 1954, sec. C, p. 6.
112. Ibid., August 14, 1954, sec. A, p. 6; August 15, 1954, sec. F, p. 3; August 17, 1954, sec. A, p. 6.
113. Ibid., August 22, 1954, sec. A, p. 22.
114. Ibid., August 11, 1954, sec. C, p. 1.
115. Ibid., August 17, 1954, sec. A, p. 2; News, August 16, 1954, sec. A, p. 4.
116. Ibid., August 17, 1954, sec. A, p. 2; News, August 16, 1954, sec. A, p. 4.
117. Herald, August 15, 1954, sec. B, p. 1.
118. Ibid., August 12, 1954, sec. D, p. 1.
119. News, August 16, 1954, sec. A, p. 17.
120. As Aronovitz later recalled, during his tenure as mayor, one of his major goals was to fight for better moral conditions in the city. Herald, October 22, 1955, sec. B, p. 2. Among his other targets were private photography studios that did nude photography (Ibid., August 13, 1954, sec. C, p. 1) and bars whose female employees solicited drinks from customers (Ibid., December 21, 1954, sec. B, p. 1).
121. As Aronovitz later recalled, during his tenure as mayor, one of his major goals was to fight for better moral conditions in the city. Herald, October 22, 1955, sec. B, p. 2. Among his other targets were private photography studios that did nude photography (Ibid., August 13, 1954, sec. C, p. 1) and bars whose female employees solicited drinks from customers (Ibid., December 21, 1954, sec. B, p. 1).
122. As Aronovitz later recalled, during his tenure as mayor, one of his major goals was to fight for better moral conditions in the city. Herald, October 22, 1955, sec. B, p. 2. Among his other targets were private photography studios that did nude photography (Ibid., August 13, 1954, sec. C, p. 1) and bars whose female employees solicited drinks from customers (Ibid., December 21, 1954, sec. B, p. 1).
123. Herald, August 27, 1954, sec. A, p. 1.
124. Ibid., August 28, 1954, sec. A, p. 6.; News, August 27, 1954, sec. A, p. 14.
125. Ibid., August 28, 1954, sec. A, p. 6.; News, August 27, 1954, sec. A, p. 14.
126. Herald, August 28, 1954, sec. B, p. 1.
127. Ibid., August 29, 1954, sec. A, p. 1.
128. Ibid., August 30, 1954, sec. D, p. 1.
129. Ibid., August 31, 1954, sec. B, p. 1.
130. Ibid., August 29, 1954, sec. A, p. 2.
131. News, August 27, 1954, sec. A, p. 1.
132. Herald, September 1, 1954, sec. C, p. 1.
133. Ibid., September 2, 1954, sec. C, p. 1.
134. Ibid., sec. A, p. 6.
135. Ibid., September 2, 1954, sec. A, p. 3; News, September 3, 1954, sec. B, p. 3; ibid., September 9, 1954, sec. A, p. 4.
136. Ibid., September 2, 1954, sec. A, p. 3; News, September 3, 1954, sec. B, p. 3; ibid., September 9, 1954, sec. A, p. 4.
137. Ibid., September 2, 1954, sec. A, p. 3; News, September 3, 1954, sec. B, p. 3; ibid., September 9, 1954, sec. A, p. 4.
138. Ibid.
139. Ibid., September 4, 1954, sec. A, p. 4.
140. Herald, September 9, 1954, sec. C, p. 12; September 10, 1954, sec. A, p. 8.
141. News, September 7, 1954, sec. A, p. 4.
142. Herald, September 5, 1954, sec. A, p. 9.
143. Ibid., September 9, 1954, sec. A, p. 4.
144. Ibid., September 11, 1954, sec. B, p. 5.
145. Ibid., September 16, 1954, sec. C, p. 5.
146. Section 3-14, City of Miami Code 1957.
147. Herald, October 21, 1954, sec. D, p. 1.
148. Ibid., September 11, 1954, sec. B, p. 5; December 12, 1954, sec. B, p. 5.
149. Ibid., December 13, 1954, sec. B, p. 8.
150. Lyn Pedersen (Jim Kepner), "Miami Hurricane," ONE, November 1954, pp. 4-8.
151. Herald's campaign conforms loosely to Goode and Ben-Yehuda's model of an "elite-engineered" moral panic in which a campaign is engineered over an issue or group that elites recognize is not terribly harmful to society, but which allows them to pursue other major goals or deal with other major threats to their interests. The following year in Boise, Idaho, as chronicled by John Gerassi, a similar elite-engineered moral panic over homosexuality occurred (The Boys of Boise: Vice and Folly in An American City [New York: MacMillan, 1966]). However, in contrast to Miami's panic, this one did generate wide public support and led to a generalized witch-hunt and arrest of homosexuals, some of them socially prominent. Also in contrast to Miami's panic, Gerassi argues that the panic was engineered by the conservative local elite as a way of discrediting a reformist group which controlled city government. See also Goode and Ben-Yehuda, 6-8, 135.
152. Herald's campaign conforms loosely to Goode and Ben-Yehuda's model of an "elite-engineered" moral panic in which a campaign is engineered over an issue or group that elites recognize is not terribly harmful to society, but which allows them to pursue other major goals or deal with other major threats to their interests. The following year in Boise, Idaho, as chronicled by John Gerassi, a similar elite-engineered moral panic over homosexuality occurred (The Boys of Boise: Vice and Folly in An American City [New York: MacMillan, 1966]). However, in contrast to Miami's panic, this one did generate wide public support and led to a generalized witch-hunt and arrest of homosexuals, some of them socially prominent. Also in contrast to Miami's panic, Gerassi argues that the panic was engineered by the conservative local elite as a way of discrediting a reformist group which controlled city government. See also Goode and Ben-Yehuda, 6-8, 135.
153. It is difficult to document the nature and character of Miami's homosexual community and whether indeed some of its members occupied prominent positions. One subject in Sears' oral history of Miami during the 1950s recalled that it was well-known within the homosexual community that "family members of high (city) administration officials . . . were secretly queer" and that the message to city law enforcement and others was "stay with the peons. Don't go across the board. Keep busting the bars, keep raiding the beaches, keep prowling the parks, but don't move into business or political communities" (Sears, 45). Both the limits imposed upon the Herald's campaign and its quick termination may also have been due to the intervention of the Knight brothers. Pennekamp, a newspaper man who received his training in the days when being a reporter was hardly regarded as a respectable career, was often suspicious of the "Miami Club crowd," or the members of Miami's business, political, and social elite who belonged to the local exclusive city club. He tended to regard their civic and charitable activities as "cover-ups for their own nefarious schemes" (Smiley, 283). The local establishment, in turn, often viewed Pennekamp's strident editorial campaigns with concern.
154. It is difficult to document the nature and character of Miami's homosexual community and whether indeed some of its members occupied prominent positions. One subject in Sears' oral history of Miami during the 1950s recalled that it was well-known within the homosexual community that "family members of high (city) administration officials . . . were secretly queer" and that the message to city law enforcement and others was "stay with the peons. Don't go across the board. Keep busting the bars, keep raiding the beaches, keep prowling the parks, but don't move into business or political communities" (Sears, 45). Both the limits imposed upon the Herald's campaign and its quick termination may also have been due to the intervention of the Knight brothers. Pennekamp, a newspaper man who received his training in the days when being a reporter was hardly regarded as a respectable career, was often suspicious of the "Miami Club crowd," or the members of Miami's business, political, and social elite who belonged to the local exclusive city club. He tended to regard their civic and charitable activities as "cover-ups for their own nefarious schemes" (Smiley, 283). The local establishment, in turn, often viewed Pennekamp's strident editorial campaigns with concern. The Knight brothers, as owners of the newspaper, generally focused most of their energies on the business aspects of the newspaper. However, they were very much a part of the Miami establishment and closely socialized and identified with the group that Pennekamp often held up for criticism. Tensions often rose between the Knight brothers and Pennekamp over the latter's editorial activities, and the brothers were often uncomfortable with his "black and white" style of editorializing, particularly when it affected the interests of their social and business acquaintances (Smiley, 202-3, 283-84). Matters came to a head in 1957 when the Herald was sued for libel by the Dade County state attorney over a Pennekamp-directed editorial questioning the official's reasons for suppressing a grand jury report on local political corruption. The suit was successful, costing the newspaper $100,000. The Knight brothers began to search for a replacement for Pennekamp and in 1958 hired Don Shoemaker, who quickly assumed direction of the Herald's editorial policy, instituting a "more balanced" perspective on local affairs. Pennekamp stayed on with reduced responsibilities. In 1960, in recognition of Pennekamp's effort on behalf of the environment, the state of Florida created the John Pennekamp State Park, in Key Largo, the first underwater park in the United States, containing one of the world's major coral reefs (Smiley 202-3, 283-89). He retired from the Herald in 1977 and died the following year at the age of eighty (Herald, June 18, 1978, sec. A, pp. 1, 26).
155. John Wallace Hamilton, "Florida's Rehabilitative Sex Offender Laws," University of Florida Law Review 15 (1962): 245-62.
156. News, February 27, 1956, sec. A, p. 1; February 28, 1956, sec. A, p. 4.
157. The law remained on the books. In the 1960s Richard Inman of the Florida Mattachine Society unsuccessfully attempted to have it declared unconstitutional (Herald, January 16, 1968, sec. B, p. 2). However, the law, along with Miami Beach's law outlawing drag, became the focus of local gay rights activists in the early 1970s. Challenged in court, the bar law was declared unconstitutional in December 1971 (Ibid., December 10, 1971, sec. C, p. 2) and the anti-drag law in June 1972 (Ibid., June 23, 1972, sec. C, p. 1).
158. The law remained on the books. In the 1960s Richard Inman of the Florida Mattachine Society unsuccessfully attempted to have it declared unconstitutional (Herald, January 16, 1968, sec. B, p. 2). However, the law, along with Miami Beach's law outlawing drag, became the focus of local gay rights activists in the early 1970s. Challenged in court, the bar law was declared unconstitutional in December 1971 (Ibid., December 10, 1971, sec. C, p. 2) and the anti-drag law in June 1972 (Ibid., June 23, 1972, sec. C, p. 1).
159. The law remained on the books. In the 1960s Richard Inman of the Florida Mattachine Society unsuccessfully attempted to have it declared unconstitutional (Herald, January 16, 1968, sec. B, p. 2). However, the law, along with Miami Beach's law outlawing drag, became the focus of local gay rights activists in the early 1970s. Challenged in court, the bar law was declared unconstitutional in December 1971 (Ibid., December 10, 1971, sec. C, p. 2) and the anti-drag law in June 1972 (Ibid., June 23, 1972, sec. C, p. 1).
160. News, February 27, 1956, sec. A, p. 2.
161. Ibid., February 28, 1956, sec. A, p. 6.
162. Herald, June 7, 1957, sec. B, p. 2. Two months later he was appointed Safety Director for the new Metro-Dade government, giving him broad responsibilities for law enforcement in Dade County (News, August 2, 1957, sec. A, p. 2).
163. Herald, June 7, 1957, sec. B, p. 2. Two months later he was appointed Safety Director for the new Metro-Dade government, giving him broad responsibilities for law enforcement in Dade County (News, August 2, 1957, sec. A, p. 2).
164. Lyn Pedersen, "Miami's New Type Witchhunt," ONE, April-May 1956, p. 9.
165. Sears, 212-57, 48-84; Ellen McGarrahan, "Florida's Secret Shame," Tropics (Miami Herald Sunday Magazine), December 8, 1991, pp. 9-16; James A. Schnur, "Closet Crusaders: The Johns Committee and Homophobia, 1956-1965," in Carryin' On in the Lesbian and Gay South, ed. John Howard (New York: New York University Press, 1997), 132-63; John Loughery, The Other Side of Silence: Men's Lives and Gay Identities: A Twentieth Century History (New York: Henry Holt, 1998), 371-88; Dudley Clendinen and Adam Nagourney, Out for Good: The Struggle to Build a Gay Rights Movement in America (New York: Simon and Schuster, 1998), 291-311; Anita Bryant, The Anita Bryant Story: The Survival of Our Nation's Families and the Threat of Militant Homosexuality (Tappan, NJ: Revell, 1977).
166. Sears, 212-57, 48-84; Ellen McGarrahan, "Florida's Secret Shame," Tropics (Miami Herald Sunday Magazine), December 8, 1991, pp. 9-16; James A. Schnur, "Closet Crusaders: The Johns Committee and Homophobia, 1956-1965," in Carryin' On in the Lesbian and Gay South, ed. John Howard (New York: New York University Press, 1997), 132-63; John Loughery, The Other Side of Silence: Men's Lives and Gay Identities: A Twentieth Century History (New York: Henry Holt, 1998), 371-88; Dudley Clendinen and Adam Nagourney, Out for Good: The Struggle to Build a Gay Rights Movement in America (New York: Simon and Schuster, 1998), 291-311; Anita Bryant, The Anita Bryant Story: The Survival of Our Nation's Families and the Threat of Militant Homosexuality (Tappan, NJ: Revell, 1977).
167. Sears, 212-57, 48-84; Ellen McGarrahan, "Florida's Secret Shame," Tropics (Miami Herald Sunday Magazine), December 8, 1991, pp. 9-16; James A. Schnur, "Closet Crusaders: The Johns Committee and Homophobia, 1956-1965," in Carryin' On in the Lesbian and Gay South, ed. John Howard (New York: New York University Press, 1997), 132-63; John Loughery, The Other Side of Silence: Men's Lives and Gay Identities: A Twentieth Century History (New York: Henry Holt, 1998), 371-88; Dudley Clendinen and Adam Nagourney, Out for Good: The Struggle to Build a Gay Rights Movement in America (New York: Simon and Schuster, 1998), 291-311; Anita Bryant, The Anita Bryant Story: The Survival of Our Nation's Families and the Threat of Militant Homosexuality (Tappan, NJ: Revell, 1977).
168. Sears, 212-57, 48-84; Ellen McGarrahan, "Florida's Secret Shame," Tropics (Miami Herald Sunday Magazine), December 8, 1991, pp. 9-16; James A. Schnur, "Closet Crusaders: The Johns Committee and Homophobia, 1956-1965," in Carryin' On in the Lesbian and Gay South, ed. John Howard (New York: New York University Press, 1997), 132-63; John Loughery, The Other Side of Silence: Men's Lives and Gay Identities: A Twentieth Century History (New York: Henry Holt, 1998), 371-88; Dudley Clendinen and Adam Nagourney, Out for Good: The Struggle to Build a Gay Rights Movement in America (New York: Simon and Schuster, 1998), 291-311; Anita Bryant, The Anita Bryant Story: The Survival of Our Nation's Families and the Threat of Militant Homosexuality (Tappan, NJ: Revell, 1977).
169. Sears, 212-57, 48-84; Ellen McGarrahan, "Florida's Secret Shame," Tropics (Miami Herald Sunday Magazine), December 8, 1991, pp. 9-16; James A. Schnur, "Closet Crusaders: The Johns Committee and Homophobia, 1956-1965," in Carryin' On in the Lesbian and Gay South, ed. John Howard (New York: New York University Press, 1997), 132-63; John Loughery, The Other Side of Silence: Men's Lives and Gay Identities: A Twentieth Century History (New York: Henry Holt, 1998), 371-88; Dudley Clendinen and Adam Nagourney, Out for Good: The Struggle to Build a Gay Rights Movement in America (New York: Simon and Schuster, 1998), 291-311; Anita Bryant, The Anita Bryant Story: The Survival of Our Nation's Families and the Threat of Militant Homosexuality (Tappan, NJ: Revell, 1977).
170. Herald, November 4, 1954, sec. C, p. 1; November 11, 1954, sec. C, p. 1; November 15, 1954, sec. C, p. 1. In December 1975 in an ironic and tragic coda to the Simpson murder, 30-year-old John S. Knight III, grandson of John Knight, was found murdered in his home in Philadelphia. Working as an editor at the Knight-owned newspaper Philadelphia Daily News, he was being groomed to take over his family's newspaper business. In the highly sensational news coverage that followed, it was revealed that he was a homosexual - detailed accounts were given of his closeted life in local newspapers, including the Daily News - and had been the murder victim in a robbery scheme by a group of male hustlers. Jerry W. Knudson, "Philadelphia Story: The Murder of John S. Knight III," Mass Communication Review 6:2 (1979): 11-16.
171. Herald, November 4, 1954, sec. C, p. 1; November 11, 1954, sec. C, p. 1; November 15, 1954, sec. C, p. 1. In December 1975 in an ironic and tragic coda to the Simpson murder, 30-year-old John S. Knight III, grandson of John Knight, was found murdered in his home in Philadelphia. Working as an editor at the Knight-owned newspaper Philadelphia Daily News, he was being groomed to take over his family's newspaper business. In the highly sensational news coverage that followed, it was revealed that he was a homosexual -detailed accounts were given of his closeted life in local newspapers, including the Daily News - and had been the murder victim in a robbery scheme by a group of male hustlers. Jerry W. Knudson, "Philadelphia Story: The Murder of John S. Knight III," Mass Communication Review 6:2 (1979): 11-16.
172. Herald, November 4, 1954, sec. C, p. 1; November 11, 1954, sec. C, p. 1; November 15, 1954, sec. C, p. 1. In December 1975 in an ironic and tragic coda to the Simpson murder, 30-year-old John S. Knight III, grandson of John Knight, was found murdered in his home in Philadelphia. Working as an editor at the Knight-owned newspaper Philadelphia Daily News, he was being groomed to take over his family's newspaper business. In the highly sensational news coverage that followed, it was revealed that he was a homosexual - detailed accounts were given of his closeted life in local newspapers, including the Daily News - and had been the murder victim in a robbery scheme by a group of male hustlers. Jerry W. Knudson, "Philadelphia Story: The Murder of John S. Knight III," Mass Communication Review 6:2 (1979): 11-16.
173. "Judith Ann Roberts: A Loss of Innocence."