Lyndon B. Johnson: The First Sitting President To Visit Orlando and Jones High Band Was There
- Details
- Category: Lifestyle/People
- Published: Monday, 20 October 2014 03:09
- Written by Doug Head
by Doug Head
FIFTY YEARS AGO THIS WEEK, the key Presidential election of 1964 was coming to a head, right here in Orlando. President Lyndon Johnson came to town. Lyndon Johnson had 'betrayed" the South in the views of many by forcefully advocating for the Civil Rights act of 1964 and pushing it through congress over the filibusters and procedural moves of Southern Democrats. Worse still, in the views of Southern conservatives, he was talking about implementing "Medicare" for the elderly and other things viewed as "socialistic" in Orlando of that time. Barry Goldwater had been reduced to talking about how he was opposed to the "extremism" of the John Birch Society and the Klan, and how the Johnson administration was corrupt, (his big evidence was that Johnson had a gay aide who had been outed in a DC park). It was clear that Goldwater was losing, but would Johnson carry Florida?
It was a very strange time. On October 20, just before the election, Herbert Hoover died. Johnson's campaign trips were cancelled to pay homage to the ultimate defining personality of Republican policies then and now, the curmudgeon who would do nothing in 1929-1932 because he believed in the self-correcting abilities of "free markets". Orlando's economy, though Disney was coming, was still dominated by the Orange groves which were hurting and their need for really cheap labor and they like Johnson's support for their industry, but hated civil rights. Anita Bryant was still to come.
As Johnson surveyed the states, he wanted a landslide, a "mandate" for action and he felt
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he could get it. Kennedy had lost Florida by 3% and Johnson was determined to win it for the Democrats, recognizing that his base in South Florida of retired Yankees had grown. He also was a Southern Baptist and that appealed to some Southern Democrats who had voted against Catholic Kennedy. But Johnson was carrying the huge millstone of the Civil Rights Bill around his neck into segregated Central Florida.
Despite a lot of effort by some enlightened leaders, the schools were still 99.9% segregated and racial relations where not good in Orlando. In the end Johnson carried Florida by just 0.3 percent 948,540 to 905,941. Johnson LOST Orange County by nearly 10,000 votes, garnering just 38,248 votes to Goldwater's 48,884. Orlando Republicans began their growth in that election and peaked in the late 1990's. Stalwart Southern Democrats like Jack Jennings eventually switched and his daughter became Republican Lt. Governor Toni Jennings of Orlando Republican fame.
THE VISIT
Johnson's visit was a personal project of Orlando Sentinel publisher Martin Andersen, who controlled newspapers with that name published all over the region. Andersen was a big fan of doing big things for Central Florida and knew that to build an I-4 across the region and through downtown was a project which would require strong federal support and money. He knew that Goldwater would never do it and he saw that Johnson would, but needed to be pushed and persuaded by a strong political effort. Andersen was determined to elect Johnson, make him his friend and get the project done.
Johnson accepted an invitation to visit just as he saw the opportunity presented by Florida. He came here and went to Miami the next day. It was the first time that a sitting President had ever visited sleepy Orlando and it was a BIG deal. As Andersen promoted the event, the School Board voted to allow students to leave school with parental permission slips. But under pressure, this rapidly became an announced policy by Superintendent Kipp that all schools would not convene on that day. Teachers could greet the President along with thousands of kids who had never seen a living President.
Johnson arrived on the evening of October 25th and was greeted by (Democratic) dignitaries at the "McCoy Air Force base". At the airport he was welcomed by the band of Winter Park High School. He traveled on surface roads all the way downtown to the only hotel in the region which could manage such a visit and clear two floors for the party, the Cherry Plaza, still standing at Lake Eola but now an apartment building. There (in a gesture full of symbols) he was serenaded by the Black Jones High School Band – in the night, when TV cameras were minimal. In the morning of Monday the 26th at 9:30 AM Johnson was carried in an open car (the Warren report was still a best-seller and windows were closed on the route and people prohibited from getting on roofs) motorcade from the Cherry Plaza to the site of a rally. The route was West on Central to Orange, North on Orange to Colonial and then East to "the Mall" (the only mall – Colonial Plaza) where a huge fenced parking lot allowed for a crowd of 40,000 residents to greet him. The Edgewater high band played. (Later Republicans on the school board attempted to fire the superintendent of schools for allowing time off, and allowing all these bands to play. Jack Jennings, the Democrat, stopped it.)
At the "Mall" on a stage behind the (now demolished) Belk Lindsey department store, Johnson spoke of his view of the future and things that were going to go ahead and help Central Florida, like the Space program. He was a progressive in every sense and he let the town know it. He got huge cheers, but not from the voters of Orange apparently. The huge crowd was supplemented by folks from the coast (both Volusia and Brevard went Democrat the next week) and then Johnson was hauled back to McCoy (no Semoran Blvd. was in place so I don't know the route)
The Sentinel was ecstatic for a solid week leading to the visit and after it. Andersen strongly endorsed Johnson and spoke of the future. Orlando was on the Presidential Map. And Johnson would be back for the dedication of I-4 a few years later, driving, again with Andersen, across the Ivanhoe Causeway. The landslide and the Florida victory (despite the many Florida Democrats who hid from the festivities) allowed Johnson to push a progressive agenda through Congress, like no other President since. And Orlando played a key (symbolic) role.