Inauguration C. Farris Bryant took the oath of office on January 3, 1961. In his inaugural address, Governor Bryant called for unity in the state and an end to political factionalism in the Florida Legislature. He said the people of Florida should expect his term of office to be an administration of the highest standards in its work, morality, and achievements. Bryant called for improvement in education, the hiring of the most qualified people for state positions, cleaning out corruption in the State Road Department, reapportionment, more efficient tax collection, and a minimum level of dignified subsistence for all Floridians. Alluding to how he would handle integration, Bryant insisted that his administration would not interfere in issues “best left in the hands of local officials,” and he would “oppose with vigor any efforts by the federal government to usurp the proper and lawful prerogatives of the state.”
Roads Bryant believed the state had to invest in infrastructure to handle the needs of its ever-growing population and to encourage more tourism, which would mean more revenue through the sales tax. A supporter of Florida's Turnpike (then known as the Sunshine State Parkway) since its inception in 1955, Bryant approved a new bond issue to complete the turnpike by extending it from Fort Pierce on the Atlantic to Wildwood in Sumter County in central Florida. The extension was completed in 1964, during the last months of his administration. Other road building initiatives during the Bryant years included the improvement and completion of
US Highway 1, running along Florida's Atlantic coast from the Georgia border to Key West; the extension of
I-10 to Lake City and progress on the extension of
I-75 north of Lake City to Tampa; the completion of
I-4 from the Tampa/St. Petersburg area across the state to Daytona Beach on the Atlantic; and the beginning of construction of the Everglades Parkway or
“Alligator Alley” from Naples on the Gulf coast to Fort Lauderdale north of Miami.
Cross Florida Barge Canal Since the territorial days, Florida governors had dreamed of building a canal across the state as a way of improving the economy, expanding settlement, and increasing revenue. Governor Bryant had long supported the construction of what became known as the
Cross Florida Barge Canal. Plans called for the canal to cut through the peninsula from
Palatka on the St. Johns River to
Yankeetown on the Gulf of Mexico. Barges would be able to cross the state from Jacksonville to the Gulf and from the Gulf to the Atlantic. Proponents like Bryant believed that the canal would be a major inducement for investment in the state and a further way to meet the growth demands of Florida's burgeoning population. During the 1960 presidential campaign,
John F. Kennedy promised that his presidency would fund construction of the canal. President Kennedy requested money from Congress for initial building costs. After the
Cuban Missile Crisis of October 1962, Bryant and other canal supporters argued that the canal would be vital to the defense of the United States; shipping could pass safely through the canal without having to go near Cuba and the threat from Soviet submarines and warplanes. The canal, supporters claimed, would be the perfect highway to safely transport rockets and related material to what would become the
National Aeronautics and Space Administration's (NASA) Kennedy Space Center at
Cape Canaveral. In June 1961, the governor testified in Congress about the benefits of the canal, including flood control in an area of the state that had seen massive flood damage over the decades. However, it was not until December 1963, during the first month of the administration of President Lyndon B. Johnson, that federal money started to flow to the canal project. President Johnson wanted to ensure that he would carry Florida in the
1964 presidential election. He was present with Governor Bryant for the groundbreaking ceremony for the canal at Palatka on February 27, 1964. With this promising beginning, it looked like the canal would be realized. Unfortunately for Bryant, by the end of the 1960s, increased concern about the environmental damage the canal posed to the
Ocklawaha River and other waterways and the massive cost of the project led to the eventual demise of the canal. Until the end of his life, Bryant defended the canal and believed the failure to complete it was a great loss to the state.
Education One of the biggest impacts of the Bryant administration on the state was in the area of education. Bryant created the Committee on Quality Education in 1961. A year later, he launched the First Governors Conference on Higher Education. Outcomes from the recommendation of these committees, other experts, and the governor's own study of the issues, resulted in many changes. In primary education, there was improvement in teacher certification, recruitment of instructors, promotion of vocational training, and the use of libraries and guidance services, among other initiatives. The most consequential educational reforms, however, were in higher education. He received legislative support to increase salaries for university faculty, funded more junior colleges, improved continuing education with the Florida Institute for Continuing University Studies, instituted year-round education in Florida's state universities, secured funds for the construction of what would become the
University of West Florida in Pensacola, realized the finishing and opening of
Florida Atlantic University in 1964, pushed for the creation of the future
University of Central Florida, and funded several new buildings for existing Florida universities. Bryant funded this massive educational building program through a bond initiative that would raise the funds necessary for long-term building projects while paying off the bond debt through the state tax on utilities.
Promoting Florida Governor Bryant devoted much of his time in office to promoting the virtues of visiting, doing business, and living in Florida. As he did during his campaign for governor in 1960, he used radio and television to promote Florida, especially its citrus industry. As governor-elect in December 1960, he led a delegation to South America to encourage mutual investment and tourism between Florida and that continent. In October 1961, he took his family to Europe to vacation and promote Florida tourism. Bryant, an avid pilot and flyer, flew around the state and country to meet with business and governmental leaders to talk about investing in Florida. The governor increased the number of state parks and promoted historical sites such as
San Marcos de Apalache south of Tallahassee. He made sure Florida was represented at the
1964 New York World's Fair. Bryant took pride in the fact that NASA used Cape Canaveral as its launch site for crewed space missions and pointed to this development as a sign that Florida was leading the nation into space.
The Cold War and Cuba Bryant entered the governorship in January 1961, only two years after
Fidel Castro's revolutionary forces came to power in Cuba. An ardent opponent of Communism and the
Soviet Union since his early days in the legislature, Bryant favored a firm national policy against the Soviet-supported Castro government and pushed to implement
civil defense measures in case of war between Soviet Union and the United States. As evidence of Soviet military aid to Cuba grew, Governor Bryant called for the United States to do whatever was necessary to end the Castro regime. A month before the Cuban Missile Crisis, he spoke about his support for a military blockade of Cuba and even an invasion of the island. The governor believed that only the downfall of the Cuban government would end the flow of Cuban refugees to Florida—a situation that he constantly asked the Kennedy administration to relieve. At the same time, he worried about the economic impact the Cuban crisis was having on Florida, especially in south Florida in the days following the Cuban Missile Crisis, when he tried to assure Americans and the world that Florida was safe for tourists. During the missile crisis, he fully backed President Kennedy's actions towards Cuba and the Soviet missiles; however, in private, he urged the president to invade Cuba and end the Castro regime. Governor Bryant called out the
Florida National Guard, including its air arm, to back up the US military presence in Florida, addressed Floridians about the crisis on the radio, and rushed to strengthen civil defense measures. Bryant remained a Cold warrior after the missile crisis, supporting the Johnson and Nixon policies in
Vietnam and endorsing an aggressive stand against Communism wherever it was in power. He supported the requirement that all Florida high school students had to pass a course in Americanism versus Communism before graduation. In 1963, Bryant created the Florida Center for Cold War Education, an institute designed to promote patriotism and to educate Floridians on the threats posed by Communist ideas and countries.
Segregation and civil rights As a north central Florida politician from a small town, Farris Bryant grew up in a world where whites and blacks were not supposed to question the dominance of whites in a firmly segregated society. As an ambitious politician with a conservative view of life, Bryant, although he never endorsed violence, never questioned the segregation system in public. He, like almost all Florida lawmakers during his time in the Florida Legislature, opposed the
Brown decision with its federal call for the integration of the nation's schools. After seeing the political price his old rival LeRoy Collins paid for his eventual willingness to implement integration in Florida's public schools, Bryant, after losing the governor's race in 1956, was determined to uphold segregation when he ran for governor in 1960. He led the effort in the Florida House of Representatives to successfully pass an
interposition resolution in opposition to the
Brown decision. However, after winning the 1960 gubernatorial race, he preferred to downplay the race issue. Bryant allowed the integration of Florida's public schools begun under Governor Collins to continue. When it came to calls for integration and civil rights beyond Florida's court ordered integration of public schools, Bryant remained opposed to what he said was a threat to law and order. He did not call for the use of state law enforcement in the bloody repression of civil rights demonstrators as seen in some other southern states, preferring to let local authorities deal with protestors and their racist attackers. In the summer of 1961,
Freedom Riders drove across Florida from Pensacola to Jacksonville. Governor Bryant ordered the
Florida Highway Patrol to make sure that restaurants, rest stops, and bus terminals along the route did not refuse the riders service. If they did not want to provide service, they were supposed to close, but not protest. There were a couple of violent incidents in Tallahassee, but the Freedom Riders’ journey across Florida was mostly untroubled. As a result of the
St. Augustine movement, in the summer of 1963, African American demonstrators, and allies launched sit-in demonstrations at white owned establishments in
St. Augustine, Florida, and marched for civil rights. The violent clashes between whites and the demonstrators were eventually contained and died down but resumed in greater force in the spring of 1964, as the state and city planned events celebrating the city's upcoming 400th anniversary of its founding in 1965. Local police arrested demonstrators and white militants attacked marchers and hounded blacks going about their daily business. Civil rights leader
Martin Luther King Jr. called for massive demonstrations in the city. St. Augustine quickly received national attention as the new battlefield in the civil rights struggle. King arrived in the city to direct and support the demonstrators while a number out of state racists, including the notorious Georgia Klansman
J. B. Stoner, came to the scene to encourage the racist attackers. Governor Bryant initially failed to stem the violence. He called in too few state troopers to intervene between the demonstrators and their attackers. When he issued an order to ban nighttime demonstrations, federal judge
Bryan Simpson overturned the order and placed the blame for the violence on the white counter-protestors. Governor Bryant called for calm and the establishment of a biracial committee to negotiate an end to the violence. He also sent aides to meet with Reverend King to coordinate actions. Although the violence decreased, the crisis in the city did not end until the
Civil Rights Act became law in early July 1964.
Methodism and morality Governor Bryant's commitment to his Christian faith and Methodism informed his decisions on many issues. He and his wife, Julia, were teetotalers, who forbade the serving of alcohol in the
Florida Governor's Mansion. He opposed legalized gambling, the elimination of prayer and Bible readings in public schools, and the spread of pornography. And although he supported the death penalty, he anguished over the signing of death warrants, calling the process—ten death row inmates were executed during Bryant's term—'“a soul-searching experience.”' == Later life and legacy ==