Florida Politics - Campaigns & Elections. Lobbying & Government.

Mitch PerryFebruary 20, 2015

Happy Friday to y’all. So much to talk about in the news this morning … The Tampa Bay Times’ flooded the zone in December with a series of disturbing stories about New Beginnings of Tampa, one of the city’s largest homeless charities, which for years has made money off its residents through its controversial “work therapy” program. The […]

Susan ClaryFebruary 16, 2015

I finally saw “Selma.” The Oscar-nominated film depicts Dr. Martin Luther King’s push for passage of the 1965 Voting Rights Act – the federal legislation that was a crowning achievement of the Civil Rights Movement. Many protesters, both black and white, were sacrificed during the brutal efforts to make the 54-mile march from Selma, Alabama, […]

Jac VerSteegJanuary 19, 2015

In his commentary this week for Context Florida, the Rev. H.K. Matthews draws parallels between the 1965 march across the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Alabama and the current effort, including a march Rev. Matthews led, in support of Florida’s corporate tax credit scholarships – also known as school vouchers. Rev. Matthews’ parallel is unseemly and […]

Mitch PerryJanuary 19, 2015

On his HBO Show Realtime, Bill Maher joked on Friday night that while the rest of America was celebrating a three-day holiday weekend commemorating the life of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., in Hollywood they simply call today “Monday.” That was a reference, of course, to the complaints that last week’s Oscar nominations were a “whiteout,” […]

Guest AuthorJanuary 18, 2015

I recently went to see the movie Selma, which I was eager to do – you see, I participated in the first march across the Edmund Pettus Bridge on March 7, 1965. The film certainly brought back many memories for me, and reminded me why that march holds such a prominent place in our nation’s […]

Melissa RossJanuary 16, 2015

It wasn’t your typical night out at the movies. At a recent Jacksonville screening of the MLK biopic Selma, a who’s who of the city’s African-American business and political elite hobnobbed in the crowd, buying popcorn and snapping selfies with the rest of the moviegoers. Community activist Chevara Orrin, the daughter of the late civil […]

Melissa RossJanuary 16, 2015

It wasn’t your typical night out at the movies. At a recent Jacksonville screening of the MLK biopic Selma, a who’s who of the city’s African-American business and political elite hobnobbed in the crowd, buying popcorn and snapping selfies with the rest of the moviegoers. Community activist Chevara Orrin, the daughter of the late civil […]

Martin DyckmanApril 14, 2014

Fifty years ago, Congress was moving toward enacting the first meaningful civil rights law. Lyndon Johnson, the masterful president who was about to accomplish what had seemed impossible, was looking for someone to help implement the legislation. The choice would fall on LeRoy Collins, Florida’s former governor. It would toll the end of his political […]

Tag: Selma

Mitch Perry Report for 2.20.15 — On Rudy, Rick and DWS

Susan Clary: Future 'Selma' will depict gay-rights struggle

Jac Wilder VerSteeg: Parallel between Selma, school vouchers is strained

Mitch Perry Report for 1.19.15 — Happy MLK Day, the quasi-federal holiday

Rev. H.K. Matthews: March for tax credit scholarships echoes Selma

Jacksonville's black Democrats say Alvin Brown carries weight of being 'first'

Jacksonville’s black Democrats say Alvin Brown carries weight of being ‘first’

Martin Dyckman: Battle for civil rights cost some politicians their careers