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FORUM : the Magazine of the Florida Humanities Florida Humanities

9-1-1991

Forum : Vol. 15, No. 02 (Fall : 1991)

Florida Humanities Council.

Sheldon R. Isenberg

Louis H. Pratt

Joan S. Carver

Deborah G. Johnson

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Recommended Citation Florida Humanities Council.; Isenberg, Sheldon R.; Pratt, Louis H.; Carver, Joan S.; and Johnson, Deborah G., "Forum : Vol. 15, No. 02 (Fall : 1991)" (1991). FORUM : the Magazine of the Florida Humanities. 4. https://scholarcommons.usf.edu/forum_magazine/4

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Women in Florida Politics - Page 12 ______-______

BOARD OF DIRECTORS

Carl Christian Anderson THE HUMANITIES Leesburg Philosophy, ethics, religion, history, art criticism, literature, Marcia Beach Fort Lauderdale language, linguistics, folklife, archaeology, Samuel P. Bell Ill anthropologyand jurisprudence. Tallahassee They tell us about our lives, our cultures and our societies. Cici Brown Ormond Beach They provide the traditions, interpretations and visions Cecilia Bryant which define our existence. Jacksonville Locke Burt Ormond Beach Myra 3. Daniels Naples Inside Highlights Francisco Jose de Varona Miami Nancy 1. Ford 4 Richard Eberhart Teaches Me By Sheldon R. lsenberg Tampa About My Father’s Death Marcia Frey Winter Park William 1. Hall Jr. A discussion of the writings of one of America’s elder poets Niceville Lois C. Harrison 6 Lift Every Voice and Sing By Louis H. Pratt Lakeland Thomas 3. Hegarty The life of James Weldon Johnson, Jacksonville-born Tampa educator, writer and civil rights leader Mildred Hill-Lubin Gainesville Richard P. Janaro 12 The Long, Slow Climb By Joan S. Carver Miami Thomas P. Johnson Seven political pros discuss the emergence of women Fort Myers in Florida politics Eugene Lyon St. Augustine 17 Seeking Ethical Guidelines By Deborah Johnson Patsy 3. Palmer G. Tallahassee for Use of Computer Technology W. Stanley Proctor Monticello Can we apply traditional moral theories to new situations? Yvonne V. Sapia Lake city 21 New Grants Issued By FHC Board Annette Scherman Sarasota 22 Meet FHC’s Five New Members Frank E. Taylor Board Key West

STAFF THE FLORIDA HUMANITIES COUNCIL ANN HENDERSON Executive Director FHC FORUM * Vol. XV, No.2 * Fall 1991 ANN BOOKS The magazine of THE FLORIDA HUMANITIES COUNCIL Associate Director for Administration 1718 East Seventh Avenue, Suite 301, Tampa, Florida 33605 SUSAN LOCKWOOD 813 272-3473 Associate Director for Program - JOAN BRAGGINTON The Florida Humanities Council, a non-profit organization-funded Program Director by the National Endowment for the Humanities, the state of Florida RON COOPER and private contributors-supports public humanities activities in Resource center Director Fiorida. Views expressed by contributors are not necessarily those CYNTHIA DAVIS of the Florida Humanities Council. FHC Forum is distributed free of Teacher Institute Coordinator charge to the friends of the Florida Humanities Council and CHRISTINE LENTZ interested Floridians. If you wish to be added to the mailing list, Administrative Assistant please request so in writing. NANCY LEWIS Bookkeeper MYRA STONER Secretary FRONT COVER Editor John W.Koenlg Pencil sketch of James Weldon Johnson by artist Mark Priest,

Design & Production an instructor at Seminole Community College. Russ Kramer

© 1991 Fl-IC A NEW NAME: The Florida Humanities Council

once was introduced to an audience at a community college as the executive director of the Florida Endowment for the Manatees. It was the only time when I have been introduced that a majority of those in the audience actually looked as if theyJ knew what did for I, I a living. of course, was madly trying to remember everything I ever had heard about sea cows. Fortu nately, I was the commencement speaker and the audience was more interested in getting on to the important stuff - watching family and friends graduate - than in listening to me. I tell this story to help explain why we recently changed the name of the organization to the Florida Humanities Council. Originally the Florida Citizens’ Committee for the Promo tion of the Humanities when the organization was founded in 1971, the name was changed to the Florida Endowment for the Humanities in 1974. Florida Endowment for the Humanities always was diffi cult. The word "endowment" kept getting in our way. It was a misnomer. We are not endowed; we are supported by grants from the state of Florida and the National Endowment for the Humanities. As our support from the state has shrunk, we have begun to seek private sector funds. In our discussions with cor porations, foundations and individuals, we often have found it necessary to explain first that we are neither rich nor endowed. Our decision to abandon the term "endowment" makes our role easier to explain. Although we have changed the name to better describe ourselves, we are still committed to the humanities - no matter how difficult the word is to explain. As Sharon Scholl of Jack sonville University explains, public humanities programs give people a deeper sympathy with the worlds around them. The composition of our state demands a citizenry with the capacity to understand communities outside their own. This is the contribu tion of the humanities. The Florida Humanities Council will con tinue to make sure that people throughout the state - not just those on the college campus - have opportunities to develop this capacity.

Ann Henderson Executive Director

FALL 1991 3 Richard Eberhart Teaches Me About My Father’s Death

By Sheldon R. Isenberg 0 good life he does not affirm-but 0 the wonder and mystery of all ‘5 being, he does affirm. know Richard Eberhart 5 through his poems, and I have In "Survivors," published in 0 IonIymade that acquaintance only ‘5 The Lpg Reach: N Uncol recently. Maybe my innards are lected Poems, 1948-1984 New just getting old enough to learn Directions, 1984, Eberhart talks from him. about the "ancient ladies" who, "At Play ninety, My preparation for this read ninety, golf at At ing has included experiencing my Castine, a way from sorrow. ...Who have evaded ill By some father’s dying which he completed mysterious principles... last summer: 10 days unconscious in intensive care, breathing at the The mystery, given "The rate it takes to sustain 110 heart common lot, Nature ruthless beats per minute-the pulse of a but "nature is Not ruthless to marathon runner at the end of the them, Seemingly. ..." And yet "1 course. Everything gave out but cannot accept/That to live long his heart. means truth? When I think Of My father’s aging was very Keats, of Hopkins/ Of Dylan hard-not because he resisted it, Thomas." but because the end game of his Watching mother and father life was so long-decreasing cir Richard Eberhart swallows feeding their chicks and cles of activity as his body disinte teaching them to survive, he grated until the magnetic force of poets write "to perform the self in decides that "The laws of nature! his bed became irresistible. His acts of creation against the total Are from ancient time,/ Why story is not like the ones Eberhart loss of time were one silent." Eber then/ Not Salute? Old ladies full tells of 90 and 100 year olds play hart continues to write--he seems of grace/ Who have! Outwitted ing bridge and sinking holes in to find time, not lose it. We were time,/ or so it seems." one. Nor like the story that is the delighted and astonished as he poet himself, writing at 86. helped prepare us for this occasion He gives us lots of time. with gifts of new words. In "On Hearing of Auden’s death, he So I approach Eberhart as a Aging," an unpublished writes in "Trying to Hold it All teacher. I’m looking for inspira manuscript, he points me to a rela Together" Collected Poems ii2tSi tion, models for aging-ideas and tivity of time more profound than Oxford University, 1976: images. Reading him, I have found Einstein’s: "to feel old at 30, young We cannot outface time, many wonderful poems about at 80," as he says. Nothing can be done about the elders and eldering. But there are human condition. other themes that I need to learn My father was rarely young about from Eberhart-death, of for me. But I remember one time, O nothing can be done! course, and youth. Our ideas of when he was just 80, he danced Don’t think it. eldering are knotted with our with my mother on legs that Don’t believe Will will help us, ideas of youth. And time and almost refused to carry him. But or religion, his civilized stance, timelessness. And nature. he bore a young delighted smile A comic attitude, any saving grace, In an essay published more on his face. We cannot hold it all together, the than 20 years ago, he says that Eberhart keeps pointing me depth, to the mystery: the inexplicability We cannot trick it out with word Dr. lsenberg is associate professor of reli of being born, of dying old or embroidery. gion at fheUniversily of Florida. He deliv dying young, of living long and Time is the master of the man, and ered this paper in 1990 at a Florida healthy or we know it. Humanities Council-sponsored program, not so healthy. No easy ‘Writing in theUpward Years," at Santa Fe morals-no morals at all. The Bib Community College. lical faith that long life rewards a

4 FORUM THE MAGAZINE OF THE FLORIDA HUMANITIES COUNCIL Time outwits us finally-we father, if he were asked properly- move his hands to write, he com feel the poet’s grief, but without a insisted that he put on Tallis and municated with his eyes during trace of sentimentality; in his poet Tefillen and daven. And he did the few moments a day that he ry none of the ruthlessness of that. But toward the end, enough was awake. I saw that myself. nature, but also there is no false prayers unfulfilled, my mother And she also told me that there hope of immortality preached by stopped insisting and he stopped was a young, pretty nurse- some philosophies, some religions. it. No disappointment expressed, maybe with rosy bosoms-who no doubt of or anger with God. would come visit him and so He admits that he wants to Another possibility had not inspire him that he would move find that place where time stops- panned out. through the paralysis, even get up and so aging and dying-he wants a few sounds, look at her and the consolations of religion, but toothlessly smile. He flirted, and "Doubt and belief warring in me The promises of my mother-herself a great beauty to this day." in all her ages-was not jealous! It In his poem, "A Way Out," eternity beyond was life! Collected Poems Eberhart shares Eberhart teaches that to die the story of his powerful attraction nature Eberhart is to enter into the realm of the un to the immortalities promised by human, unknowing, wonderful, Buddha and Christ. cannot handle speechless, mysterious nature: I could not abrogate my reason earth, stone, water, plants, ani East or West. rationally, and mals. Eberhart doesn’t anthropo Caught in this dilemma, I morphize: Nature doesn’t dreamed of time he won’t give up mean-and this we hear many And flung myself on the breast times-NATURE DOESN’T and body of nature. his rationality. CARE. And that turns him on! Naturalism claimed me as day Big Rock turning to night, This excites me. Isit watching But I was struck twice by blind Although in the end, Eber the sunset hart teaches, "time takes us away ing light. But it was the same decades ago. in its mystery, there is wonder to The promises of eternity youth and wonder to age.’ The Nature is impervious to my bod beyond nature Eberhart cannot wonderful meditation on ily changes. handle rationally, and he won’t "Clouds" Maine Poems, Oxford Iam amazed to see trees, skies give up his rationality. But still, University, 1989: unchanged... like St. Paul he was struck by Clouds so big you would think .1 claim that Imake nature alive blinding light-once more than they are the rosy bosoms Because if it were not for the Paul. Of young girls. How could the human predicament From Buddha and Christ to old world look so new? Nobody would know what nature Mother Nature’s lap where he and before long was like.... finds neither consolation nor irra The girls grow up and have chil Nature is not my lover, tional promises, but hope-filled dren, grow to be old ladies lam the lover of nature, reality: While every day the skies present Ikick the boulder with thefoot of We can live in nature as in our some new wonder Hercules, mother We are bound to lose as time The boulder sits, but I can walk Before we were born, and we can takes us away around it. sense Leaving a few poems to make Time conquers-but with That old death will give way to their way in the world imagination and love, we are new life To establish fundamental wonder greater even though-or even As new mornings grow, Spring and astonishment. because we die-the human comes over the land. For it is all so old, and all so new, predicament makes nature live. life My father was a pious Jew- To the ancient Sphinx, he periodically. There were times My mother told me that says: during his long illness when my when my father was in the nurs I would rather be alive, suffering mother-who spoke to God as ing home, after his final stroke, and exulting someone who could heal my unable to swallow, to speak, or to Continued on page 23 *+

FALL 1991 5 Lift Voice and The Life of James Weldon Johnson, educator, writer, civil rights leader

By Louis H. Pratt

1894, upon graduating from But the young man later him a leading place in the history Atlanta University at the top of spent two summers teaching the of African-Americans. Inhis class, James Weldon John children of black tenant farmers in son received two attractive offers. rural Henry County, Georgia. He To this day, his words still The first: held school in a modest church reach out to both black and white a scholarship to study Americans. While he medicine at Harvard University. without a blackboard or desks for was princi his pupils; yet he supervised the pal of Stanton School, he wrote The second: a job as principal of lyrics for song the all-black Stanton School, from education of 50 students. He a composed by his which he had graduated, in his found sheer excitement in passing brother, J. Rosamond Johnson, for native Jacksonville. along to others the knowledge he a program observing the birthday had gained. More importantly, he of Abraham Lincoln. The song, The scholarship offer was a reveled in the intimate contact first performed by the 500-student rare honor for a black man in that with people from his own culture. chorus of Stanton School, is still era and Johnson had to be sorely He wrote, "I could realize that sung regularly. Titled, "Lift Every tempted. During a one-year break they were me, and I was they; that Voice and Sing," it was adopted from studies in Atlanta, he had a force stronger than blood made by the National Association for the spent several months working for us one." Advancement of Colored People Dr. Thomas Osgood Summers, a as the Negro National Anthem. white surgeon in Jacksonville. And so his choice upon grad Summers, a warm, generous man uation was a relatively easy one. Seeds of pragmatism who shared Johnson’s literary "There must be both great teachers interests, was a great influence in and capable students for the Johnson was born in Jack the young man’s life, and, upon achievement of real education," he sonville on June 17, 1874, the first returning to the university, John later wrote, "but great teachers are of three children to Helen Dillet son took courses in medicine and almost as rare as great philoso and James Johnson. anatomy in preparation for a phers." In the summer of 1894, His father held a respected career as a surgeon. Johnson returned to Jacksonville position as headwaiter at a local to lead Stanton School. hotel. His mother, a woman of Dr. Pratt is professor of English and chair One can only speculate as to mixed black and French dissent, was the daughter of the postmas man of the Department of Languages what might have happened had ter of Nassau, in the Bahamas. The and Literoture at Florida A&M University. Johnson made another decision. Perhaps the sum of his life couple had met in New York, His recent books are Alice Malsenior Walk would have come out the same. But over where the senior James Johnson c An Annotated Bibilograohv: 1968-1986 the next 40 years, Johnson’s multi worked for a time as a waiter and with Darnell 12. Pratt, 1988, and Conver faceted achievements in education, Helen Dillet came to be educated. sations with James Baldwin interviews music, literature, law, diplomacy edited with Fred L. Standley. 1989. and civil rights would carve for

6 FORUM THE MAGAZINE OF THE FLORIDA HUMANITIES COUNCIL found fertile ground in young James’ mind. It was a short step from the idea of making himself useful to the ideal of selfless ser vice to humanity. Having been gradu ated from the eighth grade at Stanton School, Johnson had to go elsewhere if he was to continue his educa tion. Jacksonville had no high school for blacks at that time. So, at 16, he left to study at Atlanta Univer sity, where he enrolled in the Preparatory Division and continued on into the college program. At Atlanta, he con tinued to be a serious stu dent who enjoyed exercising both mind and body. He played on the school’s baseball team, sang in a quartet and took delight in friendly, often heated discussions of the central topic of the day: the race issue. He was intro duced to Booker T. Wash ington, who had yet to rise to national prominence, and, at the Great Columbian Exposition of During the Civil War, James John benefits of independence as he 1893, he met Frederick Douglass son followed Helen to Nassau, held various jobs in the communi and a young, aspiring poet named where they were married in 1864. ty, and his maternal grandmoth Paul Laurence Dunbar. With the When the war ended, the couple er’s manner and bearing latter, he initiated a friendship and moved to Jacksonville. contributed lessons of decisive literary relationship that continued ness, endurance and entrepreneur for many years. Helen Johnson taught her wanted him eldest son the piano, and ship. Though she to to play enter the ministry, neither of his True to his rearing, Johnson she encouraged him to read the parents expressed a preference for continued to show keen under authors of the classics, including ambitions. Instead, standing and appreciation of the Charles Dickens, John Bunyan, Sir his vocational they him to explore work ethic. His scholarly pursuits Walter Scott the Brothers encouraged and his own interests and inclination notwithstanding, he found time Grimm. James Johnson impressed by providing opportunities for during his vacations to use his tal his son lessons of honesty with travel and by supporting his pur ents in practical ways. He earned and integrity and the value of edu suit of academic and moral excel money as a time- keeper for a road cation. lence. Thus, the seeds of gang and as a wood turner in a Young James also learned the utilitarianism and pragmatism

FALL 1991 7 Johnson right, rear with a class at Stanton School. He brought major curriculum reforms to the school.

James Weldon Johnson philosophy of education. For him, But he proved equal to these continued from preceding page education was the hallmark of tasks. On the advice of the super achievement by blacks; it was the intendent, he consulted with the historical key to the accomplish principal of the white school on small mill. It was during this peri ments and progress of the race. matters such as educational lead od, too, that he was employed for Therefore, he believed the schools ership, and he volunteered to a time by Dr. Summers. The physi attended by blacks should provide teach classes at Stanton to test his cian was himself a published poet the same quality of education as ideas on motivating and challeng and he encouraged his young those attended by whites. More ing students. assistant to exercise his budding over, he said, education for blacks He also brought about major literary talents. Johnson had pub should be particularized through a lished in the paper re-writing of American history to curriculum reforms. He intro poems school duced and became involved in at Atlanta. Summers also opened reflect the contributions of Spanish. added his library to Johnson and shared African-Americans. When this has teaching He his experiences as a world trav been accomplished, he argued, advanced courses, such as algebra eller. In the fall of 1889, Johnson young blacks would develop a cul and physics. During his seven- reluctantly left Dr. Summers to tural respect and inner confidence year tenure, he expanded the cur riculum to the high school level. resume his studies in Atlanta. necessary for self-actualization and racial pride. There were other successes According to Johnson’s later outside of the school, as well. In reflections, Atlanta University It was this school of thought 1985, Johnson founded The Daily educated him "as a means of liv that the new, 23-year-old principal American, a newspaper of Republi ing, not of making a living," in an took to the 1,000 students and 25 can politics, which became the first effort to make him, "better and teachers of Jacksonville’s Stanton black daily in America. He saw the nobler, and of higher value to School. paper as another weapon he could those we should have to serve. Initially, there were doubts use to defeat racism and promote Inspired by this philosophy and racial pride and consciousness. The the practical student-teaching that so young a man, however well-educated, could provide Daily American became a voice for experiences of his classmates, civil rights and equal opportunity Johnson set out for rural Georgia effective leadership for such a large institution. Johnson had for blacks. Though it folded after during the summer of 1891 to edu eight months, the paper served as cate the children of tenant farmers. doubts himself. Despite his impressive academic background a medium of cultural awareness in Jacksonville. Seeds of accomplishment and record of achievement, he had no formal training in education Johnson went on to explore Nowhere is Johnson’s prag and he had no experience in orga another avenue where he might matism more evident than in his nization and administration.

8 FORUM THE MAGAZINE OF THE FLORIDA HUMANITIES COUNCIL Lift Every Voice and Sing Music by J. Rosamond Johnson Lyrics by James Weidon Johnson Lift every voice and sing Till earthan’ heaven ring Ring with theHarmonies of Liberty; Let our rejoicing rise High as the listening skies, Let it resound loud as therolling sea Sing a song full of thefaith that the dark past has taught us Sing a song full of the hope that the present has brought us Facing the rising sun of our new day begun Let us march on till victory is won.

Stony the road we trod Bitter the chastening rod Felt in the days when hope unborn had died Robert Cole, James Weldon and J. Rosamond Johnson. Yet with a steady beat, Have not our weary feet He was distracted Sing." In his autobiography, Along Come to the place for which our fathers sighed in part from his duties This Way, Johnson recalls that he We have come over a way that as educator and lawyer had accepted an invitation to with tears have been watered by a new interest in speak at a program held in obser We have come treading our path through music. His brother vance of Lincoln’s birthday. Hav the blood of the slaughtered. Rosamond had returned ing failed to summon the Out from thegloomy past, to Jacksonville in 1897 inspiration for a poem on Lincoln, Till now we stand at last after graduating from he turned his attention to collabo Where the white gleam of our bright star is cast. the New England Con rating with Rosamond on a song servatory of Music in for the Stanton chorus. Johnson God of our weary years, Boston, and was giving writes of the "agony" of creating God of our silent tears, music lessons and the lyrics and the "ecstasy" that Thou who has brought us thus far on the way; directing a local church seized him midway through the Thou who has by Thy might choir. Rosamond set creation and reduced him to tears. Led us into the light, some of Johnson’s lyrics With the work completed, he Keep us forever in the path, we pray. to music, and they found "contentment - that sense Lest our feet stray from the places, began to work as a of serene joy - which makes artis our God, where we met team. tic creation the most complete of Lest our hearts, drunk with the wine all human experiences." of the world, we forget Thee; Finding their Shadowed beneath Thy hand, efforts popular in Jack The first stanza of the May we forever stand, sonville, the brothers anthem strikes a joyful and jubi True to our God, went to New York for lant note as it exhorts African- True to our native land. the summer of 1899. Americans to "Lift every voice and There they met, among sing, till earth and heaven ring." It other people, a talented celebrates "the faith that the dark musician, Bob Cole. The past has taught us ... and the three teamed up to hope that the present has brought use his talents to assist the black write a love song, "Louisiana us community. He became a part- Lize," which became a quick suc time apprentice to Thomas Led- cess. The second stanza is a litany with, a white lawyer, and in 1897 of the sacrifices and the sufferings That fall, the brothers of a determined people: "Stony the he became the first black man to be returned to Jacksonville. But they admitted to the Florida Bar. By road we trod, bitter the chast’ning continued writing songs. 1898, he and his friend Judson road/Felt in the days when hope Wetmore opened a law office. In February 1890, they made unborn had died ...." Johnson soon grew tired of the their most monumental contribu Toward the end, the song demands of the practice, however, tion to the racial heritage and shifts into a mood of exultation and the partnership dissolved in pride of black people with the cre 1901. ation of "Lift Every Voice and

FALL 1991 9 James Weldon Johnson earlier at a dance in Brooklyn, then leaders of the NAACP, invit Grace Nail. Together, the returned ed Johnson to attend an interracial continued tram preceding page to Nicaragua. conference in Amenia, New York. The goal of the forum was to His consular position left " develop strategies for shaping the and triumph: ... and now we Johnson with plenty of free time. stand at last/Where the gleam of black man’s advancement toward He used it to complete a novel, full civil rights. Johnson was our bright star is cast." The final The Autobiography gf an Ex stanza is a divine apostrophe of impressed by the NAACP, so ored Mn, which told the story of when Springarn that fall offered prayer, thanksgiving and deliver a light-skinned black who was ance, which begins, "God of our him the position of field secretary, able to pass as white. In 1912, he accepted. weary years, God of our silent Johnson published the book tears, Thou who has brought us anonymously, hoping readers In all probability, Johnson thus far on the way ... ." It ends was attracted to the position for with the supplication for protec several reasons. First, the primary tion and strength: "Shadowed objective of the NAACP - the beneath Thy hand, may we forever achievement of civil rights for stand/True to our God, true to our black people - was one to which native land." he had been committed since his college years. Secondly, the posi Changing courses tion gave him the opportunity to The next 15 years brought marshal the various skills he had abrupt new directions to Johnson’s acquired and use them for the career. With his song-writing part advancement of his people. He nership blossoming, he resigned would be able to draw on the the principalship at Stanton in organizational and administrative 1902 and returned to New York to proficiency learned at Stanton, the join Rosamond and Bob Cole. Cole investigative proclivities from The and the Johnson Brothers were New York Age, the legal experi becoming one of the leading song ences gained from his law practice writing teams in New York. Near and the knowledge and contacts ly every successful Broadway acquired through his work in poli show had one of their numbers in tics and government. Although it. One song, "Under the Bamboo these would have provided ample Tree," sold more than 400,000 motivation, there was yet another, In 1920, Johnson became executive personal, more compelling reason. copies. seretary of the NAACP, In New York, too, Johnson Against a background of vir became active in the Colored tual national silence, the civil would accept the story as fact. rights of blacks were being eroded Republican Club, eventually Generally, they did. becoming its president. by disenfranchisement, Jim Crow That same year, Democrats ism and mob violence. Over a 30- President Theodore Roo regained the White House with the year period, more than 3,000 sevelt, voted back into office in election of President Woodrow blacks had been maimed or 1904, was appreciative of the help Wilson. For some time, Johnson lynched. Among these was a given him by black leaders. He had been seeking reassignment to friend of Johnson’s who had been appointed several blacks to Europe. Now, he realized that that caught on the streets of New York positions. patronage goal probably was futile and, in during a race riot in 1900, attacked In 1906, Roosevelt offered fact, that a black Republican prob savagely by police and nearly Johnson a post as consul to Puerto ably faced a dismal future in lynched. The friend never fully Cabello, Venezuela. By then, the Democratic administration. He recovered. success of the Cole and Johnson resigned the consular post in 1913 In 1901, Johnson had himself Brothers partnership was begin and returned to the United States. narrowly escaped a lynching. He ning to wane. Johnson decided to had met an extremely fair-skinned abandon his song-writing career He found work in New York Jacksonville 1914 as chief of the editorial black woman in a and take the job. Three years later, in park. Local whites spotted the two, President William Howard Taft staff of The New York Age, the city’s assumed the woman was white, assigned him to the post of consul oldest black newspaper. In his and incited a mob to violence. All to Corinto, Nicaragua. columns, he raged against abuses that saved Johnson from the fren of blacks across the country. In 1910, Johnson returned zied crowd was a white official briefly to New York to marry a During the summer of 1916, who recognized him. woman he had met several years J.E. Springarn and W.E.B. DuBois,

10 FORUM THE MAGAZINE OF THE FLORIDA HUMANITIES COUNCIL These personal experiences emergence of one of the most pro and stimulated racial pride in this served to intensify Johnson’s com lific periods of artistic expression: important facet of black culture. mitment to outlaw this violence, The Harlem Renaissance. which involved, as he wrote, "the Johnson’s career came full saving America’s body Like W.E.B. DuBois, Johnson circle in 1930 when he was of black believed the cultural achieve Adam K. Spence Profes and white America’s soul." that appointed ments of blacks could serve as a sor of Creative Literature at Fisk In 1920, Johnson became bridge between the races. Conse University in Nashville. At Fisk, executive secretary of the NAACP. quently, he joined DuBois and Johnson taught courses in Ameri Early the following year, Con Alain Locke to form a trio of older can literature, and he used his gressman L.C. Dyer of East St. men, established in their fields, for first-hand experiences to introduce Louis notified Johnson that he the purpose of mentoring such students to the writers of the planned to revise and reintroduce younger artists as Langston Hugh renaissance and to the work of his anti-lynching bill of 1918. For es, Zora Neale Hurston, Countee many of his literary acquaintances, the next 18 months, Johnson such as Paul Laurence Dunbar. devoted his efforts to developing lobbying strategies for passage of During his eight years there, the Dyer Anti-Lynching Bill. The fiery, Johnson published Black Manhat tan 1930, a book of history and The bill passed the House of passionate rhetoric literary criticism, Along ThI iWy Representatives. But, to Johnson’s 1933, followed by Negro Amen bitter disappointment, President and measured What Now? 1934, a series Warren G. Harding found it politi of essays which proposed a solu cally expedient to avoid the issue, cadences of tion to the race problem in Ameri refusing to even make public com ca. His last published work, a long ment on the proceedings. And late poem titled "St. Peter Relates an in 1922, the Senate rejected the bill. Johnson’s pen Incident," appeared in 1935. In his book, Tames Weldon foreshadow James Johnson was killed in Maine johnson: Black Voice University in 1938 when the car in which he of Chicago Press, 1973, Eugene Baldwin. was riding was struck by a train. Levy argues that the campaign to pass the bill did, at least, accom He has left an enviable lega plish two important objectives. Cullen, Ama Bontemps, Wallace cy. His assessments of the racial Thurman, Jessie Fauset, Rudolf situation in America have validity "It widely publicized the Fisher, Claude McKay, Nella and currency more than five most openly brutal aspect of the Larsen, George Schuyler, Jean decades later, and they stand as American caste system ... and Toomer and Eric Waldron. These irrefutable testimony to an intellec revitalized the association’s anti- writers sought to inspire racial tual giant who understood his his lynching campaign," he wrote. consciousness and accelerate tory. He also was aware of the progress toward eliminating racial psychology dominating minority Levy added, "Johnson’s and majority cultures which, struggles barriers for blacks. with Congress marked through mutual reinforcement, the emergence of an important Johnson already had pub support the stereotype of Eurocen phase of modern civil rights lished The Autobiography tric superiority. Thus, Johnson activism. For the first time civil Qf a Ex- Colored Man and JEjfty Years took great delight in testing the rights organization led by a black and Other Poems 1917 before the power of the written word, chiefly man took the initiative in pushing Renaissance began. These works through his essays and poetry, to congressional legislation." served as inspiration for new writ destroy the myths and counsel his ers. Moreover, the decade of the people back to racial health. The Harlem Renaissance renaissance also inspired Johnson fiery, passionate rhetoric and mea During the decade of John into a prolific period of personal sured cadences of Johnson’s pen son’s tenure as executive secretary, creativity, which resulted in the foreshadow James Baldwin, while he found himself amid the emer publication of four books. Th the balanced sentences and calcu gence of an important cultural Book of American Negro Poetry lated logic form a legacy for Mar development. Black writers, musi 1922 and God’s Trombones: tin Luther King Jr. cians and painters began to flock Seven Negro Sermons jjj, Verse Yet, Johnson’s whole was to Harlem as their work gained 1927 helped firmly establish more than the sum of his parts. national attention. Inspired by an Johnson’s reputation as a poet. Th His legacy of humanism chal intense racial pride and a renewed Book of American Negro Spiritu lenges us to reclaim our history, sense of their heritage, these artists als 1925 and The Second Book of rediscover our unity and our heralded the introduction of "the Negro Spirituals 1926 document uniqueness, and achieve interra New Negro" and signalled the ed the significance of the spirituals cial harmony and brotherhood. .

FALL 1991 11 The Slow Climb

Seven women political pros discuss the emergence of women in Florida politics

By Joan S. Carver

Editors note: One of the roles of the Recently, a new generation Florida Humanities Council is to help of women political leaders gath minority groups recapture their her ered in Tampa for a one-day con itage. With that goal in mind, FHC ference on women in Florida co-sponsored a conference on the politics. The event, sponsored by emergence of women in Florida poli the Florida Humanities Council tics. The conference, as is represented and the Tampa Bay chapter of in the following article, served to pro National Coalition of 100 Black vide women a first draft of their politi Women, brought together state cal history. Senators Mary Grizzle and Jeanne Malchon, state Representatives Florida politics, 1928 was a Corrine Brown and Cynthia Chest landmark year. That fall, nut, Hillsborough County Com eight years after ratification missioner Sylvia Kimbell, Plant of the Women Suffrage City Mayor Sadye Martin and JnAmendment, voters for the political consultant Doris Weath first time elected Florida women erford. The seven talked about to major public offices. Mamie their common experiences and the Eaton Greene of Monticello was challenges and difficulties of Mamie Eaton Greene chosen to serve on the state Rail women seeking and holding polit was elected to fill her road Commission, the predecessor ical office in Florida. of the Public Service Commission, late husband’s office of Despite the early victories of state railroad and Ruth Bryan Owen of Miami Greene and Owen, office holding commissioner. was sent to Congress. by women is a relatively recent In retrospect, however, their phenomenon. In the first 50 years elections seem to be something of after passage of the Women Suf a fluke. It would be 44 years frage Amendment, few women before Florida voters again chose a ran for office and fewer still were woman for statewide office. elected. For women, the path to In the cases of Greene and elective office in Florida has been a Owen, both benefitted from ties to long, slow climb. prominent men. Greene was appointed to the commission by Dr. Carver is dean of the College of Arts Gov. John W. Martin upon the and Sciences at Jacksonville University. death of her first husband, R. L. She moderated the panel discussion on women in Florida politics.

12 FORUM THE MAGAZINE OF THE FLORIDA HUMANITIES COUNCIL Florida’s first con gresswoman, Ruth Bryan Owen, flanked by her sec retary and driver in this 1929 photo graph, served two terms. She was the daughter of William Jennings Bryan.

Eaton, in 1927. The following year, numbers of new residents, many she was elected to retain the seat. from outside the South, and with Owen’s father was three-time legislative reapportionment, which Democratic presidential nominee not only broke apart constituencies William Jennings Bryan. A dynam and established power bases but ic personality in her own right, also shifted political power away Owen no doubt capitalized on his from the conservative northern Elected in 1970, Gwen popularity. part of the state. Contributing as Swayer Cherry, a teach well to new political attitudes er and lawyer, was Neither remained in office were the civil rights and feminist more than two terms, however. Florida’s first black movements. A tangible result of woman legislator And, in fact, none of the first five these changes was the election of women elected to the Legislature more women to political office. served more than three terms. The impact of the population Women seeking local politi of women cal influx upon the role in offices fared little better than politics can be seen not only in the those pursuing statewide and increased number of women in national posts. The school boards office, but also in comparisons had the greatest number of with national figures and among women; apparently this was con regions within the state. sidered a safe office for women to hold. Florida, with only 2.7 million people in 1950, was a southern Change in Florida came in the 1960s with the influx of large

FALL 1991 13 Women in Politics tor representing Pinellas County. senator to serve on the Public Ser Speaking at the conference on vice Commission. continued from preceding page women in politics, she observed, "We were a big wonder in 1963. The characteristics of They men really weren’t ready to women office holders today - state in characteristics, history and including the six elected officials locale. By 1990, it could be argued accept us then. It wasn’t until we on the conference panel - gener that Florida, with more than 12 got to the early ‘70s that we were able to do things." ally are reflective of the demo million people, had lost much of graphic and political changes in its "southern character." It wasn’t until 1970 that the the state. Of the panelists, three In 1950, Florida had no first black woman was elected to were born outside of Florida, four women in statewide, congression the Legislature. Gwen Sawyer are black, one is a Republican, four al or mayoral offices, only one Cherry, a teacher and lawyer from are Democrats, and two hold non female state legislator, two female Miami, served in the House until partisan offices. Three of the county commissioners and 26 her death in an automobile acci women are educational adminis women school board members. By trators, one is a retiree from the 1990, the state had one congress school system and two had been woman, one female cabinet mem housewives prior to their entry ber, 10 women state senators, 20 into politics. women representatives, 55 women The sole woman in the Flori mayors, 83 women county com da congressional delegation and missioners and 136 women school only the third woman ever sent to board members. Congress from Florida is a conser In 1990, Florida ranked 22nd vative Republican, born in Cuba, among the states in the percentage Ileana Ros-Lehtinen. The only of women in the Legislature and woman cabinet officer, Education 12th in the percentage of women Commissioner Betty Castor, is a Democrat who born in New on county governing boards. It was Jersey. ranks first in these categories among southern states. Among the 30 women serv ing in the Legislature, 19 were Within the state, the north born in the Northeast or Midwest, ern tier of counties has remained eight are Florida natives and three the most conservative, the least were born elsewhere in the South. affected by in-migration and the It wasn’t until we most reluctant to elect women to The political affiliations of office. The majority of women leg current women office holders also islators elected over the past 20 got to the early reflect the new parity in the two- years has come from South and party system in Florida. Of the Central Florida, and those areas women in the House, nine are are twice as likely as North Florida ‘70s that we were Republican and 11 are Democrats. to send women to the county com The Senate is less representative of missions, city councils and school the political balance; among the 10 boards. women, only two are Republicans. able to do things. Of the three black women in the House and the one black woman Acceptance came slowly in the Senate, all are Democrats. The first surge of women - Sen. Mary Grizzle The routes from which into office - a small surge, admit women come to political office tedly - came with the 1963 reap vary and are not markedly differ portionment. The number of ent than those taken by men. women in the Florida House of dent in 1979. Replacing her in the Some, like Senator Grizzle, decide Representatives increased to three; House was Carrie P. Meek, an to run after years of party activity prior to that the House never had educator who went on in 1982 to and helping men win office; others more than one female representa become the first black woman like Mayor Sadye Martin are tive at any time. elected to the Florida Senate. recruited by neighbors and local leaders, and still others, such as Acceptance of women in After Greene’s election in Tallahassee was not immediate, Commissioner Sylvia Kimbell, run 1928, no other woman won for office out of frustration with however. Among those elected to statewide office in Florida until the House in 1963 was Mary Griz the lack of responsiveness in the voters in 1972 chose Paula system. zle, who now is a Republican sena Hawkins of Orlando later a U.S.

14 FORUM THE MAGAZINE OF THE FLORIDA HUMANITIES COUNCIL The importance of prepara her opponent’s $20,000. Although networks and support groups. tion for a successful campaign was the amounts she has been able to Your volunteer cadre can be worth apparent in both the backgrounds raise have increased with each suc anywhere between $30,000 and and the comments of the panelists cessive race, she said she has never $50,000 of what your opponent at the conference. Most had had a treasury as large as that of spends. Don’t sell that short. worked in political campaigns any of her opponents. Brown also Women are used to going out and prior to deciding to run and also pointed out that she raised only doing things. Males are also used had developed a rich network of one-sixth of the amount spent by to opening their checkbooks. Even contacts in the community. As her male opponent, an incumbent, if a male says he will volunteer, he Representative Corrine Brown told in her first bid for a House seat. has ‘his girl’ make the calls." the audience, "You don’t go to bed But the fact that she got 43 percent one night and have this great of the votes in that race gave her Chestnut echoed Malchon’s vision that you are going to run. the credibility to raise more money remarks, advising potential You start getting involved in the next time out. women candidates, "You need to call on support group and groups and organizations you a peo have the support group when you ple you know. You go to the begin to run." churches; you go within the com munity trying to get funds. You Another commonality have to take advantage of all the among the panelists was their opportunities." view on defeat: rather than a loss, it is a preparation for the next bat Indeed, the use of support groups and organizations tle. Malchon, the Pinellas County is Democrat, lost her seat as county reflected in the biographies of the commissioner, but went on then to women in the Legislature. Most make her successful run for the frequently mentioned is member Senate. Brown and Kimbell both ship in the League of Women Vot lost in their first tries for public ers and party organizations. Most office, but came back to win the of the female legislators belong to next election. Brown said, "The several such organizations and difference between winners and have held leadership posts in one losers is how you count the set or more. backs. So, I never stopped work A recent addition to the list ing. It took me four years to win." of women legislators’ affiliations is You don’t go to membership in chambers of com Different challenges merce. Of the 30 women currently in the Legislature, 16 list some One of the major problems form of business, consulting or law women candidates have faced in bed and have this as their occupations. Only three the past is raising sufficient funds listed themselves as housewives. for viable campaigns. A variety of In comparison, of the 30 women factors may contribute to this: a great vision i/ou elected to the Legislature between reluctance by women to ask for 1928 and 1978, a third listed them contributions, a lack of the kind of selves as housewives. As increas business connections that open are going to run ing numbers of women come from checkbooks, and doubts among business and the professions, it is potential contributors as to the likely that their access to funds credibility and electability of will increase. female candidates. - Rep. Corriuc Brown Women also will gain in While agreeing that ade their fund-raising capabilities with quate funding is essential for a the power of incumbency. Once a viable campaign, the panelists did Several panelists said woman has a track record, political not believe it is was necessary to women can use support groups action committees and donors gen have a huge war chest to win. and organizations better than can erally will be more willing to con They pointed out that most of their men to offset any funding disad tribute to her campaign. campaigns had been run with far vantages. Representative Cynthia fewer dollars than those of their Chestnut did note, however, male opponents. "You don’t have to match that your opponent dollar for dollar," changing public attitudes are mak Malchon, for example, noted Malchon explained. "The reason ing it easier to run low-budget that the first time she ran for office you don’t gets back to the way she had only $6,000, compared to men and women operate. We have

FALL 1991 15 In the House, women constitute a they are much more concerned Women in Politics smaller percentage of both the with programs and achieving continued from preceding page total membership and majority thing that are in the best interest party. There women chair only and truly serve people as opposed campaigns. The public "wants to three of 28 standing committees to their own particular business see more of the support at the and six of the 48 subcommittees. interest." grass-roots level rather than have Women office holders are The impact of women office someone who spends lots and lots making a difference in both the holders in the Legislature can be of money to buy a campaign," she political process and in policy seen in many of the issues that said. decisions. have been brought to prominence in the past two decades. The atten Also, Doris Weatherford, the Malchon said, "Most men political consultant, advised tion given to such concerns as women in the audience to careful parental leave, child care, domestic violence equal a direct ly weigh financing needs in select and pay is ing which office to pursue. result of efforts by women office Usually, special elections and holders. Many issues that women school board and city council races consider important do not cross are less costly. the male agenda and would not have been considered if women Other panelists advised weren’t in office, the panelists women aspiring to office to be agreed. aware of the personal, as well as the financial, cost of political life. A brighter future Holding office is demanding; bal ancing family, political responsi Reapportionment following bilities and often a job is not easy. the 1990 census will again break A supportive network of family up constituencies and weaken the and friends is essential, the pan power of incumbency. It also will elists stressed. increase the number of congres sional seats allocated to Florida. For some on the panel, the Thus, there will be more and better answer to the problem of family Women are better opportunities for women to seek responsibilities was to wait until political office. the children were grown to run for office. Others use a support sys The sharp increase in the tem - a mother-in-law, husband, able to deal in numbers of women in business, friends of paid help. law and other professions suggests a growing pool of potential candi The women talked about the group situations dates. As more women are elected need to come home on weekends to local and state offices, they also to do grocery shopping and clean are the to ing. There is a certain benefit in gaining experience com having these responsibilities, on afair basis pete for higher offices. For exam Brown added. Quoting another ple, both Ros-Lehtinen and Castor woman legislator, she said, "Going served in the Legislature before home every weekend and doing running for their current posts. the laundry keeps you humble." Sen Jeanne Maichon Also, five of the women in the Sen ate today moved there from the House and several women legisla No longer quiet tors had prior local elective office The days when men could and women have different styles experience. ignore women office holders and, in dealing with situations, and in Grizzle’s words, "hope we’ll be what I call a corporate male mind As the conference closed, quiet" are past. While still in the set comes into the legislative pro Grizzle issued a challenge to minority, women now wield con cess. Women are better able to deal women in the audience: "1 won siderable power in office. in group situation, on a fair basis, dered why women haven’t gone i.e. on a noncompetitive basis. This further in politics and the state Most notable is the election is not to say that we don’t have Legislature," she said. "Women in of Gwen Margolis of Miami to the some women in office who have my time never take the top post presidency of the Senate. Within developed a corporate male mind and go for it. And it’s all out there. that chamber, women now chair set. But, as a group, I think women Pick your goal and go for it. six of 20 standing commiUees and work together more, they establish You’re just as good as the top, why five of the seven subcommittees. common goals. I truly believe that take second place?".

16 FORUM THE MAGAZINE OF THE FLORIDA HUMANITIES COUNCIL Seeking Ethical Guidelines For the Use of Computer Technology

a By Deborah G. Johnson E computers have also created con 0 ceptual muddles. S ew technologies often raise A good example of this is the moral concerns. This case of computer software. It is Nseems to result from their certainly true that a complex body creating new possibilities for of law regarding ownership of human action, both individual new inventions and proprietary action and collective or institution rights to new creations already al behavior. The new possibilities existed when computers came on then need to be evaluated morally, the scene. However, when we try as well as in other ways. So it is to apply this law to computer soft with computers. ware, the implications are not clear The introduction of comput because it is not clear what soft ers into our society has created ware is. Is software a product or a possibilities for individual and service? That is, should those who institutional behavior which were create software be seen as provid not available before. We could not ing a service or producing a prod have reached the moon without uct? The answer to this question computers, nor could we have the makes all the difference in which kind of global communication sys laws are relevant. Or, should a tems we now have. But comput program be seen as the expression ers, like other technologies, create of an idea - a form of intellectual potentially undesirable as well as property for which copyright law desirable possibilities. We now is appropriate? Or, should com have a greater capacity to track puter software be seen as process and monitor individuals without es for changing the internal their knowledge, to develop more Examples of the vacuum of structure of a computer? Or as heinous weapons systems and to policies with regard to computers series of "mental steps" capable, in eliminate the need for human con might include the lack of rules principle, of being thought tact in many activities. concerning access to electronically through by a human, and not, stored data when computers were thereby, appropriate for owner In line with this account and first being used, or the lack of poli ship? in an attempt to understand the cies about the ownership of soft field of computer ethics, James H. ware, or the present lack of The conceptual muddles pre Moor "What is computer ethics?" conventions about the privacy of vent us from simply applying the Metaphilosophy, October 1985 has electronic mail. law mechanically. We do not emphasized that because of the know which law to apply. new possibilities created by com This view of how computers create ethical issues might lead So Moor seems to be right puters, we face new choices, but both in identifying the vacuum of one to think - as I used to think we find a vacuum of policies about policies surrounding computers - that what we have to do to how to make these choices. The and in emphasizing that the issues resolve these issues - to fill the central task of computer ethics, call for more than a mechanical vacuum - is to take our tradition Moor argues, is to determine what application of ethical principles. we should do and what the poli al moral theories or moral norms cies should be. This includes con and apply them to the new situa sideration of "both personal and tions created by computers. Environment is a key social policies." For example, I initially On the other hand, it would thought we could simply take our be misleading to leave the impres general rules regarding property sion that computers create or come Dr. Johnson is with the Department of or privacy and figure out what the into a vacuum. Computers are Science and Technology Studies at rules imply about computer soft used in a broad variety of contexts. Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. She They are brought into delivered this paper/n May at a pro ware or access to electronic files. businesses, gram on technology and ethics spon Moor, however, is quick to point homes, criminal justice systems, sored by Barry University and FHC. out that this will not work because

FALL 1991 17 Computer Ethics have been operative. This does not was so clearly bad behavior and I clear up the conceptual muddles continued from preceding page was puzzled that it was so inter but it helps to identify what factors esting to others. Finally, someone will make a difference. suggested to me that we ask how educational this behavior differed from some institutions, science, This way of looking at the government, and so forth. And, in ethical issues one breaking into an office and surrounding com then into a file cabinet. This helped each of these environments, there puters brings with it both good are already social relationships, me to explain why computer crime news and bad. The good news is is non-issue. social rules, and policies. Comput that we do not have to start from a It is true that the may physical behavior required to per ers change the way we do scratch. The bad news is that often things in these environments; at the environments we to look form each act getting access to a are at electronic file and breaking into an least, they may change the scale are not ideal and embody tensions and speed of transactions in these office and into a file cabinet is dif environments, but these environ ferent, but morally there is no sig ments are the opposite of a vacu Working out poll- nificant difference. The other um. They are filled with norms of interesting thing about this kind of behavior. The established rules, des regarding behavior is that at first people do and, in particular the moral princi computers calls not not recognize what it is. ples embodied in those rules, can 2 Very similarly we can look not be ignored. Working out poli at the behavior of sitting at a ter regarding for creating rules cies computers calls not minal and "playing around" by for creating rules anew, but for anew, but for seeing just what systems or files extending, modifying, or adapting extending, modify- you can get access to. The appro existent rules or the principles priate analogy here seems to be embodied in those rules to the ing, or adapting that of walking down the street details of the computerized envi and testing the doors of every ronment. existent rules. house to see if they are locked. Perhaps the most important When you find one that is thing about computers is their unlocked, you go in and look malleability. They can be used to between values, rather than clear around. You may not change or do almost anything that involves or definitive value commitments. I take anything from the house. data and calculating, sorting and will give an example of this in a Again, here the analogy works to monitoring. Because of this mal moment. reveal little moral difference. It is same leability, computers can be used as Before the sense of privacy and I illustrate my point being violated that makes us feel it much to change things as to keep about there being something other things the same. When computers is wrong for the person to go than a vacuum in the environ down the street testing the doors enter a new environment, we tend, ments in which computers are initially at least, to map the way as it is wrong for the person to test used, I want to introduce my sec our computer files or systems. It is we had been doing things onto the ond major point, that analogical the same looking in on what was new computer system. The process thinking can play an important not intended of automation is a process wherein to be viewed by just role in working out computer anyone. we look at the way we had been ethics issues. By making analogies doing things and then automate with other situations not involv This analogy can be carried a those activities. We look at how ing computers and identifying the bit further. Suppose I forgot to we have been accounting, commu similarities and dissimilarities lock my door. Am I partially nicating, manufacturing, and so with these other situations, we are responsible if someone enters my house? Or, suppose on; then we create programs able to uncover the important it is yard gates which allow us to do essentially instead of doors and I left my gate moral elements. This helps us to unlocked the same thing, only more effi figure out what the of and I have a swimming rules the sit pool in my yard. This complicates ciently; that is, better, faster, on a uation should be. larger scale. things a bit since we think individ The simplest examples of the uals have a responsibility to take An important implication of usefulness of analogical thinking measures to prevent people from this is that working out the ethical are: the dangers of the pool, and there issues surrOunding computers is a are computer comparables. We do matter of trying to understand 1 When I first started work expect individuals to take mea those environments in which com ing on the ethical issues surround sures to protect their files, espe puters are used - the nature of ing computers, a lot of attention cially if they contain sensitive data. the human relationships involved, was being paid to breaking into the institutional purposes, ideals, computer files. I found this an But let us take a more corn- and the norms of behavior that uninteresting problem because it

18 FORUM THE MAGAZINE OF THE FLORIDA HUMANITIES COUNCIL plicated case where analogical puter ethical issues, but it doesn’t most part and with few excep thinking seems to help but not always lead to clarity. Often, that tions, these new opportunities do give complete clarity. Take the is, it points to the lack of clarity in not call for new moral categories, case of employers monitoring the our social institutions and moral nor do they call for new values. behavior of workers. As a result of norms and ideals. Instead, as I suggested above, they computers, employers can now Many of the same points tend to force us to clarify the cate have a record of everything an gories and values we already have employee does during the day come to light if we ask a question which has puzzled me since I and to weigh values against one while working at a computer ter another. minal. The employer can tell how began work on computer ethics. much time a worker spends on Are the ethical issues posed by or The reasons for this are those each task, how many errors are surrounding computers new? Are that I have already mentioned. made before a programmer gets a the issues unique? We hear a lot Computers are malleable and they program to work, how many and about how computers are going to are used to perform tasks and change our lives how long are the worker’s breaks and some have make more efficient, activities from work, what the worker says which we were engaged in long in electronic mail or on-line before computers. To be sure com forums. The important question is, puters have created some concep should employers be allowed to tual muddles, and the do this kind of monitoring. computerized situations have forced us to make explicit many of Filling the vacuum our assumptions. This forces us to rethink some of our moral notions. Here we have a vacuum in Still, the issues are not exactly Moor’s sense; that is, there are no unique. Rather, computers have laws or policies which say whether created new versions of old moral employers can monitor or under problems. The issues have to do what circumstances. But we do not with property, privacy, rights, have a vacuum of ideas about power and responsibilities. employer-employee rights, inter ests and needs. Rather we have Hence, I suggest to you that laws, policies and rules which we think of the ethical issues reflect or incorporate principles raised by computers as new and a tension between the rights, species of old moral problems. interests and needs of employers Moreover, I recommend that we and employees. recognize the important role of analogical thinking in working out If we try to model the case on the ethical issues surrounding other employer-employee issues, computers. we find similarities and dissimilar ities. Monitoring is like using poly The ethical issues raised by graphs to check the honesty of computers can be sorted out in a workers, and it is like listening in number of ways. They can, for on workers’ phone conversations. example, be organized by the sec tor in which computers On the other hand, it is compara said that we need a whole new are used; ble to supervisors observing work ethics to deal with the that is, there are important issues type of soci that arise as a result of use of com ers while they work. Which ety that computers are creating. analogy should we use to think This has always puters in medicine, education, struck me as odd. business, criminal justice, govern through the computer case? And I have tried to figure out what Whichever we use, the point is ment, and so on. I continue to pre it is that is new and what is not fer the approach that I that in one sense, there is a vacu new about the ethical issues sur took when I um, and in another sense, there is wrote Computer Ethics Prentice rounding computers. Hall, and that is to just the opposite - complexity, 1985 organize conflicting attitudes and opinions Using existing values the issues around broad topics that from workers and employers, persist across sectors. In Computer and a mixture of signs about how As I said earlier, computers Ethics I saw the major issues as the case ought to be treated based do create new opportunities for centering around privacy, power on what we do in other cases or individual action and institutional and property. based on what we do in the same behavior. We could even say, as I Privacy is probably the issue case without computers. said above, that they create oppor that has received the most public So, analogical thinking is tunities to do things we have attention. Computers make possi very useful in working out corn- never done before. Still, for the

FALL 1991 19 Computer Ethics that distribution. When computers development of the technological continued from preceding page were first being used, there was arts and sciences. For this reason, some fear that they would cause we have copyrights which protect much more centralization of only the expression of ideas, not ble a magnitude of data collection power - as people in power the ideas themselves, and we do storage, retention and exchange became more powerful. Later, as not grant patents on laws of never imagined before. While the technology developed to pro nature, mathematical formulas, much of the initial public concern vide smaller, less expensive ideas, and so forth. focused on the use machines and software, some and abuse of The problem with computer personal information by govern imagined computers would decen ment agencies and private institu tralize and democratize. The idea software is that it has not been tions such as banks, insurance clear that we could grant owner companies, credit agencies, crimi Many of the so- ship of it without, in effect, grant nal justice agencies, the privacy ing ownership of numerical issues surrounding computers called "privacy" sequences or mental steps. Soft have become more diverse and ware can be copyrighted, for here complicated. They range from the issues raised by what is granted is ownership of integrity of electronic mail, to computers may be the expression of the idea not the work place monitoring, to new idea. But this does not give soft computerized devices used by better understood ware inventors very much protec intelligence organizations. tion. Others may see the software, as power issues. grasp the idea and write a some While some new policies what different program to do the have already been created to deal same thing. So, while copyright with the privacy intrusions made here was that computers would law has been easy to extend to possible by computers, more will give many individuals access to software, it has not given the kind be necessary in the future. The huge quantities of data. of protection needed. Patenting issues are particularly complex stronger protec Just what computers do to would provide because "privacy" and why we tion, but the courts have been value it are not so clear, as is seen the distribution of power in orga nizations and more broadly in a reluctant to grant this protection when one considers the broad the problem variety of that society or in the world at large is because of mentioned legal cases fall above. under the rubric of "privacy." an extremely complex issue and depends on how exactly comput The ethical issues that arise Privacy versus power ers are used in particular environ here take us back to the philosoph ments. As in the case of privacy, ical basis for any property rights. Many of the so-called "priva this question about the effects of What should be owned? What cy" issues raised by computers computers on the distribution of entitles one to own something? may be better understood as power leads to deeper questions Are there things that should never power issues in that they have to about the power relationships that be privately owned? And so forth. do with the growing power of already exist and whether these large bureaucracies government are as they should be. Finally, an important way to agencies and private institutions approach computers and ethics is to dramatically affect the lives of As computers have devel by focusing on the responsibilities individuals. Insurance companies, oped into the powerful tools that of computer professionals. Com credit agencies, educational insti they are, the stakes involved in puter professionals possess special tutions and government agencies creating computers, computer soft knowledge and they often use this all make decisions about individu ware and databases have gotten knowledge to contribute to pro als based on information they have higher. Attempts to claim owner jects having an enormous impact stored in databases. Individuals do ship of these creations have chal on the world. We need computer not have control over that infor lenged our legal and moral notions professionals to take responsibility mation and, hence, do not know of property. for the effects of their work. Those whether these agencies are basing The issue here that has who work on projects such as the decisions on accurate or appropri Strategic Defense Initiative, auto ate information. received the most attention sur rounds the ownership of software. mated voting machines, computer The power issues raised by Software is a new entity, and while monitoring devices and education computers are the most subtle and western legal systems have devel al software should inform them intractable. Computers are intro oped property laws which encour selves and make the public aware duced into environments in which age invention by granting certain of the risks as well as the benefits a distribution of power already rights to inventors, there are provi of these systems. They should tell exists, and insofar as computers sions against ownership of things us what these systems cannot do are powerful tools, they can affect which might interfere with the as well as what they can.

20 FORUM THE MAGAZINE OF THE FLORIDA HUMANITIES COUNCIL that comprise Belle Glade’s Sale. They were to make pre "Writes" of Spring, FHC Board black community. sentations during the event. Doing the Right Thing FHC funding: $15,000. The FHC grant covered writ Funds 10 ers’ expenses, travel, promo Palm Beach Community Ted Smallwood Store: tion/printing and related College-Eissey Campus pro administrative costs. posed FHC funding for two Projects A Travelling Exhibit events held as part of a two- An exhibition of docu FHC funding: $10,550. day festival designed to cele t its October meeting mentary photographs, inter Forum: American brate the arts and raise of Direc A he Board pretive text and artifacts from Indians in La Florida awareness of important eco tors of the Florida the Ted Smallwood Store to logical issues. FHC funds will Humanities Council appear at six sites throughout The Columbus Commis be used for an environmental approved grants totalling Florida between December sion proposed a three-day ethics symposium and a pro more than $125,000 for 1991 and December 1992. Columbus Quincentenary gram titled, "Another Evening 10 projects throughout The purpose is to create an forum in January at St. with Henry David Thoreau." awareness of and generate Augustine’s Ponce de Leon FHC funding: the state. interest in the Ted Smallwood hotel and conference center. $6,564. The board previously Store and its historical impor Presenters will explore the Violence: A had decided to concen tance to the interaction of state of American Indians in Roundtable Discussion trate funding in two Seminole and white culture in 1491, the dynamics of Euro broad categories: com the Ten Thousand Islands pean-La Florida Indian con The Key West Literary area. The sponsoring organi tact, the consequences of Seminar proposed holding as memoration of the of its 10th annual event Columbus Quincentenial zation is the Ted Smallwood such contact and contempo part a and ethics. In selecting Store. rary Indian issues as per discussion addressing the ceived by Florida Indians. gratuitous depiction of vio 10 projects for funding, FHC funding: $15,970. lence in contemporary film. the board reviewed 35 FHC funding: $25,466. Ethical questions to be con grant proposals. Seminoles of South Florida: Native The Lore of Lake sidered include the reasons The following are the Okeechobee for accelerating use of graph American Perspectives ic violence and the responsi projects approved for and Quincentenary funding: The Lakefront Steering bilities of writers, filmmakers Concerns Committee, in conjunction and critics. 1992: The Year of with the Palm Beach Com The National Center for FHC funding: $10,179. Cultural Encounters Shipwreck Research, in munity College Foundation, The Collier County cooperation with the Semi proposed hiring a folklorist In the next year, the board Museum proposed a series of nole Tribe of Florida, pro and exhibit designer to Iwill consider grant applica events using the disciplines posed a six-month exhibit in research and prepare a trav tions following the themes elling exhibit interpreting the of the Columbian Quincen of anthropology, archaeology, Key West and Islamorada Lake Okeechobee area’s tenial Centenary and "View ethnography and history to and a two-day conference to folklife for local and coastal from the Shore," programs explore the Columbus Quin explore Native American cul residents. The exhibit is to for and about Native Ameri centenial from a multicultural tural and ethical values in open at the community col cans. point of view. The events are regard to the Columbus Quin lege, with speakers highlight Deadlines for the next a film series scheduled for centenary. Conference partic ing specific cultural topics February, two temporary ipants will discuss ways to two rounds of grant reviews such as South Florida folk are as follows: exhibits at the museum in incorporate an understanding lore, prehistoric, historic cul March and September and a of Seminole concepts into tures and Zora Neale 1 - Final application two-day symposium next fall public policy decision making. H urston. deadline Dec. 6, notification at the Naples Beach Hotel. Among other associated Feb. 6, first funds issued funding: FHC funding: $14,078. events is an historical reen FHC $19,308. March 2. actment of the 1840 Semi Ethical Dilemmas and 2- Preliminary appli Muckstepper’s nole attack on Indian Key. cation deadline Feb. 28, Reunion: A Story telling Decision Making in FHC funding: $6,500. Public Life final application deadline Conference 1991 Miami Book Fair March 31, notification May The Zora Neale St. Petersburg Junior 29, first funds issued June International: The College proposed a half-day 30. Hurston/Roof Garden Muse public forum, scheduled for um proposed a story- telling Native American FHC also invites grant Perspective May 18, which will explore conference to be held ethical dilemmas faced by proposals for Teacher Insti December 13-20 in Belle Miami Book Fair Interna public figures in the perfor tutes using the theme, Glade. The conference will tional proposed bringing to mance of their jobs and ways "Intercultural Encounters: present folktales and oral his the fair November 10-17 in which those dilemmas are The Making of the Americ tory of Belle Glade’s African- two authors whose writings resolved. as." American pioneers, as well characterize the Native FHC funding: $2,808. The deadline for as folklorists from the diverse American perspective within Teacher Institute applica ethnic populations Haitian, the mainstream of literature. tions is Dec. 15, with Jamaican, Bahamian, Geor The authors were Leslie Mar- awards to be announced in gian and South Carolinian mon Silko and Kirkpatrick February.

FALL 1991 21 Five New Members Join FHC Board

CECILIA THOMAS J. MILDRED THOMAS P. YVONNE V. BRYANT HEGARTY HILL-LUBIN JOHNSON SAPIA Cecilia Bryant Thomas J. Mildred Hill Thomas P. Yvonne V. is an attorney in Hegarty is provost Lubin is an associ Johnson is an Sapia is resident general practice in and vice president ate professor of instructor of English poet and instructor Jacksonville and of the University of English at the Uni and the Humanities of English at Lake general counsel for Tampa, as well as versity of Florida at Edison Commu City Community the Florida Associa professor of history. with a joint appoint nity College. He College. She is an tion of Domestic Hegarty moved to ment in the Center also is a writer of associate member Insurance Compa Tampa in August for African Studies. short stories, chil of the Academy of nies. She also is an 1989 from Indi Her scholarship dren’s literature and American Poets and important member anapolis, where he focused on African poems, an actor is a past recipient of of the civic and cul was vice president culture in diaspora. and a director. a National Endow tural life of her com for academic affairs She currently is ment for the Arts com Johnson earned poetry writing fel munity, contributing at Butler University. completing a his undergraduate to the boards of the parative study of lowship. In 1983, He received his African and African- degree from Con she was elected American Red cordia Senior Col Cross Northeast undergraduate American literature. Woman of the Year degree magna cum lege and his by her colleagues Florida Chapter, laude, his masters Among her masters degree in the YWCA and and students at and doctorate from many honors and English from the Lake City Commu PRIDE. From 1982 Hill-Lubin University of North 1989, she wasa Harvard University. activities, nity College. to Although Hegarty is has served as presi Carolina at Greens member of the state He has pur Sapia was grad Board of Regents a scholar of 19th dent of the African boro. century Russia, his Literature Associa sued graduate uated from Florida and was elected in theology Atlantic University, vice chair in 1988. current research tion. She is a mem studies and writing centers ber of the board of at Concordia Semi received her mas Bryant received on topics of higher directors of the Sex nary and history at ters in English from her undergraduate education. ual and Physical Wake Forest Uni the University of degree from Sweet Abuse Center and versity. Florida and her doc Briar College, her In Tampa, he is the Alachua County torate in English a member of the Before joining fiction writing from law degree from the Center for Excel the faculty at Edison University of Florida Chamber of Com lence. Florida State Uni merce and the Community College, versity. and her masters taught at degree in taxation Tampa Bay Com She received Johnson mittee on Foreign her bachelor’s Winston-Salem Her most recent from George Wash University and book of poems is ington University. Relations. degree from Paine State College, her mas Howard University Valentino’s jjj ters in English from and worked as a which was pub Western Reserve warehouseman in lished by Northeast University and her Valparaiso, Indiana. ern University doctorate in English Press. Her first and African studies novel which bears from the University the same name was of Illinois. published this fall.

22 FORUM THE MAGAZINE OF THE FLORIDA HUMANITIES COUNCIL Eberhart continued from page 5

Than living likeyou in a stone tomb. The mystery of time is how short or long we live or why we die, why some of us suffer and some don’t. That is nature-not god, not karma, not sin. When we die, we become part of it and it is not open to reason or revelation of anything other than what it is. The mystery: how what can imagine and love, what is con scious, comes out of what isn’t. But then perhaps it is no less mysterious and wonderful than Lights! his "Vignette," subtitled "Achieve ment! Ninth Symphony," Maine The Sunshine State’s Celluloid Poems which reads in toto: Standing amid the alien corn Past, Present and Future Ruth Adams made a hole in one inety years ago, before Hollywood was Hollywood, there was At ninety on the golf course at N Florida. Movie makers, seeking clear skies and warm airs, Custine, swarmed into the Sunshine State. By all rights, it seemed that Went home, into the black hole Florida very well would become the capital of this exciting young herself that night. industry. Besides my mother, golf was The scene opens with fame and fortune. All of the greats my father’s great passion. He came here to ply their trade. D.W. Griffith. Oliver Hardy. The never made a hole in one, but at Barrymores. And moviemaking in Florida produced incredible last went "into the black hole her riches. self," I guess. He played hard at the end. And Richard Eberhart Invest $200 and make $2,000 in less than a week! gives me what I ask for, insight Alas, however, this is a typical Florida tale. Scandal and into my mother’s pride that my intrigue follow the dollar. Bust follows boom. father ran a 10-day marathon with And so, Hollywood became Hollywood. And Florida did not. death. Like her pride at his flirt You can read all about the 90-year history of movie and ing-there was a man! No more to television production in the Sunshine State in a superb, limited- know; much more to say. edition book published by the Florida Humanities Council. Lights! In the last stanza of the last Camera! FLORIDA! tells all: the good, the bad and the ugly of poem of Maine Poems, Eberhart Florida’s filmmaking history. It also explains the industry’s ties together poetry with time, the journey, and the sea: revitalization here and forecasts a bright new future for the film No moment is so good as a sure and television industry in Florida. And it does so with scores of moment photographs illustrating its 112 pages. When words take on a supernat To order your copy of Lights! Camera! FLORIDA! contact the ural mystery, Florida Humanities Council at: 1718 E. Seventh Avenue Suite 301 And wherever the sea and we are Tampa, FL 33605 813 272-3473 Suggested donation: going, 1-9 copies: $16 each. 30-39 copies: $13. in not Ultimately the best is 10-19 copies: $15. 40-49 copies: $12. knowing. 20-29 copies: $14. 50 or more: $11. The greatest lesson is that he Please place you order soon, as only a limited number of books does not cease "to perform the self is available. in acts of creation." *

FALL 1991 23 ‘5..554 -,

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Voices from the past Seminole warrior Osceola and Harriet Beecher Stowe, the author of Uncle Tom’s Cabin, are two of the historic figures appearing in the Florida Humanities Council’s Florida Chautauqua revival. They are portrayed by performer/scholars Homer Horsedance and Jean Calandra. Also appearing in thepresentation are Bartolome de Las Casas, a 16th century priest and nobleman; writer and anthropologist Zora Neale Hurston and Senator Claude Pepper. The Florida Chautauqua revival debuted this fall in DeFuniak Springs, Mount Dora and Avon Park. FHC plans to schedule more Chautauqua events next year. In addition, the performer/scholars will be available for individual in-costume presentations.

THE FLORIDA HUMANITIES COUNCIL Nonprofit 1718 E. Seventh Avenue * Suite 301 *Tampa, FL 33605 Organization U.S. Postage PAID Tampa, FL Permit No. 2093