1. Spessard Lindsey Holland was an American lawyer and politician.
53 Facts About Spessard Holland
1. 2.
Spessard Holland was the first person born in Florida to serve as governor and US senator for the state.
3.
Spessard Holland was elected to a full term in November 1946 and was re-elected senator in 1952,1958 and 1964, retiring in January 1971.
4.
Spessard Holland was one of three children of Benjamin Franklin Holland and the former Fannie Virginia Spessard.
5.
Benjamin Holland was a Confederate veteran of the American Civil War, serving as a member of the Georgia State Line under Company I of the 2nd Regiment.
6.
Spessard Holland participated in the Battle of Kennesaw Mountain, where he was wounded.
7.
Virginia Spessard Holland, who was known by her middle name, moved to Bartow in 1889 and was a teacher at the Summerlin Institute prior to her marriage.
8.
Spessard Holland attended public schools, graduating from the Summerlin Institute in 1909.
9.
Spessard Holland went on to teach high school in Warrenton, Georgia from 1912 to 1914.
10.
In 1916, Spessard Holland began attending law school at the University of Florida.
11.
Spessard Holland became the first elected student body president and a member of the debating society.
12.
At his request, Spessard Holland was later transferred to the 24th Aero Squadron, Signal Corps of the Army Air Corps.
13.
At various times Spessard Holland took part in battles at Meuse-Argonne, Champagne, St Mihiel, and Luneville, where he downed two enemy planes; on one mission, Spessard Holland's plane crash-landed in a crater.
14.
Spessard Holland then went to Fort Monroe, Virginia, where he resigned his commission in July 1919.
15.
Spessard Holland left that position after being elected to a four-year term as a county judge in 1920.
16.
Re-elected in 1924, Spessard Holland left the judgeship at the end of his second term, in 1929.
17.
In 1932, Spessard Holland was elected to the Florida Senate, where he served eight years.
18.
Spessard Holland was strongly opposed to both the sales tax and the poll tax, the latter of which he worked with fellow state Senator Ernest R Graham to repeal in 1937.
19.
Publicly, Spessard Holland cited two reasons for his opposition to the poll tax.
20.
Spessard Holland announced he was running for governor on December 4,1939, after considering running for US senator but deciding against it.
21.
Spessard Holland pitched himself as being hard on crime but for tourism in the state.
22.
Spessard Holland ended up winning the general election even more easily than Democrats usually did at the time.
23.
Spessard Holland supported the state public school system's financial condition.
24.
Spessard Holland was sworn in as governor of Florida on January 7,1941.
25.
Spessard Holland had to compete with the influence of Cabinet members who could be re-elected.
26.
Spessard Holland began those preparations with a review of $7 million in State Road Department contracts made during the administration of his predecessor as governor, Fred P Cone.
27.
When Spessard Holland became governor, he attempted to improve Florida's record on lynching.
28.
Governor Spessard Holland put the Florida Highway Patrol on standby to assist the Federal Bureau of Investigation with taking Japanese Americans and foreigners into custody.
29.
Spessard Holland was neutral on the canal compared to US senators Charles O Andrews and Claude Pepper, who strongly supported it.
30.
Spessard Holland said the reason behind his neutrality was because the canal itself was incredibly controversial.
31.
Spessard Holland traveled throughout the state making public appearances in an attempt to generate interest in the election, trying to get a gas tax amendment passed.
32.
Spessard Holland made a statewide radio address urging people to vote.
33.
Spessard Holland reacted to this by attempting to reduce enthusiasm for a special session.
34.
On September 25,1946 Spessard Holland assumed the US Senate seat vacated by Charles O Andrews, who had died a week earlier after being appointed by Governor Caldwell.
35.
Spessard Holland, like many Southern Democrats, was a conservative who was pro-business, supported racial segregation, staunchly opposed the civil rights movement and labor unions, and believed in a limited federal government and states' rights.
36.
Spessard Holland opposed Harry Truman's proposals for national health insurance and the Fair Employment Practices Commission, and voted to override Truman's veto of the Taft-Hartley Act.
37.
Spessard Holland's views contrasted with those of Claude Pepper, the senior US senator from Florida during his first four years, who was a more outspoken liberal.
38.
On other issues, Spessard Holland remained a segregationist who supported discrimination against Black voters, but maintained his view that the poll tax should be repealed because it was a form of wealth discrimination.
39.
In 1952 Spessard Holland ran for re-election, winning a significantly larger margin of the vote than in the previous race in 1946.
40.
Up for re-election in 1958, Spessard Holland was challenged by his former colleague Claude Pepper in the Democratic primary.
41.
Spessard Holland introduced a constitutional amendment that would prohibit states from conditioning the right to vote in federal elections on payment of a poll tax or other types of tax.
42.
Spessard Holland replaced Kennedy as the presiding officer in the Senate when he left.
43.
In November 1969, at the age of 77, Spessard Holland announced that he would not seek re-election in 1970.
44.
Spessard Holland actively campaigned for Democrat Lawton Chiles, who defeated Republican US Representative William C Cramer in the general election.
45.
Spessard Holland married Mary Agnes Groover was born on July 31,1896 and on February 8,1919, and they were together until his death.
46.
Mary Spessard Holland died of a stroke on March 22,1975, at age 78.
47.
Spessard Holland was a member of several fraternities during his life: Phi Beta Kappa, Alpha Tau Omega and Phi Delta Phi.
48.
Spessard Holland was involved with Freemasonry, being a 33rd degree Shriner.
49.
Spessard Holland was a member of the Sons of the American Revolution, the American Legion, the Veterans of Foreign Wars, Bartow's Kiwanis club and the Elks.
50.
General James Van Fleet was a personal friend of Spessard Holland and supported his candidacy for governor.
51.
Spessard Holland was described as being a conservationist and enjoyed birdwatching.
52.
Spessard Holland was a fan of baseball and football and played tennis; he enjoyed collecting books on Florida history.
53.
Spessard Holland died of a heart attack at his Bartow home only ten months later, on November 6,1971, at age 79.