Live Programs by Randy Jaye
(For Scheduling and Booking contact: randyjaye@gmail)
Florida Prohibition: Corruption, Defiance & Tragedy
An Intoxicating History of Florida’s Dry Days
This live program is based on the book of the same title. It covers the Prohibition era in the United States which lasted from 1920 to 1933, spanning through the Roaring Twenties into the early years of the Great Depression. During this time the production, importation, transportation, and sale of alcoholic beverages were outlawed nation-wide, with some exceptions, of course. Learn how Prohibition was instigated by rural and small-town Protestants who believed that newer immigrants living in urban areas were immoral because of their emphatic use of alcoholic beverages. Prohibition bred corruption, defiance of the law, and hypocrisy as illegal bootlegging, moonshining and rum running replaced legitimate taxpaying industries. Florida actually voted state-wide Prohibition into law before the dreaded 18th amendment to the U.S. Constitution, and was the only state to elect a governor from the Prohibition Party. Florida’s Bill McCoy ‘The Real McCoy’ developed creative rum running technics, founded Rum Row, and became an international celebrity as he bamboozled the U.S. Coast Guard.. Al Capone, the infamous gangster, stayed put in his Miami, Florida home while his henchmen perpetrated the St. Valentine’s Day Massacre. Many virtually unknown stories of tragic killings in Florida during Prohibition are also recounted. Prohibition also helped set the stage for the rise of 20th century women’s liberation via flappers (young women who dressed in short skirts, listened and danced to jazz music, wore bobbed hair styles, drank illegal alcoholic beverages alongside men in speakeasies, and publicly flaunted contempt for what was considered socially acceptable behavior for women during this period). Many alcohol restrictions and taxation policies that still exist in Florida, and elsewhere around the nation, were influenced by Prohibition.
Second Seminole War (1835-1842)
America’s Longest and Costliest Indian War
The story begins with groups of indigenous people from Alabama
and Georgia relocating to colonial Florida in the 18th century.
Eventually the newcomers collectively were known as the Seminoles.
%20and%20its%20Fierce%20Aggression%20-%204%20picture%20collage_v1.jpg)
After Florida became a U.S. territory in 1821, White settlers insisted that the Seminoles be moved onto a reservation south of what is now Ocala. When the Indian Removal Act was signed into law by President Andrew Jackson in 1830, the U.S. sought to forcefully remove the Seminoles from Florida. The Seminole people had two choices: relocation from their rightful lands or armed resistance. War broke out and there were brutal massacres on both sides.
The U.S. government perpetrated fierce aggression, trickery, bribery, and unethical warfare tactics including the capture of Seminole War leader Osceola under a white flag of truce. The campaigns of four U.S. Army generals all failed to force the Seminoles to surrender. Finally, in 1842, Colonel William Jenkins Worth declared the Second Seminole War to be over even though there was no peace treaty or surrender agreement. The result was that most of the Seminoles were forced out of Florida to a reservation in present-day Oklahoma; only about 300 remained in Florida.
General William T. Sherman’s Scorched Earth Warfare
A glance into the life of one of the most controversial,
and legendary, people in American history.
“The [Confederate] people cannot be made to love us, but may be made to fear us,
and dread the passage of [Union] troops through their country.”
– Sherman’s letter to General U.S. Grant (October 4, 1862).
The mere mention of General Sherman’s name conjures up visions of fire, smoke, destruction, desolation, Atlanta in flames, plantations and farms destroyed and railroad cars and tracks smashed almost beyond recognition.
This program discusses Sherman's personal life, education, participation in the Second Seminole War, his turbulent Civil War service where he rose to the rank of Major General and recovered from a nervous breakdown to lead the brutal and infamous “March to the Sea” from Atlanta to Savannah, Georgia where he used scorched earth warfare tactics to practically destroy the Confederate States of America's ability to engage in warfare.
Also discussed is his negotiation of Confederate General Joseph E. Johnston’s surrender (where Sherman was actually accused of being too lenient). After the Civil War he became the Commander of the Department of the Missouri (1866-1869), “Acting” Secretary of War of the United States (served approximately six weeks in 1869), Commanding General of the United States Army (1869-1884), and then he became an author and speaker in civilian life (1884-1891). Sherman died on February 14, 1891, in New York City, NY at the age of 71.
Perseverance: Episodes of Black History from the Rural South
Many aspects of Black history in many parts of the rural South
are both underappreciated and under documented.
This program takes you on a journey through various episodes of Black history from the rural South featuring local historical adventures weaved into broader national and international events that span from the European Invasion of the New World, the Plantation-era South, the American Civil War, Jim Crow laws, the two World Wars, the Civil Rights Movement and beyond.
.jpg)
Many of the local episodes of black history in this presentation occurred in Flagler County, Florida and are excellent microcosms of Black history from the rural South. Some of these historic episodes are remarkable and include Ku Klux Klan ties to the county’s founder, the “Famous Christmas Letter to Flagler’s Colored Voters” (which was a community-wide physical threat to prevent blacks from voting), a Black bootlegger killed the County Sheriff during a Prohibition raid, no high school was provided for Blacks for 32 years after the county was founded, many of the county’s elite White citizens were members of the Citizens’ Council, and the county’s school board filed one of the last and most frivolous lawsuits of the Civil Rights era as a last-ditch effort to prevent desegregation.
The New World provided vast land for commercial agricultural operations. Large plantations were constructed, and these operations became the largest economic industries in the New World and required vast numbers of human laborers.
Beginning in the late 17th century, the numbers of Native American slaves and White indentured servants dwindled and the demand for African slaves in the New World significantly increased.
Although Jim Crow laws (legalized racial segregation) are now outlawed, the legacy of “Jim Crow” persists as the namesake for racial segregation in the United States. Perhaps remembering the Jim Crow legacy will keep those sins in the past and remind everyone that racial segregation has no place anywhere in the world.
The Civil Rights movement was an organized effort by Black Americans, and some White supporters, to end racial discrimination and gain equal rights for everyone under the law. It began in the late 1940s and endured until the late 1960s.
Jim Crow Era Propaganda, Artifacts and Upheavals in Florida
Propaganda during the Jim Crow Era used racist imagery including caricatures to degrade, demonize and demoralize Blacks and other people of color, and it actually legitimized punishment and violence.
The artifacts of Jim Crow Era racist propaganda include tourist souvenirs, kitchen utensils, figurines, food containers, advertisements, signs, toys, movies (including some Disney productions), postcards and the well known Mammy caricature.
This program will take you through a journey of the Jim Crow Era, which started in 1877 at the end of Reconstruction and ended in the 1960s due to the successes of the modern Civil Rights movement. Jim Crow laws were a series of state and local statutes that effectively legalized racial segregation. These laws relegated Blacks (and other people of color) to second-class citizenship. Most people of color were denied the right to vote and hold public offices and had very limited educational and employment opportunities. Florida was the least populated state in the Deep South until the mid twentieth century, but led the nation in the number of racial terror lynchings per capita. During the 1950s and 1960s, societal discontent with racial segregation led to the modern Civil Rights Movement. A number of important boycotts, protests and sit ins occurred in Florida including the Tallahassee Bus Boycott in 1956, and Jacksonville’s Ax Handle Saturday where a violent mob attacked peaceful lunch counter protesters in 1960. In 1964, during protests associated with the St. Augustine Movement the manager of the Monson Motor Lodge poured acid in the lodge’s pool because several Blacks were in the water. This deplorable incident reached international news.
General John J. Pershing (They called him "Black Jack")
John J. Pershing is one of the most important military leaders in U.S. history. Ironically, Pershing is mostly unknown today. Pershing led the U.S. Army to victory in World War 1 and was the mentor to many World War II U.S. Army generals including Dwight D. Eisenhower and Douglas MacArthur.
This program will take you on a journey through the incredible story of John Joseph Pershing (1860-1948), one of the most important yet little known military leaders in the history of the United States. He is one of only three people to ever achieve the rank of General of the Armies of the United States (unofficially referred to as a six-star general). Pershing held this rank while actively serving; the other two, George Washington and Ulysses S. Grant, were promoted posthumously. Pershing led an army of more than one million men during World War 1 where he was credited for directing the U.S. Army into the modern era. Pershing’s proactive leadership of the American Expeditionary Forces (AEF) in the European Theater’s Western Front was criticized for many of his actions and decisions; however, he undoubtedly played a crucial role in the defeat of Germany and ending the “Great War.” Pershing’s personal life, complex relationship with Black troops especially during his command of the “Buffalo Soldiers” (10th Cavalry Regiment) - which led to his nickname of “Black Jack,” battles and wars, his rise to the highest rank possible in the U.S. Army, his Pulitzer Prize winning book: My Experiences in the World War, and his later life will be explored during this program.
