Florida Senate
What was the position of Spessard Holland from 1932 to 1935?
Spessard Holland Spessard Lindsey Holland ( July 10 , 1892 – November 6 , 1971 ) was an American lawyer and politician . He served as the 28th Governor of Florida from 1941 to 1945 , and as a United States Senator from Florida from 1946 to 1971 . A Democrat , he was a member of the conservative coalition in Congress . Early life and education . Holland was born in Bartow , Florida , the son of Benjamin Franklin and Virginia Spessard Holland , a teacher . He attended public schools , entering the Summerlin Institute ( now Bartow High School ) in 1909 . Holland graduated magna cum laude from Emory College ( currently Emory University ) in 1912 , where he was a member of the Alpha Tau Omega fraternity . Holland would go on to teach high school in Warrenton , Georgia for four years . In 1916 , Holland began attending law school at the University of Florida . There he taught in the sub-freshman department ( high school ) of the university . He also became the first elected student body president and a member of the debating society . During his time at Emory and UF , he participated in track and field , football , basketball , and baseball ; on one occasion , he played so well as a pitcher in an exhibition game against the Philadelphia Athletics that Connie Mack ( the grandfather of Connie Mack III , who would one day hold the Senate seat Holland once occupied ) offered him a contract ( he declined ) . World War I service . Holland qualified to be a Rhodes Scholar , and was already a junior partner with R.B . Huffaker in the Huffaker & Holland law firm , but his plans were interrupted by World War I . Holland volunteered for service and was commissioned as a second lieutenant in the Coast Artillery Corps , where he was transferred to France and served in the brigades JAG Corps as an assistant adjutant . At his request , Holland was later transferred to the 24th Aero Squadron , Signal Corps of the Army Air Corps . Here he served with Lt . George E . Goldwaithe as a gunner and aerial observer , gathering information and taking photographs in reconnaissance missions behind enemy lines . At various times he took part in battles at Meuse-Argonne , Champagne , St . Mihiel , and Lunéville , where he downed two enemy planes . On one mission , Hollands plane crash-landed in a crater ; on December 11 , 1918 , Holland was awarded the Distinguished Service Cross . The citation , signed by John J . Pershing , noted : Upon resigning his commission in July 1919 , Holland was promoted to captain . Once back in the U.S. , he toured for the Victory Loan Drive and resumed his law practice in Bartow . Early political career . After the war , Holland resumed his law practice in Bartow . This however , was short-lived , because Holland accepted an appointment as the Polk County prosecutor later that year . He served two years in the prosecutors office , but left after being elected to a four-year term as a county judge in 1920 . Holland was reelected in 1924 , but left after the end of his second term in 1929 . Holland returned to private law practice later that year , joining William F . Bevis in the law firm of Holland & Bevis . The firm grew rapidly , eventually becoming a large international law firm that still exists today as Holland & Knight . In 1932 , Holland was elected to the Florida Senate , where he served eight years . During his term , Holland was noted for his strong advocacy for public schools ; as a member of the school committee , he drafted and cosponsored the Florida School Code and supported legislation that raised teachers pay and retirement benefits . Holland also supported workers compensation , tax cuts , and unemployment insurance . He was strongly opposed to both the sales tax and the poll tax , which he helped repeal in 1937 . Florida governor . Holland was an alternate Florida delegate to the 1940 Democratic National Convention . He was elected governor of Florida and on January 7 , 1941 was sworn in for a four-year term . During his time as governor , Holland was noted for reforming the state tax system and supporting cigarette taxes to reduce a $4 million debt in the state budget . New property tax laws enacted during Spessards term required uniform real estate assessments and only taxed the purchase of property . Early in his term , the teachers retirement program began , and the financing of public schools became more stable . Spessard also recommended four amendments to the state constitution , all of which were eventually adopted . These four amendments provided for : - New gasoline taxes to improve and build more than 1,500 miles of highway ; - New provisions for amending the state constitution in a shorter period ; - The lowering of the intangible tax ; and - The creation of the independent Game and Fresh Water Commission . When American involvement in World War II began with the attack on Pearl Harbor , Holland promoted new military bases in Florida and coordinated state defenses with the federal government . At a 1943 governors conference in Denver , Colorado , Holland promoted new railroad freight prices , helping the Florida economy . Holland was also an outdoorsman and environmentalist . Hollands negotiation of the purchase of Everglades wetland and marshland in 1944 helped lead to the establishment of the Everglades National Park in 1947 . Hollands term ended on January 2 , 1945 , when Millard F . Caldwell took office . U.S . senator . On September 25 , 1946 Holland assumed the U.S . Senate seat vacated by Charles O . Andrews , who had died a week earlier . In November 1946 he defeated Republican J . Harry Schad to win a full six-year term . Re-elected in 1952 , he , along with all other senators from the former Confederate states ( except Lyndon B . Johnson , Estes Kefauver , and Albert Gore , Sr. ) , signed the 1956 Southern Manifesto , which condemned the Supreme Court ruling in Brown v . Board of Education ( 1954 ) , declaring that segregation of public schools was unconstitutional , and promised to resist its implementation . Up for re-election in 1958 , Holland was challenged by former U.S . Senator ( and later U.S . Representative ) Claude Pepper in the Democratic primary . After fending off Peppers challenge , he easily defeated his Republican opponent , Leland Hyzer , in November to win a third term . During the 87th Congress Holland introduced a constitutional amendment prohibiting states from conditioning the right to vote in federal elections on payment of a poll tax or other types of tax . Approved by both Houses of Congress in August 1962 , the amendment was quickly ratified by the required three-fourths of the states ( 38 ) , and in January 1964 became the Twenty-fourth Amendment to the United States Constitution . He won a fourth term in 1964 , this time defeating Republican Claude R . Kirk , Jr. . Then , in November 1969 , at the age of 77 , Holland announced that he would not seek re-election in 1970 . He actively campaigned for Democrat Lawton Chiles , who defeated U.S . Representative William C . Cramer in the November 1970 election . Cramer had the endorsement of U.S . President Richard Nixon , and had handily defeated G . Harrold Carswell ( whom Nixon had earlier nominated unsuccessfully to the United States Supreme Court ) in the Republican primary . Chiles boasted that Cramer could bring Nixon , Agnew , Reagan , and anybody else he wants . .. . Ill take Holland on my side against all of them . Retirement . Holland left office in January 1971 . His activities were somewhat limited due to an increasingly severe heart condition . Holland died of a heart attack at his Bartow home on November 6 , 1971 at age 79 . Family . Holland married Mary Agnes Groover on February 8 , 1919 and they were together until his death . Together they had four children . Currently , their youngest daughter , Ivanhoe Craney , is the only one that is still alive . She currently lives in Bartow . Hollands surviving grandchildren reside in New York , Virginia , California , and Florida . His grandson Spessard Lindsey Holland III died August 4 , 2014 . Degrees , honors , and affiliations . Throughout his life Holland was involved in multiple civic , fraternal , and collegiate institutions . He received several honorary degrees : - Rollins College ( Bachelor of Laws , 1941 ) - Florida Southern College ( Bachelor of Laws , 1941 ) - Florida State University ( Bachelor of Laws , 1941 ) - Emory University ( Bachelor of Laws , 1941 ) - Florida State University ( Bachelor of Laws , 1956 ) - University of Miami ( Bachelor of Laws , 1962 ) - University of Florida ( Doctor of Comparative/Civil Law , 1953 ) - University of Tampa ( HHD , 1956 ) - Stetson University College of Law ( Doctor of Laws , 1970 ) Holland was also a member of several organizations , including : - Phi Beta Kappa , and Alpha Tau Omega . He was not a member of Phi Delta Phi , although his son , Spessard Lindsey Holland , Jr . was a member . ( See PDP Website Search ) - Sons of the American Revolution - American Legion - Veterans of Foreign Wars - Freemasons ( 33rd degree Shriner ) - Kiwanis - Elks Several buildings and public facilities are named after Holland : - The Spessard L . Holland Law Center , the administrative building at the University of Florida Law School ; - The Holland Building in Tallahassee ; - The Spessard Holland Golf Course , Park , and Community Center , and the Spessard Holland Beaches , North and South , in Melbourne Beach ; - The Spessard L . Holland Elementary School in his hometown of Bartow ; - The Spessard L . Holland Elementary School in Satellite Beach , Home of the Holland Hornets ; - The Spessard Holland East-West Expressway ( State Road 408 ) ; and - The section of U.S . Highway 17 in Hollands hometown of Bartow is known as the Spessard Holland Parkway . References . Finley , Keith M . Delaying the Dream : Southern Senators and the Fight Against Civil Rights , 1938–1965 ( Baton Rouge , LSU Press , 2008 ) . External links . - Guide to the Spessard L . Holland Papers at the University of Florida