Background
Spessard Lindsey Holland was born on July 10, 1892 in Bartow, Florida, United States. He was the son of Benjamin Franklin Holland, a citrus grower, and Fannie Virginia Spessard, a teacher.
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Spessard Lindsey Holland
Edit ProfileEducation
Holland attended Summerlin Institute, a private school in Bartow. Upon graduation he was recruited to play professional baseball for the Philadelphia Athletics, but he decided instead to attend Emory University in Atlanta, receiving his Bachelor of Arts in 1912. He taught high school in Warrenton, Georgia (1912-1914), and then went to law school at the University of Florida, earning his law degree in 1916.
Throughout his life Holland received numerous honorary degrees.
Career
Holland began a legal practice in Bartow but left it briefly for the military. During World War I he served in France as an aerial observer with the Twenty-fourth Flying Squadron. In 1919 Holland became a Polk County prosecutor and in 1920, a county judge. He was elected to the Florida Senate in 1932 and became a powerful and well-known legislator before he left office in 1940 to run for the governorship. He won the Democratic gubernatorial primary in that year and went on to win the general election. The Republicans did not field a candidate against him.
Holland's years as governor (1941-1945) coincided with American involvement in World War II. The war had a major impact on his fiscal success. Federal money poured into the state for military bases and war production, ending its chronic budget deficit, and Holland was able to bequeath a surplus to his successor. He did not, however, reform the state's regressive tax system, which was based heavily on sales taxes. The war also brought labor shortages, and Holland dealt with these by calling for tougher state labor regulations, giving early parole to model prisoners, and blocking recruitment of Florida workers by northern business firms. In addition he had to cope with the problems of gasoline rationing, even to the point of helping irresponsible tourists who had ignored Federal rules and become stranded in the state without enough gas to get home.
In September 1946 Holland was chosen by Governor Millard Caldwell to fill the Senate seat left vacant by the death of Charles O. Andrews. Two months later he won the seat in the regularly scheduled election. He was reelected to the Senate in 1952, 1958, and 1964, each time with increased margins. Yet despite his longevity and growing seniority, Holland never became a major political force in the Senate, nor did he chair any of the high-profile committees. He tended to seek assignment to utilitarian committees, such as Public Works, that could aid his state while enhancing his own support. The clearest example of this was his ability to secure significant amounts of federal money for flood control projects in southern Florida. Most people considered Holland to be a typically conservative southern politician, although he referred to himself as a "moderate conservative. " He sponsored the Tidelands Act, which returned off-shore resource rights to the individual states, and cosponsored the creation of Everglades National Park. Unlike most southern senators, he favored statehood for Alaska and Hawaii as early as 1950.
Holland's record on civil rights was ambiguous. His initial reaction to the 1954 Supreme Court's Brown v. Board of Education decision ending racial segregation in public schools was to counsel "patience and moderation. " Yet in 1956 he signed the "Southern Manifesto" in Congress, calling for legal opposition to Brown. In the first Senate race in Florida after the Court's ruling, Holland campaigned on a platform of segregation and states' rights.
In 1962, with the support of President Kennedy, he succeeded in having the amendment accepted by the Senate. In 1964, after the ratification process was completed, it became the Twenty-fourth Amendment to the Constitution and Holland's most positive legacy to the nation. The reasons for Holland's long advocacy of this reform were not entirely clear. His stand was often met with dismay by Southern conservatives and with suspicion by Northern liberals. While there seemed to have been a good deal of personal conviction involved, it is nonetheless true that by 1962 most southern states had already abolished their poll tax and it was no longer the crucial issue it once had been.
He announced his retirement because of ill health in 1970. He died in Bartow in 1971.
Achievements
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Holland was a notable lawyer and politician who devoted his life to serving his state, and the voters of Florida responded by repeatedly returning him to office. He never lost a state election. He had been instrumental in ending the Florida poll tax while in the state senate during the 1930s. On five separate occasions, beginning in 1953, Holland sponsored a constitutional amendment to end the poll tax for federal elections. Holland was also a World War I veteran and received the Distinquished Service Cross for valor in October 1918.
Politics
Holland was a Republican. He consistently voted for anti-Communist measures and was particularly vocal in support of loyalty oaths for student-loan recipients. He was also a faithful supporter of U. S. policies in Vietnam during the 1960s.
Most people considered Holland to be a typically conservative southern politician, although he referred to himself as a "moderate conservative. "
He opposed all civil rights legislation. In spite of this, Holland was a long-time advocate of abolishing the poll tax, a device that had been used in the South to limit black voting. Furthermore, Holland believed the poll tax should be abolished only by means of a constitutional amendment. Any other form of federal legislation would set a dangerous precedent for undermining states' rights. Thus the amendment might have been a shrewd maneuver to placate liberals while forstalling federal intervention in more important areas of state jurisdiction.
Membership
Holland was a member of several organizations, including Alpha Tau Omega, Sons of the American Revolution, American Legion, Veterans of Foreign Wars, Freemasons, Kiwanis, and Elks.
Personality
Holland was usually described as being moral, bland, and aloof, possessing the courtly air of a "southern gentleman. " He was a notoriously poor speaker with a monotonic delivery. One of his political opponents claimed that he was simply not a "warm person, " which might have been a polite way of calling him a "cold fish. "
Connections
In 1919 Holland married Mary Agnes Groover. They had four children.
