I thought I had heard it all when it came to segregation history. From public schools, military platoons, lunch counters and “white primaries” to “colored” rest rooms and water fountains. But here’s an item, thanks to a recent column by USF St. Pete historian Gary Mormino, that took me aback.
During the height of Cold War paranoia, America prepared, so to speak, for nuclear war on the home front. As in bomb shelters, fallout shelters, air raid sirens and students, especially in Florida, practicing the art of “duck and cover.” The head of the Civil Defense Administration, Millard Caldwell, a former Florida congressman and governor, had once advocated segregated bomb shelters. He really did.
Imagine, while preparing for nuclear apocalypse, there was sentiment to still make race–as in black and white, not just human–a priority. “Gobsmacking,” to use a vintage, non-academic Mormino adjective.