Florida is certainly a southern state
Florida is certainly a southern state, thinks Askew, although it is a progressive southern state.
Citing this Excerpt
Oral History Interview with Reubin Askew, July 8, 1974. Interview A-0045. Southern Oral History Program Collection (#4007) in the Southern Oral History Program Collection, Southern Historical Collection, Wilson Library, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
Full Text of the Excerpt
- JACK BASS:
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The question is frequently asked, "is Florida really a southern state?"
- REUBIN ASKEW:
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Well, I think Florida is almost a microcosm of the country, in a sense. You have a substantial part of Florida that is very, very much a southern state. You have other parts of it that really are more metropolitan, but overall, I would judge Florida as a southern state. I think that you have some people all the way down from Pensacola to Key West, you know, in Miami, up to Jacksonville, that are pretty southern. But I believe that the influx of people from the other parts of the nation has had a very good effect upon Florida. The same way that people coming from other parts of the world came to the United States. To a large extent, Florida is a melting pot of the country. And I think that with them they have brought leadership and a more mellowing and tempering of views. And as a result, I think that it is still very much a southern state, but I think that it is progressive southern state.
