Description
Between 1956 and 1964, the Florida Legislative Investigation Committee – commonly known as the Johns Committee after founding Senator Charley Johns – was created by the Florida State Legislature to investigate the “subversive” activities of the civil rights movement, homosexuality and communist political groups. The aggressive tactics of investigators upended the lives of many people, particularly educators working in schools and universities. Over 100 teachers and school administrators lost their jobs as a result of Johns Committee activities.
List of Homosexuals is an artist book that re-presents one surveillance document, created by Johns Committee investigators in collaboration with municipal police and citizen informants. Many names were added to the list through coercive interrogations that threatened people known or suspected to be gay with forced public testimony if they refused to give lurid details of their sexual encounters, or names of friends or acquaintances. The Johns Committee documents were declassified in 1993, after public outcry, with the stipulation that the names of those interrogated would be redacted.
Half a century later, schools are again the target of aggressive conservative legislation in Florida and many other states. Transgender children are losing access to medical care, and their right to play sports in school. Teachers are again living in fear that teaching diverse perspectives on race, sexuality, or gender will get them fired, sued or made into criminals.
This book is in honor of all those who were impacted by the bigotry and abuse of State power enacted by the Johns Committee. May we not let history repeat itself.
Edition Information:
List of Homosexuals, is an 86-page accordion book in a clamshell box. The front face of the book is laser printed on French Paper with documents from the State Archives of Florida; the verso is suminagashi marbled kitataka paper laminated to cotton rag. It was originally displayed on a 30-foot long sculptural table in the solo exhibition, Airport Beach, at Smack Mellon in Brooklyn, New York.
Edition of 5, 2022.
