Florida House Speaker Richard Corcoran is vowing to continue to fight what he calls “evil” ideologies. Speaking to reporters Monday, he stated the evils of “Neo-Nazism and white supremacy” need to be stomped out—after the violence that erupted at a protest in Charlottesville, Virginia.
“We’re going to fight that wherever we can,” said Corcoran, at the time. “In fact, last session, even in incidences where we saw tremendous racism in the Groveland Four, which isn’t far from here, people who were brought up on charges. It was us in the legislature and the Governor who had a public apology for the first time since that incident because that’s evil, and that stuff needs to be stomped out. And, we will continue to run on our record—that wherever that presents itself—we will fight against it with all our might.”
This past legislative session, both chambers of the Florida Legislature apologized to the Groveland Four—a group of black men wrongfully convicted of raping a white woman in the 1940s. They endured law enforcement beatings and were forced to confess. Two were killed at the hands of officers. In a resolution, the legislature also asked the Governor and the Florida Cabinet to issue full pardons for all four men.
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