Florida's Minority Trailblazers: The Men and Women Who Changed the Face of Florida Government.

• Author: Waas, George
• Position: Book review

Florida's Minority Trailblazers: The Men and Women Who Changed the Face of Florida Government

by Susan A. MacManus

Florida's rich history of explosive growth following World War II is told through the lives of minority trailblazers who helped the Sunshine State rise from being one of the poorest, most isolated states, with the smallest population in the South, to the most dynamic state on the east coast and, with California, the most diverse in the nation.

In this more than 600-page tome, Dr. Susan MacManus tells the story of the critical role minorities played in forging political change--a seismic shift that moved the state from a rural, agricultural, biracial, and segregated society of the 1940s to the dynamic and diverse state it is today.

It is a story Dr. MacManus is eminently qualified to tell. She is Distinguished University Professor of Government and International Affairs at the University of South Florida and has authored and co-authored several books dealing with politics, as well as having edited two books on redistricting and reapportionment in Florida--a subject that lies at the core of minority involvement in the affairs of state government.

This trove of anecdotes and political nuggets is woven through the biographies of more than 50 Floridians --along with charts, tables, 174 photos, and several timelines placing each trailblazer's place in Florida's political history--each of whom overcame widespread discrimination because of their race, ethnicity, gender, and even political affiliation, and became leaders by achieving a governmental "first."

Dr. MacManus, along with writer and editor Barbara A. Langham and a host of University of South Florida student assistants and researchers, divides the book into sections that include 25 members of the House of Representatives and one speaker of the House; 10...