9,487
edits
Changes
New page: '''John Moreno Coe''' (1897?-) was a Pensacola attorney and civil libertarian prominent during the mid-twentieth century. In 1924 he was appointed to fill the state senate term of [[J...
'''John Moreno Coe''' (1897?-) was a Pensacola attorney and civil libertarian prominent during the mid-twentieth century.
In [[1924]] he was appointed to fill the state senate term of [[John P. Stokes]], who moved to Miami shortly after his election. Coe was defeated in the [[1926]] reelection campaign, in part because of his opposition to a "Bible bill," which would have required the daily reading of King James scripture in Florida public classrooms, and a bill that would have given broad "search and seizure" latitude to state law enforcement agencies.
After returning to law full-time, Coe became increasingly involved with African-American defendants who, he felt, were not given the same treatment under the law as white defendants. He also gave legal representation to organizations such as the [[Pensacola Improvement Association]] and came to be known among the black community as simply "Lawyer Coe."
{{cquote|In my law practice since 1929, I have been particularly interested in defending cases of Negros who were subject to discrimination and oppression. I handled at trial and in the Supreme Court the Chavis and Cromwell cases, which resulted in permitting Negros to register and vote in the Democratic primary. I defended Will Lewis in the recent case in which indictment for rape was quashed because his race was systematically excluded from the grand jury.<ref name="progressive">Sarah Hart Brown. "Pensacola Progressive: John Moreno Coe and the Campaign of 1948." ''Florida Historical Quarterly'', Volume 68, Number 1, July 1989.</ref>}}
Coe was a member of the [[ACLU]], president in the 1950s of the National Lawyers Guild, and state chairman of [[Wikipedia:Henry A. Wallace]]'s [[1948]] [[Wikipedia:Progressive Party (United States, 1948)|Progressive Party]] campaign. In [[1950]], the [[Kiwanis Club]], of which Coe had been a 25-year member and state officer, "tried me for impure thoughts and expelled me therefrom," likely due to his opposition to the [[Korean War]].<ref name="progressive"/>
{{bio-stub}}
==References==
{{reflist}}
[[Category:Attorneys|Coe, John Moreno]] [[Category:Florida State Senators|Coe, John Moreno]] [[Category:Civil rights activists|Coe, John Moreno]]
In [[1924]] he was appointed to fill the state senate term of [[John P. Stokes]], who moved to Miami shortly after his election. Coe was defeated in the [[1926]] reelection campaign, in part because of his opposition to a "Bible bill," which would have required the daily reading of King James scripture in Florida public classrooms, and a bill that would have given broad "search and seizure" latitude to state law enforcement agencies.
After returning to law full-time, Coe became increasingly involved with African-American defendants who, he felt, were not given the same treatment under the law as white defendants. He also gave legal representation to organizations such as the [[Pensacola Improvement Association]] and came to be known among the black community as simply "Lawyer Coe."
{{cquote|In my law practice since 1929, I have been particularly interested in defending cases of Negros who were subject to discrimination and oppression. I handled at trial and in the Supreme Court the Chavis and Cromwell cases, which resulted in permitting Negros to register and vote in the Democratic primary. I defended Will Lewis in the recent case in which indictment for rape was quashed because his race was systematically excluded from the grand jury.<ref name="progressive">Sarah Hart Brown. "Pensacola Progressive: John Moreno Coe and the Campaign of 1948." ''Florida Historical Quarterly'', Volume 68, Number 1, July 1989.</ref>}}
Coe was a member of the [[ACLU]], president in the 1950s of the National Lawyers Guild, and state chairman of [[Wikipedia:Henry A. Wallace]]'s [[1948]] [[Wikipedia:Progressive Party (United States, 1948)|Progressive Party]] campaign. In [[1950]], the [[Kiwanis Club]], of which Coe had been a 25-year member and state officer, "tried me for impure thoughts and expelled me therefrom," likely due to his opposition to the [[Korean War]].<ref name="progressive"/>
{{bio-stub}}
==References==
{{reflist}}
[[Category:Attorneys|Coe, John Moreno]] [[Category:Florida State Senators|Coe, John Moreno]] [[Category:Civil rights activists|Coe, John Moreno]]