Two Lawsuits, Two Senate Appearances, ETC ... - Never Disproven!!!
Eighth Judicial Circuit, Alachua County -
Case No.: 01-2019 CA 001259, Kelly v. Campus Communications, Inc.
Case No.: 01-2019 CA 001260, Kelly v. UF Board of Trustees, et al.
One unanticipated benefit from the April 2019 filing of two defamation lawsuits in Florida circuit court regarding an incident on the campus of the University of Florida is that two additional authorities, 2013 Pulitzer Prize for general non-fiction winner Gilbert King and attorney Thomas Julin, a well-known First Amendment attorney who was a law partner and counsel of record with former FSU President and FSU College of Law Dean Sandy D'Alemberte on several cases and whose father was the dean of the UF College of Law for ten years, are now on the record as being in agreement with my claim that Virgil D. Hawkins not only did not have a college degree from Lincoln University in Pennsylvania when he applied to UF's law school in 1949, his one and only application, but more damning is that Hawkins falsely affirmed to the Florida Supreme Court, and consequently to the U.S. Supreme Court who reviewed his state case four times, that he had such a degree.
On Page 11 under "Kelly Seeks to Discredit Civil Rights Pioneer Virgil Hawkins" from the defendant's Motion To Dismiss/Entry of Final Summary Judgment, Eighth Judicial Circuit, Alachua County - Case No.: 01-2019 CA 001259, Kelly v. Campus Communications, Inc., it has,
"23. Notwithstanding this record, Kelly took it upon himself in 2011 to re-examine the narrative surrounding Virgil Hawkins. He learned through review of court records the already well-known fact that Hawkins had asserted in his state court litigation that he had an A.B. degree from "the prestigious HBCU Lincoln University in Pennsylvania" but later admitted in his federal lawsuit that he did not [he did not] have that degree. Am. Compl. Ex. DD at 41 and 43.
Kelly concluded that this "shines a bright light on the psychotic level of self-gratuitous 'right-side-of-history' delusions UF's cowardly law school leadership ... and African American Studies Program have since ... Hawkins did not even meet the basic requirements for a discretionary review of his qualifications." Am. Compl. Ex. DD at 41." with the following Footnote 9,
"Gilbert King reported in his book RUTHLESS SUN: A TRUE STORY OF VIOLENCE, RACE, AND INJUSTICE LOST AND FOUND (Penguin Random House 2018): "After graduating [from a Jacksonville high school] in 1930, Virgil headed north to Lincoln University in Pennsylvania, whose alumni included Thurgood Marshall and Langston Hughes. But the Great Depression made it impossible for him to continue, and he returned to Lake County." Excerpt available at
"
Gilbert King won the Pulitzer Prize for general non-fiction in 2013 for his New York Times bestseller on the Groveland Four trial and the attorney who filed the motion is Thomas Julin who is a well-known First Amendment lawyer who has represented such journalists as Geraldo Rivera and whose father was the dean at UF's College of Law, 1971-1980, and Julin was also the Editor-in-Chief for the UF student newspaper from 1977-1978. A third authority on this matter is Harley Herman who attorney Thomas Julin also frequently mentions in his motion and Herman at a November 2018 event hosted by the UF College of Law also admitted that Hawkins did not have a college degree from Lincoln University or elsewhere when he applied to UF's College of Law in 1949; see this website's first blue slider titled, "Truth, Lies, Videotape".
Pairing this information with the readily accessible, State ex rel. Hawkins v. Board of Control, 83 So.2d 20 (1955), 29 ,
"Thereafter, the relator filed an amended petition in which he averred, in substance, that he possessed all the educational and moral qualifications necessary for admission to the College of Law of the University of Florida; that he had an A.B. degree from Lincoln University, Pennsylvania; that he had duly applied for admission to said College of Law ..."
it once again becomes plain with another set of verifiable documents that Virgil D. Hawkins was never qualified, academically or morally, to be admitted to UF's College of Law.
Finally for more incriminating and irrefutable analysis of the Hawkins myth read "IV. The Virgil D. Hawkins legacy" beginning on Page 59 of my reply to the Defendant Campus Communications, Inc. - the UF student newspaper, The Independent Florida Alligator - Motion To Dismiss/Entry of Final Summary Judgment with all the referenced exhibits readily available to the public, as is the entirety of both my lawsuits which were filed and litigated pro se, April - September 2019; see the Alachua County Clerk of Court's website.
Regarding my two appearances before the Florida Senate during the 2019 regular legislative session, I provided many of the senators with much of the same information that is found under this website's first blue slider titled, "Truth, Lies, Videotape" in the hopes of convincing them not to rename FSU's B.K. Roberts Hall whereas those who spoke before the committee in favor of renaming, the majority being FSU law school students, only offered words. Here is a March 25, 2019 Tallahassee Democrat Letter-to-the-Editor from three FSU law school students who spoke at either the Senate Education or Senate Rules Committee meetings or both. Has it yet to dawn upon these students of the law why the U.S. Supreme Court, who reviewed every Florida Supreme Court decision in the Hawkins case, including both of B.K. Roberts', never stated or even suggested that the Florida Supreme Court had "refused to uphold Brown v. Board of Education" in their four reported reviews of the case and why such seismic defiance is not documented or discussed in any bona fide law school textbook on constitutional law ? These three law school students at the time, perhaps they have graduated by now and are even representing clients and providing legal advice, are in effect saying that their determination that B.K. Roberts' decisions were unconstitutional and defiant are more competent than the U.S. Supreme Court's who never said such a thing!!! In fact B.K. Roberts' first opinion, his 1955 opinion, was so constitutionally brilliant and sound that the U.S. Supreme Court in 1956 was forced to rescind its published 1954 order in the Hawkins case making me wonder if the U.S. Supreme Court has ever in its history vacated then nullified its own previously published decision in the same case. Here is an excerpt from Chad Sinckler, Bianca Baez and Adam Wood's letter,
"We question why our law school building commemorates a man who refused to uphold Brown v. Board of Education and desired to keep Florida mired in segregation."
yet the U.S. Supreme Court never said that either B.K. Roberts or the Florida Supreme Court ever "refused to uphold Brown v. Board of Education". You can see them as well as me speaking in the two Florida Senate committee meeting videos below.
Florida Senate Education Committee, March 12, 2019 -
1:17:30 - 1:33:50 are the general appearances with my appearance beginning at 1:17:30. Here is the Meeting Packet - Page 160 is my appearance form and Page 161 is Carolyn Egan's appearance form and she has checked Speaking:Information and the chair calls her at 1:22:55 but she declines to speak. Carolyn Egan is the FSU General Counsel.
1:15:39 - 1:17:24 Staff Director David Sikes explains the bill to rename B.K. Roberts Hall and at 1:17:04 he paraphrases Senate Bill 7076's concluding paragraph which states verbatim,
"(2) The Legislature further intends that the repeal does not constitute a legislative position regarding the ultimate disposition of the original designation; rather, the Legislature recognizes the university’s transparent, collaborative, and thorough review process, which resulted in the recommendation that precipitated this repeal, and further intends that the university is solely responsible for faithful implementation of the panel’s recommendations regarding this issue.",
thus FSU President Thrasher, a former Florida Senator and Florida Speaker of the House, closes his bill, a bill he as a citizen was allowed to bring directly to the state legislature and have it then placed on their agenda, by absolving his former colleagues of their sins of casting ballots to throw B. K. Roberts to the raging, ill-informed yet vindictive FSU law school mob since as Staff Director Sikes recites to the committee and as the bill states the reasons for renaming B. K. Roberts Hall were thoroughly investigated by Thasher's 15-member advisory panel consisting of "university students, faculty, staff and alumni" consequently Thrasher's bill pontificates that the Florida Senate must now "recognize[s]" his advisory panel's "transparent, collaborative, and thorough review process" and that Thrasher, being honorable and mighty, will not hold them morally or otherwise responsible for whatever indignities, humiliations or harms B.K. Roberts' and his family must suffer in the future.
As stated by Staff Director David Sikes,
"the repeal does not constitute a legislative position regarding the naming of [B. K. Roberts Hall] but rather the recognition of the university's thorough and transparent review process",
Thrasher's absolution of his former legislative colleagues sins is reminiscent of Pontius Pilate's self-absolution of throwing Jesus Christ to the ignorant mob of his day as recorded in Matthew 27,
"When Pilate saw that he could not prevail at all, but rather that a tumult was rising, he took water and washed his hands before the multitude, saying, “I am innocent of the blood of this just Person. You see to it.”",
and furthermore there are many Florida Legislators whose families and friends escaped the show trials of communist Cuba but now as evidenced by the last legislative session, the Florida Senate voted almost unanimously to condemn the 50 plus-year reputation of a landmark and once powerful community servant of his day, B. K. Roberts, without receiving any material or non-hearsay evidence at all against him whereas the evidence exonerating B. K. Roberts is pervasive and overwhelming and publicly documented throughout Tallahassee such as at the State Archives, the Florida Supreme Court library and the FSU College of Law library.
Florida Senate Rules Committee, April 3, 2019 -
36:33 - 43:29 are the general appearances with my appearance beginning at 39:16. Here is the Meeting Packet - Page 78 is my appearance form and Page 75 is Kathy Mears' who initially checked Speaking:For but then switched to Waive Speaking:In Support. Kathy Mears is the FSU Chief Legislative Affairs Officer.
Finally since 2014 when I began my Virgil D. Hawkins research I have never once been disproven either by UF, FSU or any other Hawkins proponents or researchers.
