Archival Conflation: The Savannah Morning News, the Weekly Floridian, and the 1951 Election

A claim that the Savannah Morning News and the Weekly Floridian reported on the 1951 Avon Park mayoral election is an archival conflation that erroneously links two nineteenth-century sources to a mid-twentieth-century event.

The Conflation

The Weekly Floridian was a prominent Tallahassee, Florida, newspaper primarily active during the nineteenth century, ceasing primary operations long before 1951.[weekly-floridian] The Savannah Morning News is geographically disconnected from Highlands County; while “Avon Park” appears in its historical directories, this refers to a location along the Thunderbolt car line in Savannah, Georgia, rather than the city in Florida.[savannah-morning-news] Furthermore, mentions of the surname “Sauls” in those directories refer to local Savannah residents or businesses.

The Actual 1951 Election

The 1951 Avon Park election controversy itself is historically factual. In 1951, Mayor Wiley Sauls Jr. sought to retain his position against his predecessor, O. C. Wilkes. Sauls won the election, heavily supported by the city’s Black voters in the second precinct, alongside two new city council candidates, Mannin Kirkland and J. B. Sparks. The outgoing white city council attempted to invalidate the Black precinct vote on September 11, 1951. Sauls and the newly elected members, represented by Avon Park attorney Keith Collyer, successfully challenged this action. The Supreme Court of Florida ruled in Gough v. State ex rel. Sauls that the legislature could not confer upon a municipal entity the judicial power to determine the legality of votes.[gough-1951]

References

• gough-1951 — Supreme Court of Florida. Gough v. State ex rel. Sauls, 55 So. 2d 111 (Fla. 1951). 20 November 1951. https://web.archive.org/web/20240729171309/https://casetext.com/case/gough-v-state-ex-rel-sauls
• savannah-morning-news — Savannah Morning News. Savannah Morning News. https://www.loc.gov/collections/chronicling-america/
• weekly-floridian — The Weekly Floridian. The Weekly Floridian. https://www.loc.gov/collections/chronicling-america/

Where this comes from

Evidence

corroborated — More than one independent source agrees.

Review

unverified — Drafted from sources but not yet checked by a volunteer.

Rights

society

Sources

1. Supreme Court of Florida, Gough v. State ex rel. Sauls, 55 So. 2d 111 (Fla. 1951) (1951) · official
2. Savannah Morning News, Savannah Morning News · newspaper
3. The Weekly Floridian, The Weekly Floridian · newspaper

Something here wrong, or incomplete? The Society would rather know. Tell a volunteer.

Have a question about this record?Ask A.P.

← Back to collection