Free Press in 1940s Florida: Pennekamp v. Florida

Abstract

Free Press in 1940s Florida: Pennekamp v. Florida SCOTT D. MAKAR On the morning of Monday, June 3, 1946, the associate editor of the Miami Herald sat pensively, awaiting word on whether the United States Supreme Court had ruled in a major free press case argued earlier that year. When word broke that the Court had unanimously upheld principles of freedom of the press, the editor momentarily sighed relief—but soon put his journalistic talents, along with those ofothers at the Herald, into high gear. They hadjust won a bitterly contested legal battle ofepic proportions. The associate editor, John D. Pennekamp, would henceforth have his name enshrined in the U.S. Reports in Pennekamp v. Florida, 328 U.S. 331 (1946). His success in one of Florida’s highest profile media cases1 began a string of good fortune for Pennekamp, whose leadership led to the establishment in 1947 of the Everglades National Park and, decades later, a coral reef state park in the Florida Keys, by which most Floridians today associate his name. Pennekamp Comes to Miami At the turn of the century, Jacksonville was the center of commerce for and transportation gateway to Florida. But Miami made remarkable strides from 1920 to 1950 to best its North Florida neighbor in virtually every economic category. The 1920s had attracted many northerners to the Miami area, resulting in rapid economic growth. The land bust, major hurricanes, and the national economic depression stifled its development somewhat until World War II, when its strategic location for military operations energized the local economy. Tourism, both domestic and international, played a huge role in the area’s development even through national economic downturns.2 By the 1940s, Miami’s population had exploded, experienc­ ing double- and triple-digit percentage rates of increase.3 One of the northerners who moved to Miami during its transformative time was John D. Pennekamp, bom on January 1,1897, in Cincinnati, Ohio. He was a natural for the news business, beginning work in the indus­ try at age fourteen and later becoming the news editor for the Cincinnati Post. In 1925, he moved to Miami to work for the Herald, at which he would hold many editorial positions 296 JOURNAL OF SUPREME COURT HISTORY This Miami Herald press photo of H. Bond Bliss, John D. Pennekamp, managing editor, and Arthur Griffith, editorial writer and columnist, was taken a year after the Supreme Court decision. Pennekamp had been fined $250 and the Herald $1,000 when they lost their appeal in the Florida Supreme Court. for the following “five exciting decades that saw Florida go from a sleepy tropical peninsula to a teeming metropolitan resort.”4 During this time, he reported on major issues arising in the rapidly developing Miami metropolitan area, starting with the real estate boom in the mid-1920s.5 He wrote a column, “Behind the Front Page,” that appeared in the Herald for thirty-five years.6 Despite his later statewide prominence, he was a “very private person whose proud German bearing allowed no display of public sentimentality” and whose “social life revolved around a few close friends.”7 His passion for the Everglades was reflected in his preservation efforts, and to a great extent, his legacy today is his association with helping to establish the Everglades National Park that President Truman dedicated in 1947. Over a decade later, he was instrumental in the creation of a seventy-five-mile offshore park named in his honor: John D. Pennekamp Coral Reef State Park.8 The Herald and the Newspaper Business in Florida Founded in 1903 as The Miami Evening Record, the paper was renamed the Miami Herald in December 1910.9 The newspaper business was vibrant in Miami, particularly during the 1920s when the Herald was the world’s largest newspaper as measured by its amount of advertising.10 Newspaper publishing throughout Flor­ ida in the late 1930s was a robust—and at times—bare-knuckled venture; a number of competing newspapers vied for readership PENNEKAMP v. FLORIDA: FREE PRESS IN FLORIDA 297 The Everglades National Park commission was reinvigorated by Pennekamp (right) in 1946 thanks to his passion for nature and extensive political connections. President Harry...