Farris Bryant, 87; Fla. Governor at Time of Integration, Growth

Farris Bryant, 87, Florida’s governor during a period of racial strife and rapid population growth from 1961 to 1965, died Friday in a Jacksonville, Fla., hospital of complications from a fall and a stroke.

Considered an old Southern gentleman, a brilliant politician and a practical man of his time, Bryant campaigned in 1960 to preserve segregation as well as to expand state highways, overhaul education, and lure tourists and businesses.

A Harvard-educated lawyer, Bryant insisted that segregation was the law at the time, and he felt honor-bound to uphold it. But with the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the law changed, and Bryant helped the state integrate its schools and other institutions as smoothly as possible.

He was declared a Great Floridian in 1994, and revered for his efforts in expanding highways and higher education, including establishing the Board of Regents. He insisted higher education must grow to train Florida residents for the high-tech jobs he worked to attract around the burgeoning space program at Cape Canaveral.

After Bryant left the governor’s office, he was named by President Johnson as director of the Office of Emergency Planning and a member of the National Security Council and, in 1967, chairman of the U.S. Advisory Commission on Intergovernment Relations. Bryant lost a Democratic primary bid for U.S. Senate in 1970 and returned to the practice of law.