Gov. Reubin O’D. Askew
Gov. Reubin O’D. Askew
September 11, 1928 – March 13, 2014
Gov. Reubin O’D. Askew
Gov. Reubin O’D. Askew
September 11, 1928 – March 13, 2014
Gov. Reubin O’D. Askew
September 11, 1928 – March 13, 2014
The Honorable Reubin O’Donovan Askew was born in 1928 in Muskogee, Oklahoma. In 1937, he moved with his mother and five siblings to Pensacola, Florida. Askew served in two branches of the United States military, in both houses of the Florida Legislature, through an unprecedented two terms as Governor, as United States Trade Ambassador and as an Eminent Scholar in Florida Government and Politics at Florida State University. During his tenure as Florida’s 37th Governor, he became known as a progressive reformer for his forward-thinking leadership on civil rights, tax reform, judicial and executive reorganization and open accountable government. While serving in the Governor’s Office, he brought African-Americans more fully into state government leadership. In 1971, Governor Askew appointed Athalie Range as Secretary of the Department of Community Affairs; the first African-American and the first woman ever to head a state agency in Florida. In 1975, he appointed Joseph Hatchett to the Florida Supreme Court; Hatchett was the first African-American to serve on the state’s highest judicial body. In 1978, he appointed Jesse McCrary, Jr. as Florida’s first African-American Secretary of State since Reconstruction.

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