The 1920'sThere was a time in the 1920's and 30's when Volusia County was the most corrupt area in the nation, second to Kirk County, Illinois of Al Capone fame. Mary Bethune was present and it was definitely her efforts and that of others that helped turn things around for the Volusia County government.
In the days of the roaring 20's the local political boss was Police Commissioner Jim Titus, who reported to DeLand attorney, Bert Fish. Many said that Fish ran a corrupt regime. One reported scheme involved the three bridges that crossed the Halifax at Daytona. These bridge were built by a private company and were operated as toll bridges. The contract called for the company to revert the bridges to the county after the franchise lapsed. Bert Fish was the private company's attorney at the time, and the company continued after the lapse to charge tolls and operate the bridges making the Volusia's citizens pay unnecessary tolls.
Fred Booth was a reporter who arrived in the Daytona Beach area in 1921. Around 1950, he wrote a short memoir, in his account he wrote of the rivalry between the Democratic machine bosses known as "The Ring" and the Ku Klux Klan. While most old-timers remember The Ring and the Klan as allies, that came later. Booth portrayed Daytona as a wide open town, lawless and corrupt as any town in the most fantastic fiction. (Bill Dreggors suggested that the movie Flamingo Road, starring Joan Crawford was a very close translation of the corruption of the 20's and 30's in Volusia County.)
In 1922, with the majority of the five-member city commission, the Klan managed to get control of Daytona's government. They staged a "bring-your-hood" rally that ended in gun play, this action disgusted a majority of voters and they were voted out of office, bringing the Fish Ring back into power.
There wasn't much of a choice then, the choice was one of corruption and one of violence and danger. The Ring influenced the banks, the courts, civil services and most of the companies in the County, while the Klan appealed to blue collar whites, who felt victimized by the Ring. The city's majority at the time was the African American populace.
1927 was a significant year. It was this year that Mary Bethune was invited to luncheon at the home of the New York City governor, Franklin Roosevelt. The invitation was extended by Eleanor Roosevelt, and elegant affair to honor the heads of the existing women's clubs. Mary Bethune was the head of National Association of Colored Women and the only black person present. By chance and luck she was seated between, Sara, Eleanor's mother, and the future first Lady. This meeting proved an important event as Bethune made a political alliances that would prove a boon to Volusia County and it's black citizens for many years to come. The Roosevelt's were beginning to form alliances that would lead them into the Whitehouse in 1932.
Also in 1927, Ed Armstrong, a wholesale grocer was elected as mayor of the newly consolidated communities of Daytona, Daytona Beach and Seabreeze. This year was when the Great Depression started in Volusia County.
First the banks failed. The Merchants Bank and the Volusia County Trust and all other went under, taking all the depositor's assets with them. This meant that nearly every working family in Volusia County had it's entire savings wiped out, Ring Men, selling their bank stock just days before closures, became the bank liquidators. The depositors were paid less than 2 percent on their assets. These were the days before the federal government began to insure bank deposits.
Tourism died with the economic depression, precipitated early in Volusia County by two hurricanes and the Mediterranean Fruit fly infestation of 1927 and 1928, following closely was World War II. Meanwhile, Mayor Armstrong was facing re-election, and the Ring could no longer supply him with graft money. He made a clean break with Fish and all other Ring politicians, and began to extort money from local merchants.
He started to buy votes. Here is where Bethune enters the picture. In order to buy black votes you have to register them first. While the white populace was never interested in Black suffrage, Mary Bethune, was and this was a fortunate outcome for the black population of Daytona Beach.
Armstrong remained in office almost continuously because of the black vote. The most lurid of political moments in Volusia County history was in 1936, when Florida Governor David Sholtz, a Daytona Beach politician with Ring ties had a show- down with Armstrong.
Armstrong had overspent the city budget, giving Sholtz the legal right, under charter to oust Armstrong and the entire city commission. Armstrong resigned as mayor and had the city commission appoint his wife, Irene as mayor to succeed him. Governor Sholtz was outraged and ousted the entire city commission and replaced them with his own men, and then sent the National Guard to back him.
Armstrong had all the city records loaded into garbage trucks and carried into hiding. Then he had armed city police circle city hall for a stand off with the National Guard. Armstrong barricaded himself, the city commission and his newly appointed mayor in name only wife, Irene in the city hall.
The showdown between Sholtz, Armstrong, the City Police and the National Guard ended in a draw. Without the city records the Sholtz appointed commission could do very little. The matter went before the courts. The Florida supreme Court sided with Armstrong, stating Sholtz had overstepped his authority and that the transfer of power to Irene Armstrong had been legal. Armstrong died in 1937.
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