Editing Reubin Askew (section)

===Civil rights issues and the New South===
[[File:Askew and Hatchett.jpg|thumb|Askew with the family of [[Joseph Woodrow Hatchett]], who Askew nominated to become the first Black justice on the [[Florida Supreme Court]] in September 1975]]
Askew was one of the first of the [[New South governor]]s, elected in the same year as governors Jimmy Carter of Georgia, [[Dale Bumpers]] of [[Arkansas]], who defeated [[Orval Faubus]], and [[John C. West]] of [[South Carolina]]. They were later joined by [[Bill Clinton]] of Arkansas. Askew supported school [[desegregation]] and the controversial idea of busing to achieve racial balance (mandatory [[racial integration|integration]]).

He expressed a progressive model in his appointments, naming the first black Justice of the State Supreme Court, [[Joseph Woodrow Hatchett]].<ref name=FT /> He appointed [[M. Athalie Range]] as Secretary of the Department of Community Affairs; she was the first black person appointed to state government since [[Reconstruction era of the United States|Reconstruction]] and the first woman to head a state agency in Florida. In 1978, Askew appointed [[Jesse J. McCrary Jr.]] as secretary of state; he was the first black person to hold a [[Florida Cabinet|cabinet-level office]] in Florida in the modern era.