Born in Ocala in 1858, Judge James Dean graduated first in his class from Howard Law School, and was elected Monroe County judge as a Republican over two white candidates in 1888. He was the first Black county judge elected after Reconstruction in Florida.
Fueled by the majority white and predominantly Democratic power structure that believed blacks were inferior, the Key West newspapers were filled with negative articles about Judge Dean after he won the election. They wrote that whites would leave Key West and go to St. Augustine because they didn’t want to get a marriage license from a Black judge.
Nevertheless, Judge Dean had a grand reputation of displaying high integrity and probity during his career. However, Governor Francis P. Fleming removed him from office amid an 1889 scandal, in which Judge Dean was accused of marrying a Black woman and a white man—although the groom said he was mulatto.
Fleming replaced Judge Dean with Angel De Lono, who was the first Hispanic judge elected in the Keys.
No longer a judge, Dean sued De Lono and argued his case against removal from office before the U.S. Supreme Court on September 13, 1891 to no avail. He left Key West penniless and disgraced, for Jacksonville where he died a pauper at age 59 in 1914. At the time of his death, he was so poor the sheriff had to auction his beloved law books to settle his estate.
Judge Dean’s history resurfaced in 2000 when Key West lawyer, Calvin Allen, read his name in the local newspaper’s history column. Allen began researching the case and what he learned inspired him to try to clear Dean’s name.
Former Governor Jeb Bush learned of the effort and his attention was quickly captured. “I got e-mails and thought it was a pretty cool idea and we did the research and it was clear that Judge James Dean was unjustly removed from office,” Bush said.
In 2002, 113 year later, Governor Bush reinstated his judgeship. “This happened in a different space and time in our state’s history, but irrespective of how long it’s taken us to right this wrong, I think it’s more than appropriate to do so,” Bush said.
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