Robert W. Fieseler -

American Scare

In January 1959, Art Copleston was escorted out of his college accounting class by three police officers. In a motel room, blinds drawn, he sat in front of a state senator and the legal counsel for the Florida Legislative Investigation Committee, nicknamed the “Johns Committee.” His crime? Being a suspected homosexual. And the government of Florida would use any tactic at their disposal—legal or not—to get Copleston to admit it.

Using a secret trove of primary source documents that have been decoded and de-censored for the first time in history, journalist Robert W. Fieseler unravels the mystery of what actually happened behind the closed doors of an inquisition that held ordinary citizens ransom to its extraordinary powers.

ABOUT THE SPEAKERS

Robert W. Fieseler is a journalist investigating marginalized groups and a scholar excavating forgotten histories. A National Lesbian and Gay Journalists Association 'Journalist of the Year' and recipient of the Pulitzer Traveling Fellowship, his debut book Tinderbox won seven awards, including the Edgar Award, and his reporting has appeared in Slate, Commonweal, and River Teeth, among others. He is currently pursuing a PhD at Tulane University as a Mellon Fellow. Fieseler's second queer history book American Scare, a finalist for the J. Anthony Lukas Work-in-Progress Award, publishes in June 2025. A former Athenaeum writer and proud Boston resident, he now lives with his husband on the gayest street in New Orleans.

Michael Bronski has been active in gay liberation as a political organizer, writer, publisher and theorist since 1969. He is the author of numerous award wining books including "A Queer History of the United States," "You Can Tell Just By Looking: And 20 Other Myths about LGBT Life and People" and "Considering Hate: Violence, Goodness, and Justice in American Culture and Politics," coauthored with Kay Whitlock. In 2017 he was awarded the awarded the Bill Whitehead Award for Lifetime Achievement from the Publishing Triangle. He is Professor of the Practice in Activism and Media in the Studies of Women, Gender and Sexuality at Harvard University

This event is being hosted in partnership with The History Project.