Florida Senate - 2017                            (NP)    SR 1790
       
       
        
       By Senator Farmer
       
       
       
       
       
       34-01489A-17                                          20171790__
    1                          Senate Resolution                        
    2         A resolution recognizing September 17, 2017, as
    3         “Mickey Smiley Day at the Capitol” in remembrance of
    4         his outstanding contributions to legal education.
    5  
    6         WHEREAS, William McKinley “Mickey” Smiley was born on
    7  September 28, 1935, and
    8         WHEREAS, Mickey Smiley orchestrated the first successful
    9  student petition drive to desegregate a university in the South,
   10  and
   11         WHEREAS, Mickey Smiley played a pivotal role in ending
   12  racial segregation at American colleges and universities by
   13  leading efforts to admit African-American students to Duke
   14  University, and
   15         WHEREAS, Mickey Smiley won a hard-fought battle with
   16  melanoma and sarcoma and, in order to provide medical coverage
   17  and college educations for his children, gave up his career as a
   18  trial lawyer to become a professor of international law and
   19  medical jurisprudence at Stetson University, and
   20         WHEREAS, upon his hiring at Stetson University College of
   21  Law in 1969, Mickey Smiley made a motion to admit the first
   22  African-American student at the college, and, in 1970, he
   23  founded the Stetson Society of Trial Advocacy, and
   24         WHEREAS, as the chair of the Admissions Committee at
   25  Stetson Law School, Mickey Smiley saw Stetson become one of the
   26  first law schools in the United States to admit more women than
   27  men, and
   28         WHEREAS, Mickey Smiley coached one of the first all-female
   29  teams to reach the national finals of the American Bar
   30  Association’s negotiating skills competition, and
   31         WHEREAS, due largely to the influence of Mickey Smiley,
   32  Stetson University College of Law has been ranked by U.S. News &
   33  World Report as the top law school in the nation for trial
   34  advocacy, and
   35         WHEREAS, on his passing on December 5, 2016, Mickey Smiley
   36  left behind his two daughters and five grandchildren and a host
   37  of friends and former students and colleagues, NOW, THEREFORE,
   38  
   39  Be It Resolved by the Senate of the State of Florida:
   40  
   41         That September 17, 2017, is recognized as “Mickey Smiley
   42  Day at the Capitol” in remembrance of his outstanding
   43  contributions to legal education over the course of his career.
   44         BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that a copy of this resolution, with
   45  the Seal of the Senate affixed, be presented to his daughters as
   46  a tangible token of the sentiments of the Florida Senate.