Collins, "an example of the poor boy made good," was born and raised in Tallahassee, Florida, son of a "neighborhood grocer".

He continued to serve in the House until 1940, when he was elected to the Florida Senate to fill an unexpired term of the late William Hodges.

[2][3] Originally slated for assignment to a unit that would oversee post-war rebuilding of countries previously held by the Japanese, he began training in the Chinese language in Monterey, California.

[5] Collins was discharged from active duty as a lieutenant in March 1946, and returned to Florida to resume his legal and political career.

[6] Governor McCarty died on September 28, 1953, just nine months after assuming office, having suffered a debilitating heart attack on February 25.

Due to the disenfranchisement of most blacks in the South, the Democratic Party dominated regional politics and a primary win nearly guaranteed victory in the general election.

Although he initially condemned the US Supreme Court decision in Brown v. Board of Education (1954), as did almost all Southern elected officials, he fought with the Florida Legislature to try to prevent them from passing an "interposition" resolution.

Collins prevented passage of the resolution the first time by using his power under Section 10 of Article Four of the state constitution to unilaterally adjourn the legislature.

I take this means however to advise the student of government, who may examine this document in the archives of the state in the years to come, that the Governor of Florida expressed open and vigorous opposition thereto.

Not only will I not condone 'interposition' as so many have sought me to do, I decry it as an evil thing, whipped up by the demagogues and carried on the hot and erratic winds of passion, prejudice, and hysteria.

Two of these men had been murdered during the case, an underage boy was given life in prison, and Walter Irvin was sentenced to death for a rape where there was little to no evidence against him.

[6] Collins fell just a few votes short of persuading the first Constitution Revision Commission to send an amendment to voters to abolish capital punishment in the state.

[12] Though Collins is now remembered as a voice for civil rights, in his campaign for Florida's governorship he had identified as a staunch segregationist who regarded the practice as "part and parcel of our way of life."

Yet biographer Martin Dyckman argues that, in his speeches and statements, Collins never extolled segregation as a virtue, but defended it legalistically.

By 1957 Collins was expressing doubts that whites would universally react negatively to integration (though he still criticized the NAACP for "forcing the issue").

In fact, Collins had not participated in the march, but had shuttled back and forth between the marchers and the Alabama authorities to pursue a compromise to avoid a repeat of the violence perpetrated two days earlier, by state troopers and a deputized county posse, on the county side of the Edmund Pettus Bridge during the "Bloody Sunday" march.

He succeeded, as the marchers were allowed to cross the bridge, pray, and return to the other side, completing the "Turnaround Tuesday" march.

After Collins' defeat in the Senate race, he left his law firm in Tampa and returned to "The Grove" in Tallahassee, where he lived until his death from cancer in 1991.