W. Haydon Burns - Mayor of Jacksonville

Mayor of Jacksonville

In 1949 Burns announced his intention to run for Mayor of Jacksonville against incumbent C. Frank Whitehead. He defeated Whitehead in the Democratic Party primary, and then faced Jacksonville businessman William Ashley, a Democrat running as a political independent, in a general election – an unusual occurrence, as Democrats had been dominant in city politics for decades. On June 21, 1949, Burns defeated Ashley to become the next mayor of Jacksonville.

Burns's first term as Mayor of Jacksonville was an abbreviated two-year stint; he was thereafter re-elected four more times, the longest consecutive stint of any mayor in the city's history. During his time in the mayor's office, he oversaw massive growth in Jacksonville. He promoted the city around the world in an attempt to lure international investments and to get corporations to relocate offices to the city. He commissioned the production of a slide show called "The Jacksonville Story", hundreds of audiences saw it around the world. The American National Exhibit showed a film version in the Soviet Union. Burns personally made presentations at The Hague and in Israel. He made "The Jacksonville Story" known from coast to coast, and so was Jacksonville's mayor.

He was elected president of the U.S. Conference of Mayors, president of the Florida League of Municipalities, and delegate to the International Congress of Municipalities. While mayor, he won tax breaks for insurance companies and Prudential Insurance relocated from New Jersey to a skyscraper in Jacksonville. Other insurance companies followed, and Jacksonville became known as the insurance capital of the South.

A new courthouse and City Hall were built on the site of rotten wharves, and a long-promised Civic Auditorium was built on the river. Jacksonville Memorial Coliseum and Sam W. Wolfson Baseball Park made the city thoroughly modern. The Atlantic Coast Line Railroad, today CSX, moved from Wilmington, North Carolina to the Jacksonville riverfront. The world's largest Sears Roebuck store opened on what once was skid row. A modern expressway system took shape and the city got the Jacksonville Suns baseball franchise and a hockey team.

The city faced many problems during Burns' term. Racial violence ignited on August 27, 1960 during a protest to integrate downtown lunch counters in the Hemming Park shopping area. Segregationists responded by attacking the protesters with baseball bats and ax handles; the day is remembered as Ax Handle Saturday. Burns tried to blame the shameful incident on visitors but the police chief attributed the attacks to locals. The city's police department was ridden with scandal and multiple grand jury indictments were handed down on public officials all around him.

One of his final acts as mayor was his handling of the Hotel Roosevelt fire in downtown. Although 23 people died, many other hotel guests survived. In 1964 he announced he would be stepping down as mayor to run for Governor of Florida. City Commissioner Lou Ritter was appointed to take his place.