Lou Ritter - Mayor

Mayor

W. Haydon Burns, who had served as Mayor of Jacksonville since 1949, successfully ran for Governor of Florida in fall 1964, a year after being re-elected mayor. The city council nominated Ritter, then serving in the City Commission, to fill Burns' remaining term, and the county commission approved his appointment. This was the period of time immediately following passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Jacksonville had a history of racial segregation and violence, but Ritter was credited with keeping the fight over civil rights from tearing the city apart. He was a progressive who supported civil rights and welcomed federal assistance for the city's urban renewal efforts. He appointed blacks to city advisory boards, started the anti-poverty agency, Greater Jacksonville Economic Opportunity, and integrated the Jacksonville Police Department. One of the officers he appointed was young patrolman Nat Glover, who was later elected Sheriff of Jacksonville in 1995. Ritter was quoted in a 2002 interview for the Financial News and Daily Record:

“Nat Glover (Jacksonville Sheriff 1995-2003). I appointed him patrolman when I was mayor. In 1965, we had a segregated police department. A black officer could not arrest a white person. When the black officers were recruited, they had their own precinct over on the west side of LaVilla and were given passed down uniforms.”

During the terms of Mayor Burns, the good ol' boy network was the de facto standard among those in government. Cronyism and rampant corruption were common. In the early 1960s, a grand jury indicted eleven officials including councilmen, commissioners, the city auditor, the county purchasing agent and the city tax assessor. Ritter was never implicated, but the prevailing mood in the city was anti-incumbent. Ritter ran for election for the 1967 term, but was defeated by Hans Tanzler, a local judge. According to historian James B. Crooks,

"Ritter had ambitious plans for a progressive Jacksonville. was popular and had a substantial record of achievement as mayor. Under normal circumstances he would have won re-election handily. But 1967 was different, and Tanzler epitomized the nonpartisan reformer advocating open and honest government without spoils or patronage."