by Mary-Kate Roan
Staff Writer
The movement of what historians call the “quiet revolution” started years before the vote for consolidation took place in 1967.
“In the ‘50s and ‘60s like most governments the city and county were separate,” said Jay Mooney, senior associate for the Main Library. “But there were many problems with the area.”
What kind of problems? Well, Hurricane Dora hit in September 1964, causing over $300 million in damage to Jacksonville. But that was just one of many problems the area was facing.
”About a month after Dora hit, 15 local high schools lost their accreditation,” said Emily Lisska, executive director of the Jacksonville Historical Society. “And there were a lot of city and county government officials that were indicted for corruption, bribery and other charges, not to mention the Beatles were coming to town.”
That’s when a group of citizens got together under Claude Yates, who was the president of Jacksonville’s Chamber of Commerce and vice president and general manager of Southern Bell Telephone Company at the time. In the meeting, 23 citizens came together to pen the Yates Manifesto, a single-sentence document that called for a governmental study of combining the city and county governments.
The pro-Consolidation group wore white hats while their rivals wore black hats. Thus the two gangs of supporters became known as the “white hats” and the “black hats.”
“They wanted to streamline the government,” said Mooney.
After great effort the local legislatures held an election on Aug. 8, 1967 which was the eighth election of the year. On a cloudless day Consolidation was approved by a nearly 2-1 vote. From there, the study’s findings were that the consolidated government was in the best interests of Jacksonville and Duval County.
On Oct. 1, 1968, Consolidation went into effect. Overnight, Jacksonville became the largest city in the nation in land mass at 827 square miles and its population went from 221,000 to 550,000.
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