Ever wonder what stories made headlines in Jacksonville 50 years ago? It may have been a different era of history, culture and politics, but there are often parallels between the kind of stories that made the news in 1958 and today. As interesting as the similarities may be, so are the vast differences.
The following are some of the top stories from The Florida-Times Union printed 50 years ago this week. These items were compiled from the Jacksonville Public Library’s periodical archives.
• The City formally obtained title to the property bounded by Market, Bay and Newnan streets and the St. Johns River and notified tenants to vacate by July 1 That was when the City Commission was expected to advertise for bids on construction of the new 15-story riverfront City Hall.
• At a luncheon meeting of the Jacksonville Bar Association at the George Washington Hotel, 16 senior members of the Florida Bar, all of whom had been admitted to practice in the state for 50 years or more, were recognized. County Attorney J. Henry Blount introduced each honoree and “related anecdotes” concerning each of them. JBA President Harold R. Clark presented distinguished service citations to Alston Cockrell, Martin H. Long, Lucien H. Boggs, Eugene T. McIlvane, J.M. Peeler, Raymond D. Knight, Fred B. Noble, J.T.G. Crawford, Frank E. Jennings, Judge A.D. McNeil, C.B. Peeler, R.P. Daniel, J. Turner Butler, Judge Bayard B. Shields, Charles P. Cooper and Louise R. Pinnell, who in 1896 was the first woman admitted to the practice of law in Florida.
• The 24th and final class of the Junior College of Jacksonville University graduated at a ceremony held at Swisher Gym on the campus. William B. Hoskins, president of Jacksonville College of Music, which officially merged with the university on that day, addressed the 152 graduates. “The arts represent another dimension of human living and without them we are flat and prosaic beings,” he said. Carl S. Swisher delivered the annual report on the state of the university and revealed plans to celebrate the school’s silver jubilee in 1959. Jack Kenney, president of the junior class, also looked ahead a year when he presented Swisher with the first ring of the class of 1959, the first four-year graduates of the University of Jacksonville.
• With negotiations between the Jacksonville Coach Company and its striking bus drivers at a stalemate after 72 days, Mayor Haydon Burns signed an ordinance enacted by the City Council described as “the first step in a lengthy legal process” that could lead to the revocation of the bus company’s franchise. The legislation ordered the company to resume service within 10 days or face a forfeiture procedure which “would probably take at least a year.”
• Parents of Duval County public school students were questioning what results were being gained by testing pupils. Superintendent of Schools Ish Brant had implemented standardized intelligence, achievement and aptitude tests in elementary and secondary schools. It was pointed out the tests were not capable of singling out an individual and “stating dogmatically that he has exactly so much intelligence, is capable of performing so much work and should be in a specific line of endeavor and no other.” The tests were also “not designed to evaluate one school against another, one classroom against another or one pupil against another.”
• At the Bolles School, Joseph A. Brooke was named outstanding cadet officer at the 26th graduation exercises. He was among 54 cadets who graduated out of an enrollment of 346. James Romaine Lindsley was valedictorian and Warwick Breckinridge was salutatorian of the graduating class. A crowd estimated at 800 heard the main address delivered by Dr. Harry M. Philpott, vice president of the University of Florida.
• William S. Johnson, executive vice president and general manager of the Jacksonville Area Chamber of Commerce, attended the 10th annual global strategy discussion at the Naval War College in Newport, R.I. at the invitation of the secretary of the Navy. The purpose of the meeting was to “acquire an understanding of the problems confronting the United States in formulating a global strategy to attain national objectives.” Johnson was one of just a few civilians invited to participate.