A Quiet Revolution

October 1, 2008 marked the fortieth anniversary of one of the most important events in the history of Jacksonville and Northeast Florida, the beginning of a bold experiment that established a single, countrywide government structure to provide more effective and accountable government for its citizens. The consolidation of the city of Jacksonville with Duval County resulted in Jacksonville suddenly expanding from 38 square miles clustered around the downtown business center to 840 square miles, making it the largest city in the continental United States in terms of land size.

More important, consolidation provided the framework for coordinating and streamlining law enforcement, fire protection, public works, and other basic services for both the urban core and its rapidly expanding suburbs. According to historian Gary Mormino, “the 1968 consolidation of city and county government marked a pivotal moment in the area’s history. It transformed a declining city—a city with a totally dysfunctional governmental structure incapable of confronting the myriad urban problems it faced—into the dynamic metropolitan area of today.

Not many of Jacksonville’s present 850,000 residents remember the festivities surrounding the inauguration of the consolidated city-county government or the difficult struggles and bitter political battles of the preceding four years that made it possible. Most are either too young to have experienced the events of the mid-1960s, or else moved to Jacksonville after the government reorganization had already been put in place.

For that reason, A Quiet Revolution is being reissued. It is not only a detailed account of the consolidation story written by a news reporter who had an insider’s perspective as he covered events for the local newspaper, but it is an excellent introduction to Jacksonville history, dating back to efforts to address local governmental issues in the aftermath of the Civil War