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Jacksonville: The Consolidation Story, from Civil Rights to the Jaguars. By James B. Crooks. (Gainesvilie: University Press of Florida, 2005. xx, 274 pp. $27.95, ISBN 0-8130-2708-X.)
Discussions of New South cities rarely include Jacksonville and then only as an afterthought. Atlanta, Birmingham, Houston, Dallas, Charlotte, Miami, Tampa, Orlando, and the recent tragedy and recovery of New Orleans most commonly come to mind. James B. Crooks corrects that omission. His book traces the development of Jacksonville under its consolidated government. Duting the early 1960s, the Florida community faced numerous problems, including racial segregation, governmental inefficiency and corruption, a stale economy, and environmental scaning. In 1967, the city's plight convinced citizens to support a plan of governmental consolidation that merged Jacksonville with Duval County, a scheme that had support from the political and economic elite as well as from African Americans and suburbanites.
Consolidation substantially...