Governor of Florida, Mayor of Jacksonville. He was Florida's 35th governor, 1965-1967, elected to fill a two year rather than four year term due to a change in timing of elections to keep the gubernatorial election from coinciding with presidential elections. During his term, he supported huge funding increases for state parks and educational systems, notably the College of Law at Florida State University. He supported establishment of the Board of Regents for the state university system. He was a tax reform advocate and he implemented significant revisions of the State constitution. He was instrumental in developing strong trade ties with South America. His most lingering legacy was the economic impact of the introduction of Walt Disney World to a state whose primary industry is tourism. Prior to being elected governor, he served four consecutive terms as mayor of Jacksonville, 1949-1965, longer than any other mayor. He was an outstandingly successful promoter of the city. He brought the insurance industry to Jacksonville, turning it into the insurance capitol of the south. The expressway systems were started during his term. Jacksonville got a baseball franchise and a hockey team. It built a baseball park and a civic auditorium. The old buildings and wharfs were demolished and new modern buildings were put in their place, to include a new city hall. However, he was one of the most controversial politicians in Jacksonville history, serving during a time when the city was struggling to find its place in the yet to be integrated south. As early as 1950, he took a progressive stance in going against the city police chiefs and allowing African Americans to serve on the police force. Tensions continued to mount and a decade later, he had to deal with a nationally publicized racial crisis. Late in the summer of 1960, violence erupted over a period of several weeks when African American students went head to head with the Ku Klux Klan over integrating downtown lunch counters. He guided Jacksonville through this critical time so that a time would come fifty years later when the Jacksonville African American high school of his era would become a magnate school, the number one high school in the nation.