By: Alan Aptheker

Elvis Presley put on several shows on August 10 and 11, 1956 at the Florida Theatre, but not without ruffling some feathers. Juvenile Court Judge Marion Gooding warned Elvis after his first show that he must “tone down” his act. Elvis told reporters “I can't figure out what I'm doing wrong”.  He modified his show nonetheless, wiggling his little finger suggestively with a gesture that replaced some of his less restrained body movements, but still driving the largely female teenage audience wild.  It is said that Judge Marion Gooding sat next to the stage throughout the remainder of Elvis’  performances to ensure that the King’s body movements would not become too “suggestive.” 

By: Alan Aptheker

Originally a farm on the banks of the St. Johns River, the area now known as San Marco was first called Oklahoma. Harrison Reed, a life long Oklahoman, was elected Florida’s governor in 1868.  Reed’s sister, Margaret Reed Mitchell and her husband, railroad tycoon Alexander Mitchell, still in love with their native Oklahoma, built their Florida winter home, Villa Alexandria, in Oklahoma Style on 140 riverfront acres, and (oddly) named their new digs and surrounding area, “Oklahoma.” But in 1921, with the construction of the Acosta bridge, which connects San Marco to Downtown, industrialist Telfair Stockton bought 80 acres of land north of the Mitchell estate and the new “San Marco” subdivision name took hold.  The name is based on

By: Alan Aptheker

Through the 1960s, Jacksonville, like most other large cities in the US, suffered from the effects of suburban sprawl. To compensate for the loss of population and tax revenue, (and end waste and some corruption here and there), voters elected to consolidate the government of Jacksonville with the government of Duval County.  The move was carried out on October 1, 1968, and Hans Tanzler, elected mayor of Jacksonville the year before, became the first mayor of the consolidated government of Jacksonville. This single event earned Jacksonville a distinction it still enjoys today: we’re the largest United States city in land area than any other American city (outside Alaska).

By: Alan Aptheker

It wasn’t the town’s first name.  Settled by the English who drifted down from Georgia, they set up shop around a shallow ford across the St. Johns River, calling the place “Cowford.”  When Florida was ceded to the U.S. in 1819, Andrew Jackson became the first provisional governor, hence, Jacksonville.