Editing Tallahassee, Florida (section)

===1900–99===
Until [[World War II]], Tallahassee remained a small Southern town with virtually the entire population living within one mile (1.6&nbsp;km) of the Capitol.{{Citation needed|date=March 2025}} The main economic drivers were the colleges and state government, where politicians met to discuss spending money on grand public improvement projects to accommodate growth in places such as Miami and Tampa Bay, hundreds of miles away from the capital.

Tallahassee was also active in protest during the [[civil rights era]]. The [[Tallahassee bus boycott]] was a citywide boycott in Tallahassee, Florida that sought to end racial segregation in the employment and seating arrangements of city buses. On May 26, 1956, Florida A&M University students Wilhelmina Jakes and Carrie Patterson were arrested by the [[Tallahassee Police Department]] for "placing themselves in a position to incite a riot". Robert Saunders, representing the [[NAACP]], and Rev. [[C. K. Steele]] began talks with city authorities while the local African-American community started boycotting the city's buses. The Inter-Civic Council ended the boycott on December 22, 1956. On January 7, 1957, the City Commission repealed the bus-franchise segregation clause because of the United States Supreme Court ruling ''[[Browder v. Gayle]]'' (1956). In the 1960s, there was a movement to transfer the capital to [[Orlando, Florida|Orlando]], closer to the state's growing population centers. That movement was defeated; the 1970s saw a long-term commitment by the state to the capital city, with the construction of the new capitol complex and preservation of the old Florida State Capitol building.{{Citation needed|date=March 2025}}

In 1970, the Census Bureau reported the city's population as 74.0% white and 25.4% black.<ref>{{cite web |title=Race and Hispanic Origin for Selected Cities and Other Places: Earliest Census to 199 |publisher=U.S. Census Bureau |url=https://www.census.gov/population/www/documentation/twps0076/twps0076.html |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120812191959/http://www.census.gov/population/www/documentation/twps0076/twps0076.html |archive-date=August 12, 2012}}</ref> In 1971, the city elected [[James R. Ford]] to the 5-member City Commission, and he became the city's first African-American mayor in 1972 (commissioners rotated into the position serving a one-year term).
 
[[Bobby Bowden]] became the head coach of [[Florida State Seminoles football]] in 1976, and turned Tallahassee into a city dominated by college football. Bowden became very successful very quickly at Florida State. By his second year, Bowden had to deny rumors that he would leave for another job; the team went 9–2, compared to the four wins total in the three seasons before Bowden. During 34 years as head coach he had only one losing season–his first, in 1976.

In 1977, the 22-story high-rise [[Florida State Capitol|Capitol building]], designed by architect [[Edward Durell Stone]], was completed. Since 2021, it has been the third-tallest state capitol building in the United States. In 1978, the Old Capitol, directly in front of the new Capitol, was scheduled for demolition, but state officials decided to keep it as a museum.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.flhistoriccapitol.gov/ |title=Florida Historic Capitol Museum |publisher=Flhistoriccapitol.gov |access-date=August 2, 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140629132433/http://www.flhistoriccapitol.gov/ |archive-date=June 29, 2014 |url-status=dead}}</ref> In 1986, [[Jack McLean (mayor)|Jack McLean]] served as mayor, the second African-American to hold the position.<ref>{{Cite news |first=Gerald |last=Ensley |title=1982 election last gasp of 'good 'ol boy' system |newspaper=[[Tallahassee Democrat]] |date=September 26, 2015 |url=https://www.tallahassee.com/story/opinion/columnists/ensley/2015/09/26/election-last-gasp-good-ol-boy-system/72893100/}}</ref>