William Anthony \u201cBuster\u201d Ford helped shape Jacksonville\u2019s Eastside through business, leadership, and quiet advocacy during segregation. <\/p>\n
JACKSONVILLE, Fla. \u2014 In segregation-era Jacksonville, the Eastside stood as a self-sustaining Black community built and protected by leaders working quietly behind the scenes. One of those leaders was William Anthony \u201cBuster\u201d Ford.<\/p>\n
Good Morning Jacksonville sat with Ford\u2019s daughter, Elaine Ford Jackson, at Buster Ford Checkerboard Park along A. Philip Randolph Boulevard, to reflect on her father\u2019s legacy,<\/p>\n
Elaine described an Eastside rooted in pride, collaboration, and determination.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe community needed to be upgraded\u2026 the streets, the sidewalks.\u201d<\/p>\n
Those changes, she says, didn\u2019t come from official channels alone. Instead, they were driven by an informal coalition of men who believed progress was possible.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe group of men who said, \u2018Why not?\u2019\u2014they made it happen,\u201d Jackson said. \u201cMy dad was a big part of that group.\u201d<\/p>\n
She smiles when she speaks about her father. \u201cI was his sweetheart,\u201d she said, laughing softly as memories return of a time when \u2018The Avenue\u2019 was alive with energy.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was a beautiful, bustling Black community,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
In 1956, Ford opened a confectionery on the Eastside. The business later expanded into a restaurant where he sold his now-famous Buster Burgers.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe back of the confectionery became Buster Ford\u2019s Bird Land Restaurant,\u201d Elaine explained.<\/p>\n
Bird Land was a Chitlin\u2019 Circuit-era juke joint that welcomed Black musicians during a time when few venues would. The space also served a vital civic role, doubling as a polling station on election days.<\/p>\n
As the business grew, a hotel was added\u2014providing a rare and much-needed safe place for Black travelers to stay overnight in the segregated South.<\/p>\n
Elaine says her father was also a trusted problem-solver within the community.<\/p>\n
\u201cPeople could come to Daddy very quietly and say, \u2018You know, so-and-so,\u2019\u201d she recalled. \u201cNext thing you know, he would call someone in the neighborhood or downtown and say, \u2018Hey, we have a problem.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
And, she says, the problem would get solved.<\/p>\n
Elaine speaks of her father\u2019s accomplishments with pride: a successful business owner, the first Black disc jockey at WIVY radio station, and a trailblazer in local law enforcement.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy dad became one of the first detective sergeants in Duval County\u2019s history, along with Willie Westin,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Buster Ford remains a prominent figure in the history of Jacksonville\u2019s Eastside\u2014a community that once thrived, later endured abandonment, and is now rebounding. Today, the Eastside holds tightly to the remnants of what once was, while looking ahead to what it can become.<\/p>\n