Following the war, he returned to Jacksonville and began a public relations and business consulting firm and worked selling appliances.

[citation needed] In 1949 Burns, a segregationist, announced his intention to run for Mayor of Jacksonville against incumbent C. Frank Whitehead.

The Atlantic Coast Line Railroad, today CSX, moved from Wilmington, North Carolina, to the Jacksonville riverfront.

A modern expressway system took shape and the city got the Jacksonville Suns baseball franchise and a hockey team.

As a segregationist running on his ability to control Jacksonville’s racial conflicts, he deputized even firefighters to strengthen the city’s police force to resist integration.

Racial violence ignited on August 27, 1960, during a protest to integrate downtown lunch counters in the Hemming Park shopping area.

The city's police department was ridden with scandal and multiple grand jury indictments were handed down on public officials all around him.

[3] Burns defeated Republican Charles Holley in the November 3 general election to become Governor of Florida.

[7] The 1966 gubernatorial elections pitted the sitting governor against Robert King High, a popular Miami politician.

This primary was significant because Burns represented the conservative wing of the Democratic Party and High was the choice of the liberals from South Florida.

In 1971, he made an attempt to be reelected mayor, but he was defeated by incumbent Hans Tanzler in the Democratic primary.

[8] Many of the projects that he helped to create, such as the Civic Auditorium, rebuilt in 1996 and renamed the Times-Union Center for the Performing Arts, Wolfson Park, City Hall and the Jacksonville Coliseum, have all been replaced with newer structures.