Martin Andersen and Orlando, the City Beautiful: Growth, Power, and Division

Ink and Shadows: The Sentinel’s Role in Orlando’s Story

Andersen’s power wasn’t only in highways. It was in the stories the media chose to tell, and the ones it didn’t.

In 1949, the Groveland Four — four young Black men falsely accused of raping a white woman in Lake County — were arrested, beaten, and convicted despite little evidence. The coverage at the time reflected and amplified racial prejudice, shaping public opinion in ways that deepened division. That failure carried consequences far beyond the courtroom, cementing distrust that lasted for generations.

Decades later, the Sentinel itself acknowledged those failures. That honesty matters. It’s part of the story too…proof that cities, and the newspapers that help shape them, can reckon and evolve.

And that’s the paradox of Andersen’s legacy. The same editorials that could bend Tallahassee toward a new highway could also reinforce divides. His paper built momentum and community pride, but it also carried the blind spots of its age.

The Man Himself

He was complicated. A newspaperman who wrote thank-you notes and bought flowers for the city. A publisher who avoided the room during layoffs because he cared too much, but who never hesitated to use the paper like a weapon. He built Orlando’s roads and its image. He also left communities isolated in the name of progress.

Contradiction doesn’t cancel legacy. It defines it.

The Blueprint We Still Live In

Drive I-4. Fly into MCO. Market the “City Beautiful.” Walk the UCF campus. That’s Andersen’s blueprint.

But walk Parramore. Remember Groveland. Look at Division Avenue and what it still represents. That’s Andersen’s blueprint too.

Orlando inherited both his vision and his omissions.

What Do We Learn?

If Orlando truly wants to call itself a global city, it has to reckon with both sides of this legacy. Growth without equity fractures. Power without accountability corrupts. A “City Beautiful” that doesn’t include everyone isn’t beautiful at all.

Martin Andersen wrote the first draft of modern Orlando. The second draft is still being written. The question is whether we’ll just repeat the boosterism, or whether we’ll finally write a story where everyone gets to be in the frame.