Posted: August 27, 2010 - 12:23am
By Bridget Murphy
They were the people in charge of saving history.
But when it came to a day when armed whites spilled the blood of unarmed black youths, some made a case for letting that August 1960 racial riot that became known as Ax Handle Saturday fade into the past.
Read about some the key players of that day here
The debate happened about a decade ago, when Jacksonville Historical Society board members were considering putting a marker in Hemming Plaza to commemorate that pivotal point in the city's civil rights battle.
There were two board members who objected. One was white. One was black.
"These were people who were proponents of the civil rights movement and their reaction was 'We just want it to go away,' " said Emily Lisska, the society's executive director. "... I almost hate telling this story, but it's a true story."
In the end, Lisska said both board members were pleased when the memorial went up in 2002. Today marks the event's 50th anniversary. The timing has sparked some who participated in lunch counter sit-ins that precipitated the violence, and others who studied that history, to reflect on how well Jacksonville has remembered the day.
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"It can be talked about now, I think," said Marjorie Meeks Brown. "... You don't personalize it now. ... In the years immediately following it, it was very painful to talk about because many of the issues we were fighting for were still an issue."
The Jacksonville native and retired postmaster general in Atlanta was the 16-year-old secretary of the NAACP's Youth Council at that time. She was part of the sit-in at the W.T. Grant store downtown that day. She remembers sprinting for her life when white men with ax handles and baseball bats unleashed a fury of hate.
"We went in all directions. I had been athletic, but I remember that run," she said.
After the day, Brown talked about it freely with friends and family. But she said there wasn't widespread dialogue.
"I don't think the black community wanted to forget, but the black community did not control the media. We didn't read about things as we were experiencing them."
There was coverage of the riot in the Jacksonville mainstream press, but looking back now, bias seems apparent. An article that ran the next day in The Florida Times-Union's local section emphasized authorities' efforts to clamp down on disturbances after the clash. It said the trouble started "as mobs of Negroes and whites began attacking each other in the vicinity of Hemming Park," after the groups lined Hogan Street and "began baiting each other."
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Fast-forward to 2010.
Earlier this month, the City Council passed a resolution recognizing Ax Handle Saturday. It urges citizens "to reflect on the vital, historic contributions of those who fought in the struggle to promote freedom and equal rights for all Americans."
Rodney Hurst sees the anniversary as a chance to remind people of the intolerance of the 1960s. He led the NAACP Youth Council a half-century ago and wrote a book with his personal account of the sit-in demonstrations and riot on Aug. 27, 1960.
"I think many people don't want to remember things that are embarrassing. ... We need to use it as a teaching moment," Hurst said. "... Commemoration isn't a celebration. It talks about young people, both black and white, who did things they did not have to do."
Hurst said a souvenir book that goes with a series of commemorative events this week includes a letter from Mayor John Peyton. However, he believes the city could have taken a more proactive role commemorating the day's history over the decades.
But his former Youth Council cohort, Alton Yates, said he's not sure the city would have been the right group to call more attention to the day's history. Yates is an Air Force veteran and retired city official who was part of the sit-ins and suffered a head injury in the brouhaha.
He agrees that young people who put their lives on the line to call attention to equality issues should have received recognition earlier.
"I think a lot of people would like to forget that things like that happened in Jacksonville," Yates said. "... Remembering it happened is good in the sense that hopefully it will prevent it from ever, ever happening again."
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Historian James Crooks believes many Jacksonville residents don't know a lot about their city's past. That includes a day when members of the NAACP Youth Council, many of them teenagers, stood up for a principal and shed blood in the process.
Crooks said other people would rather not remember.
"Sadly," said the University of North Florida professor emeritus, "there are many Americans who just want to have history be patriotic."
Civil rights activist and author Stetson Kennedy said he was part of the group that sat-in at Woolworth's before fleeing from the white men who were wielding weapons. When the young victims went on the run, Kennedy, now 93, said he was the slowest in the bunch. But his white skin color confused attackers.
"The mob thought I was leading the pack. I said 'I'll just drop back and mingle.' "
Kennedy, who wrote a book about infiltrating the Ku Klux Klan, says it seems Jacksonville always has brought up the rear in race relations when compared to other cities. He believes that makes commemorating an event like Ax Handle Saturday important.
"I think anything and everything that takes notice of how very bad things were is for the good," Kennedy said.
But more vital, the activist said, is continuing to fight discrimination as Jacksonville shapes its future.
"Open any door of any office or public agency," Kennedy said. "There's still work to be done."
Times-Union writer Deirdre Conner contributed to this report.
bridget.murphy@jacksonville.com, (904) 359-4161
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