"Ax Handle Saturday"

What you knew about Ax Handle Saturday in 1960 depended on where you lived
by Kathy Cramer

If you lived in Jacksonville in 1960, you might have read in the Florida Times-Union about “a little neighborhood skirmish” that took place downtown on Aug. 20.But if you lived almost anywhere else in the country, you read a very different story about what came to be known as Ax Handle Saturday, when 200 whites attacked 35 young men and women holding a peaceful sit-in at a lunch counter.

Jacksonville’s role in the Civil Rights movement came vividly to life this past Sunday when one of those 35 demonstrators, Rodney L. Hurst, Sr., spoke at a luncheon sponsored by the Solo Flight ministry of Christ Episcopal Church in Ponte Vedra Beach.Hurst’s award-winning book, It Was Never About a Hot Dog and a Coke, chronicles the events of that day and its aftermath.

And at least one audience member could verify the differences in news coverage that Ax Handle Saturday received. “I grew up in the Arlington area in the 1960s,” she said, “and until I read this book, I knew nothing of this.”Today, those days may seem to belong to a very distant past … or do they? How far has Jacksonville come since 1960, Hurst was asked. “Not as far as we think we have,” he replied. Citing the “natural boundaries” between communities that the St. Johns River creates, and an “abysmal” educational system, he stated that “Jacksonville has a long way to go.”

Reprinted from the Faith Matters blog, http://www.pontevedrarecorder.com/.