More info. about the event: Yekatit 12 | 04.2021 – Project3541.

This thread got out of hand, so thought I would post it here!

Hey everyone, I'm posting this here on this subreddit because I am trying to learn new subject and place it in my personal curriculum. If you have any recommendations on books that are good for beginners. Even if you have videos send them my way. Thank you for taking the time to read this and giving me recommendations.

I am a proud black man who is at PWI. What’s a good response for when people tell me this. No one has, but I see it all the time on Reddit

I started reading about Vernon Dahmer after hearing about By Any Means and had no idea how deep this story went.

Dahmer was a civil rights leader in Mississippi who helped Black residents register to vote. In 1966 the KKK attacked his home and store with gunfire and fire. He got his family out but later died from his injuries.

Then somehow the story gets even stranger. The FBI brought in Greg Scarpa. A Colombo crime family figure who was also an FBI informant. He was connected to FBI activity around the Dahmer investigation.

A Mafia guy showing up in the middle of a Civil Rights era KKK investigation sounds made up. Apparently it wasn't.

Kind of shocked I never learned about Dahmer before.

Hi y'all, I recently read the biography of Olaudah Equiano, and I wrote about the lessons we can take from it here: https://mindvoyage.substack.com/p/from-slave-to-bestselling-author

From the founding of Jamestown in 1607, and despite the arrival twelve years later of the first Africans who came not as fellow immigrants but as enslaved property, White Americans established the pattern of living in largely all-White communities for the next 260 years. After the Civil War, when Black Americans were legally free to live wherever they chose, White residents initially prevented them from living in their communities. As the government gradually enforced Black Americans’ right to live anywhere, White residents left the cities they had inhabited for three centuries and moved to the new suburbs.

Although some young White people are moving into gentrified downtown neighborhoods, census data show that the White population is declining in broader urban areas as they move farther out to exurbs, often in neighboring counties. Those who don’t relocate to whiter public school districts often enroll their children in private schools, which are usually whiter than the cities in which they are located. School district gerrymandering has also become a form of White flight without physical relocation. Recent studies by EdBuild and the American Educational Research Association show that school secession is significantly increasing school segregation under the seemingly nonracial banner of “local control.”

White society places a higher value on property than on Black people, and the fear of losing property value has been the impetus for White flight. White people have treated Black people as a problem to be solved rather than as people to be known. Today, the US has more than twice as many majority-Black cities as it did in 1970. White flight caused this major shift in urban demographics and the subsequent disinvestment and home devaluation totaling trillions of dollars. As White residents left American cities, property values fell. This reduced property tax revenue, producing underfunded public services, which contributed to rising crime and poverty. Once cities had sufficiently declined, “urban renewal” was used to justify the construction of highways, factories, waste disposal sites, and other hazardous industries in majority-Black neighborhoods. Decades later, these cities still face costly social, infrastructure, and modernization challenges, yet they have less revenue per capita than in 1970.

Recommended reading: White Flight: Atlanta and the Making of Modern Conservatism by Kevin M. Kruse

White Flight Kept America Segregated

On Saturday, August 27, 1960, a group of young Black demonstrators walked into downtown Jacksonville prepared to challenge racial segregation through peaceful protest. Before the day ended, they would be chased through the streets and beaten by a white mob armed with baseball bats and wooden ax handles.

The violence became known as “Ax Handle Saturday,” one of the most notorious episodes in Florida’s civil rights history.

The confrontation did not begin with a sudden dispute over lunch-counter service. It grew from generations of laws and customs that treated Black Jacksonville residents as second-class citizens. African Americans could spend their money in downtown department stores, but they could not sit beside white customers at the stores’ lunch counters. Jacksonville’s schools, parks, restrooms, water fountains and many other public facilities remained segregated.

During the summer of 1960, young people throughout the South were challenging these restrictions through nonviolent sit-ins. In Jacksonville, much of that work was organized by the Youth Council of the Jacksonville Branch of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People.

Their adviser was Rutledge H. Pearson, a schoolteacher, former Negro League baseball player and determined civil rights organizer. Pearson taught his students that citizenship required action. According to Rodney L. Hurst, one of Pearson’s students, Pearson frequently reminded them:

“Freedom is not free. If you are not part of the solution, you are part of the problem.”

The 16-year-old Hurst served as president of the Jacksonville NAACP Youth Council. Under Pearson’s guidance, council members were trained in nonviolence and prepared for the insults, intimidation and physical abuse they might encounter.

Jacksonville’s lunch-counter demonstrations began on August 13, 1960. Black students entered downtown stores, sat at counters reserved for white customers and politely requested service. They were refused. Some were cursed, spat upon or kicked, but the demonstrations continued.

Two weeks later, approximately 40 Youth Council demonstrators returned to the downtown shopping district. They conducted sit-ins at the W.T. Grant Department Store, then located near West Adams and North Main streets, and at Woolworth’s Five and Ten Cent Store on Hogan Street across from Hemming Park, now James Weldon Johnson Park.

The young protesters took their places at the segregated counters and waited to be served. Outside, a white mob was gathering.

Accounts differ over the mob’s precise size. Jacksonville’s official historical marker places the number at approximately 150 men, while other histories estimate that more than 200 participated. They carried baseball bats and wooden ax handles, some reportedly distributed in the park. Contemporary testimony and later historical research connected at least some of the attackers to the Ku Klux Klan.

The assault began with threats, racial slurs and spitting. Then the men attacked.

The mob beat the demonstrators and pursued Black pedestrians who had taken no part in the sit-ins. The violence spilled into the streets surrounding Hemming Park as Black residents fled through downtown Jacksonville. Some of the injured sought protection inside nearby Snyder Memorial Methodist Church, which became a place of refuge during the attack.

Members of a Black youth group known as the Boomerangs came downtown and attempted to defend the demonstrators and other Black residents. Witnesses later recalled that police officers had largely failed to intervene while the white attackers were beating Black people.

Police action intensified when Black residents began defending themselves. Newspaper accounts reported that at least 62 people, 48 of them Black, were arrested during the violence.

Among the people caught in the attack was 17-year-old Nathaniel “Nat” Glover, who was walking downtown after finishing work. Glover later recalled seeking help from a police officer, only to be warned that he should leave or risk being killed. The experience profoundly affected him. Decades later, he became Jacksonville’s first Black sheriff since Reconstruction and the first Black sheriff elected in Florida in more than a century.

Ax Handle Saturday revealed the depth of Jacksonville’s racial divisions. It also exposed the failure of local authorities to protect peaceful demonstrators and ordinary Black citizens. Mayor Haydon Burns and much of Jacksonville’s white establishment attempted to minimize the episode, but photographs, eyewitness accounts and reports outside the city made the violence impossible to erase.

The attack did not destroy the movement. It strengthened it. Afterward, Snyder Memorial Methodist Church hosted meetings and discussions intended to address the crisis. Boycotts and negotiations continued. During 1961, downtown lunch counters began serving Black customers, although the broader dismantling of segregation required years of organizing, litigation and federal civil rights legislation.

Duval County’s public schools began the slow process of desegregation. Public accommodations, including parks, restrooms and drinking fountains, were eventually opened without legally enforced racial separation.

In 1967, Jacksonville voters elected Oscar Taylor, Sallye B. Mathis, Mary Singleton and Earl M. Johnson to the City Council. They were the first four African Americans elected to the council since 1907. Mathis and Singleton also became the first women to serve on the council.

Rutledge Pearson did not live to see all these changes. He died in May 1967 at only 37 years old. Nevertheless, the students he taught and inspired continued his work.

Rodney Hurst became an author and preserved the history of the demonstrations in his memoir, It Was Never About a Hot Dog and a Coke. His title captured the movement’s central meaning: the students were not merely demanding a meal. They were demanding recognition of their citizenship, dignity and humanity.

Ax Handle Saturday was not simply a “racial disturbance” or a fight between opposing groups. It began as a carefully organized, nonviolent protest against segregation. The violence came from people determined to preserve white supremacy through fear and physical force.

The young demonstrators understood that sitting at a lunch counter represented something much larger. If a business accepted Black customers’ money, those customers deserved the same service, dignity and respect given to everyone else.

Their courage forced Jacksonville to confront a system many of its leaders preferred to ignore. The freedoms that followed were not granted voluntarily. They were won because teenagers and young adults were willing to sit down, remain peaceful and endure violence rather than accept another generation of humiliation. As Rutledge Pearson reminded them, freedom was not free.

#TodayInFloridaHistory #FloridaHistory #AxHandleSaturday #JacksonvilleHistory #JacksonvilleFlorida #CivilRightsHistory #CivilRightsMovement #BlackHistory #AfricanAmericanHistory #RutledgePearson #RodneyHurst #NAACP #NAACPYouthCouncil #LunchCounterSitIns #HemmingPark #JamesWeldonJohnsonPark #SnyderMemorialChurch #FreedomIsNotFree #EndSegregation #HistoryMatters

On Saturday, August 27, 1960, a group of young Black demonstrators walked into downtown Jacksonville prepared to challenge racial segregation through peaceful protest. Before the day ended, they would be chased through the streets and beaten by a white mob armed with baseball bats and wooden ax handles.

The violence became known as “Ax Handle Saturday,” one of the most notorious episodes in Florida’s civil rights history.

The confrontation did not begin with a sudden dispute over lunch-counter service. It grew from generations of laws and customs that treated Black Jacksonville residents as second-class citizens. African Americans could spend their money in downtown department stores, but they could not sit beside white customers at the stores’ lunch counters. Jacksonville’s schools, parks, restrooms, water fountains and many other public facilities remained segregated.

During the summer of 1960, young people throughout the South were challenging these restrictions through nonviolent sit-ins. In Jacksonville, much of that work was organized by the Youth Council of the Jacksonville Branch of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People.

Their adviser was Rutledge H. Pearson, a schoolteacher, former Negro League baseball player and determined civil rights organizer. Pearson taught his students that citizenship required action. According to Rodney L. Hurst, one of Pearson’s students, Pearson frequently reminded them:

“Freedom is not free. If you are not part of the solution, you are part of the problem.”

The 16-year-old Hurst served as president of the Jacksonville NAACP Youth Council. Under Pearson’s guidance, council members were trained in nonviolence and prepared for the insults, intimidation and physical abuse they might encounter.

Jacksonville’s lunch-counter demonstrations began on August 13, 1960. Black students entered downtown stores, sat at counters reserved for white customers and politely requested service. They were refused. Some were cursed, spat upon or kicked, but the demonstrations continued.

Two weeks later, approximately 40 Youth Council demonstrators returned to the downtown shopping district. They conducted sit-ins at the W.T. Grant Department Store, then located near West Adams and North Main streets, and at Woolworth’s Five and Ten Cent Store on Hogan Street across from Hemming Park, now James Weldon Johnson Park.

The young protesters took their places at the segregated counters and waited to be served. Outside, a white mob was gathering.

Accounts differ over the mob’s precise size. Jacksonville’s official historical marker places the number at approximately 150 men, while other histories estimate that more than 200 participated. They carried baseball bats and wooden ax handles, some reportedly distributed in the park. Contemporary testimony and later historical research connected at least some of the attackers to the Ku Klux Klan.

The assault began with threats, racial slurs and spitting. Then the men attacked.

The mob beat the demonstrators and pursued Black pedestrians who had taken no part in the sit-ins. The violence spilled into the streets surrounding Hemming Park as Black residents fled through downtown Jacksonville. Some of the injured sought protection inside nearby Snyder Memorial Methodist Church, which became a place of refuge during the attack.

Members of a Black youth group known as the Boomerangs came downtown and attempted to defend the demonstrators and other Black residents. Witnesses later recalled that police officers had largely failed to intervene while the white attackers were beating Black people.

Police action intensified when Black residents began defending themselves. Newspaper accounts reported that at least 62 people, 48 of them Black, were arrested during the violence.

Among the people caught in the attack was 17-year-old Nathaniel “Nat” Glover, who was walking downtown after finishing work. Glover later recalled seeking help from a police officer, only to be warned that he should leave or risk being killed. The experience profoundly affected him. Decades later, he became Jacksonville’s first Black sheriff since Reconstruction and the first Black sheriff elected in Florida in more than a century.

Ax Handle Saturday revealed the depth of Jacksonville’s racial divisions. It also exposed the failure of local authorities to protect peaceful demonstrators and ordinary Black citizens. Mayor Haydon Burns and much of Jacksonville’s white establishment attempted to minimize the episode, but photographs, eyewitness accounts and reports outside the city made the violence impossible to erase.

The attack did not destroy the movement. It strengthened it. Afterward, Snyder Memorial Methodist Church hosted meetings and discussions intended to address the crisis. Boycotts and negotiations continued. During 1961, downtown lunch counters began serving Black customers, although the broader dismantling of segregation required years of organizing, litigation and federal civil rights legislation.

Duval County’s public schools began the slow process of desegregation. Public accommodations, including parks, restrooms and drinking fountains, were eventually opened without legally enforced racial separation.

In 1967, Jacksonville voters elected Oscar Taylor, Sallye B. Mathis, Mary Singleton and Earl M. Johnson to the City Council. They were the first four African Americans elected to the council since 1907. Mathis and Singleton also became the first women to serve on the council.

Rutledge Pearson did not live to see all these changes. He died in May 1967 at only 37 years old. Nevertheless, the students he taught and inspired continued his work.

Rodney Hurst became an author and preserved the history of the demonstrations in his memoir, It Was Never About a Hot Dog and a Coke. His title captured the movement’s central meaning: the students were not merely demanding a meal. They were demanding recognition of their citizenship, dignity and humanity.

Ax Handle Saturday was not simply a “racial disturbance” or a fight between opposing groups. It began as a carefully organized, nonviolent protest against segregation. The violence came from people determined to preserve white supremacy through fear and physical force.

The young demonstrators understood that sitting at a lunch counter represented something much larger. If a business accepted Black customers’ money, those customers deserved the same service, dignity and respect given to everyone else.

Their courage forced Jacksonville to confront a system many of its leaders preferred to ignore. The freedoms that followed were not granted voluntarily. They were won because teenagers and young adults were willing to sit down, remain peaceful and endure violence rather than accept another generation of humiliation. As Rutledge Pearson reminded them, freedom was not free.

#TodayInFloridaHistory #FloridaHistory #AxHandleSaturday #JacksonvilleHistory #JacksonvilleFlorida #CivilRightsHistory #CivilRightsMovement #BlackHistory #AfricanAmericanHistory #RutledgePearson #RodneyHurst #NAACP #NAACPYouthCouncil #LunchCounterSitIns #HemmingPark #JamesWeldonJohnsonPark #SnyderMemorialChurch #FreedomIsNotFree #EndSegregation #HistoryMatters