Ax Handle Saturday

Ax Handle Saturday, also known as the Jacksonville riot of 1960, was a racially motivated attack in Hemming Park (since renamed James Weldon Johnson Park) in Jacksonville, Florida, on August 27, 1960. A group of about 200 white men used baseball bats and ax handles to attack black people who were in sit-in protests opposing racial segregation.

Ax Handle Saturday
Part of Civil Rights Movement
DateAugust 27, 1960 (August 27, 1960)
Location
Hemming Park
Jacksonville, Florida
Parties
White rioters
Black protesters

History
In 2002, a commemorative plaque was installed in Hemming Park, since renamed James Weldon Johnson Park.[1][2]

Because of its high visibility and patronage, Hemming Park and surrounding stores were the site of numerous civil rights demonstrations in the 1960s. Black sit-ins began on August 13, 1960, when students asked for service at the segregated lunch counter at W. T. Grant, Woolworths, Morrison's Cafeteria, and other eateries. They were denied service, kicked, spat at, and addressed with racial slurs.[3][4]

On August 27, 1960, a group of approximately 200 white men, some of whom were thought to have Ku Klux Klan affiliations, gathered in Hemming Park armed with baseball bats and ax handles.[5] They attacked the protesters conducting sit-ins. The violence spread, and the white mob started attacking all black people in sight. Rumors were rampant on both sides that the unrest was spreading around the county. Actually, the violence stayed in relatively the same location, and did not spill over into the mostly white, upper-class Cedar Hills neighborhood, for example. A black street gang called the Boomerangs came to protect the demonstrators.[6] Police had not intervened when the protesters were attacked, but when "blacks started holding their own"[7] and the Boomerangs and other black residents attempted to stop the beatings, the police arrested them for it.[8][9]

Nat Glover, who later worked in Jacksonville law enforcement for 37 years, including eight years as sheriff of Jacksonville, recalled stumbling into the riot. Glover said he ran to the police, expecting them to arrest the thugs, but was told to leave town or risk being killed.[10]

Several white people had joined the black protesters on that day. Richard Charles Parker, a 25-year-old student attending Florida State University, was among them. White protesters were the object of particular dislike by racists, so when the fracas began, Parker was hustled out of the area for his own protection. The police had been watching him and arrested him as an instigator, charging him with vagrancy, disorderly conduct and inciting a riot. After Parker stated that he was proud to be a member of the NAACP, Judge John Santora sentenced him to 90 days in jail. He was attacked in jail, suffering a broken jaw, after which Santora sentenced him to a road gang.[11][12][13]

Aftermath

Local authorities and news media downplayed the violence. Mayor Haydon Burns claimed there was no violence, and Jacksonville's leading newspaper buried the story on page fifteen. It was covered by local Black publications, out-of-town reporters, and in Life magazine. The mayor alleged most rioters were not Jacksonville residents and refused to convene a committee requested by the NAACP to address racial discrimination.[14][15]

Snyder Memorial Methodist Episcopal Church hosted community discussions and negotiations following the incident.[16] Lunch counters in Jacksonville were desegregated in 1961.[17]

See also

References
  1. Corley Peel; Jenese Harris (August 11, 2020). "Council OKs renaming Hemming Park after James Weldon Johnson". News4Jax.com. Retrieved August 12, 2020.
  2. "1960 Civil Rights Demonstration". Historical Marker Database. Retrieved September 24, 2023.
  3. Trent, Sydney. "‘Ax Handle Saturday’: The Klan’s vicious attack on Black protesters in Florida 60 years ago," The Washington Post, August 27, 2020. Retrieved September 24, 2023.
  4. "Ax Handle Saturday Date in History: 27 Aug 1960," Florida Historical Society. No author or date. Retrieved September 24, 2023.
  5. "Ax Handle Saturday: Jacksonville's Ugliest Hour". The Coastal. August 27, 2019. Retrieved August 23, 2021.
  6. staff. "Discrimination in all its forms must be axed". jacksonville.com. Archived from the original on November 22, 2008. Retrieved October 8, 2009.
  7. Andino, Alliniece T. "40 years ago this weekend, Jacksonville gave itself a national reputation for violence - Jacksonville.com". Florida Times-Union. Archived from the original on June 6, 2012. Retrieved October 8, 2009.
  8. staff. "Civil rights - Jacksonville.com". Florida Times-Union. Archived from the original on December 1, 2008. Retrieved October 8, 2009.
  9. Wilson, Gil. "St. Augustine Civil Rights 1960 -1965". drbronsontours.com. Archived from the original on August 31, 2005.
  10. Pemberton, John: Archived July 1, 2017, at the Wayback Machine Florida Times-Union, February 22, 1998, "Focus on: Nat Glover"
  11. Weathersbee, Tonyaa (February 4, 2008). "The story of a white man who joined the '60s sit-ins". Florida Times-Union. Archived from the original on February 8, 2008. Retrieved September 24, 2023.
  12. "Ax Handle Saturday: The Segregated Lunch Counters". Florida Times-Union. August 21, 2020.
  13. "White Stores Set Ablaze in Uneasy Jacksonville," The Berkshire Eagle, Pittsfield, MA, Aug. 30, 1960. Republished ("Clipped") by a user of Newspapers.com, May 15, 2020.
  14. Delaney, Bill. "The story behind Ax Handle Saturday's most famous photo," The Jaxson, August 27, 2020. Retrieved September 24, 2023.
  15. "Freedom Is Not Free : Ax Handle Saturday," Exhibits at the University of Florida Libraries, 2021. Curator, Antonette Jones. Retrieved September 24, 2023.
  16. "Finding a New Purpose for the Snyder Memorial Church Building". The Coastal. June 20, 2019. Retrieved August 23, 2021.
  17. Soergel, Matt. "WJCT TV-7 offers powerful documentary on Ax Handle Saturday". The Florida Times-Union. Retrieved August 23, 2021.

Further reading
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