page_title: James Weldon Johnson Park
section_title: 1960s
hierarchical_section_title: James Weldon Johnson Park / History / 1960s
caption_attribution_description: English: Hemming Park, Jacksonville, Florida
context_page_description: James Weldon Johnson Park is a 1.54-acre public park in Downtown Jacksonville, Florida. Originally a village green, it was the first and is the oldest park in the city.
context_section_description: During the 1960 presidential campaign, John F. Kennedy and Richard Nixon both gave speeches at Hemming Park a few hours apart on October 18. President Lyndon B. Johnson delivered a speech in Hemming Park on October 26, 1964.
  Because of its high visibility and patronage, the park and surrounding stores were the site of numerous civil rights demonstrations in the 1960s in the African-American effort to end racial segregation in public facilities. At the time, the city's population was about 45% black. Rutledge Pearson, a local high school teacher, and the NAACP organized many students to participate in sit-ins. Rodney Hurst was the president at age 16 of the NAACP Youth Council and years later, said the students were determined to carry out the protests to gain rights of service in stores that gladly accepted .
  Pearson and members of the NAACP had met with the city's mayor to ask for his support in integration but were rejected. The sit-ins began on August 13, 1960: students asked to be served at the segregated lunch counters at Morrison's Cafeteria, Woolworths, and other stores, where the black community spent much money in retail purchases. They were denied service and frequently kicked, spit at, and addressed with racial slurs. This pattern continued for two weeks, until the 27th, a day now referred to as Ax Handle Saturday. On that day, a group of 200 "middle-age and elderly white men," including some members of the Ku Klux Klan, were arming themselves with axe handles and baseball bats. The student protesters were warned but each wanted to go ahead. The armed group entered the store where they started attacking the students. Some of these found sanctuary in Historic Snyder Memorial, then a Methodist church. A couple of youths alerted the "Boomerangs," a group of older black youth, who entered the fray to protect the demonstrators.
  Although the organizers had alerted the police when they saw armed men, law enforcement did not intervene until the Boomerangs and other blacks started fighting back to stop the beatings. Fifty people were injured and 62 were arrested, 14 whites and 48 blacks. The day's events were covered by national TV, as well as major newspapers such as the New York Times and Los Angeles Times. Alton Yates, participated as a 24-year-old, but said some of the protesters were as young as 13, and he was shocked to see men beating children. He said the organizers gathered their forces again and continued sit-ins. In addition, committees of blacks and whites met to discuss and resolve racial issues. In April 1961, two leaders of the NAACP Youth Council ate at Woolworth's for a week to prepare the public for integration.
  Finally after the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the city completed integration of water fountains, restrooms, and dressing rooms. On August 26, 2000, the NAACP, the National Conference for Community and Justice, the Jacksonville Historical Society, the Human Rights Commission, and the Jacksonville Urban League hosted events to commemorate the history and celebrate the city's progress in the 40 years since then.
caption: 1960 Civil Rights Demonstrations historical marker in James Weldon Johnson Park.
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