Customer Reviews

It Was Never About a Hotdog and a Coke! A Personal Account of the 1960 sit-in Demonstrations in Jacksonville, Florida and AX Handle Saturday

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I found Mr. Hursts account of his experiences during the the civil rights struggle in Jacksonville, Fl during the early 1960's to be the most compelling, riveting, and accurate that I have ever read. It forces you to remember where you were and what you were doing on those dates and times. Excellent! A must Read!!
Allen F. Nash
Book Investigator
Ocala, Fl.

Quoting from the back cover:

"On August 27, 1960, more than 200 whites with ax handles and baseball bats attacked members of the Jacksonville Youth Council NAACP in downtown Jacksonville who were sitting in at white lunch counters protesting racism and segregation. Referred to as Ax Handle Saturday, It was never about a hot dog and a Coke chronicles the racial and political climate of Jacksonville, Florida in the late fifties, the events leading up to that infamous day, and the aftermath."

This informative memoir is about a dangerous time. The events are a part of our history, and through Rodney's story we learn more about the people and groups involved and the courage it took to sit. The book is well-written and well-edited. Thanks, Rodney, for taking the time.

Kaye Trout
Reviewer

Just by the title, the reader knows that this book is charged. Most everyone in the country from young children to elderly adults knows about the super-charged racial tensions in the South during the 1960's. Most adults are keenly aware of the tension between "blacks" and "whites" still existing. With this presidential election containing an African American candidate, the race issue is upfront and personal in our nation. As Colbert King, an op-ed columnist for the Washington Post brought up in a recent article, race can no longer be a non-issue. It is an issue. It will be an issue until people of all colors of skin can sit and have open, honest dialog. I say, it's about time!

It Was Never About a Hot Dog and a Coke is an honest and in depth look at the community of Jacksonville Florida during the height of the civil rights movement in the United States from the perspective of an African American male. It is written by the then president of the Jacksonville Youth Council NAACP. He was there and helped organize the sit-ins that challenged the segregation policies. The anger from this challenge led to unforgivable (in my mind) Ax Handle Saturday.

What this book has to offer beyond what I have read in other places is the unsung heroes. Rodney Hurst Sr. has done his homework and presents pictures, newspaper articles and names of the key people from both sides of the issue. The good and the bad, Mr. Hurst documents the situation well.

The best part of this narration, to me as a white woman reading It Was Never About a Hot Dog and a Coke, was the fairness. This book could easily have been a black supremacy, whites are evil manifesto. Many white people committed atrocious crimes in that era (and many other times) and justified it by thinking somehow a few genes' difference made them better than another. Instead, the narration of the book simply states the actions taken by the parties in the area. There are countless stories of senseless actions that justify anger and hatred but the book is instead filled with dignity and respect. I applaud the author for treating this subject with divine amounts of grace and tact.

To me, race is one of those things that I was raised to ignore. I credit my mom mostly for that. She is the epitome of the "Aryan" race with blue eyes and naturally light blond hair but she taught me from an early age that the color of someone's skin doesn't matter one whit. I still think she's right. She taught me "by their fruits ye shall know them" and I believe her. Underneath it all, we are human. We all bleed red. Some stupid cosmetic difference does not grant one person more rights than another.

I also know that I have never endured racism. I have friends that are minorities that have told me stories of having to physically protect themselves from being attacked simply because of the color of their skin or the slant of their eyes. I feel blessed that I have only once witnessed racism. Without incriminating myself, I was appalled and took steps to ensure the event never repeated. I think the most shocking thing to me was that racism STILL existed and it was close to home. Shouldn't we be enlightened by now? Really, is it that hard just to play nice and get along?

Mr. Hurst states in the book that there isn't a simple answer to this problem. I don't have any magical solutions to this problem which has affected our nation for centuries either. I feel at times I am an insignificant speck in a pool of tension and not big enough to make a difference. I am not wise enough to have the magic key but I do have hope for the future. As I looked into my baby daughter's eyes after finishing this book, her smile gave me hope. Maybe, if I'm a good enough mother and teach my children to follow the example of our Savior and love everyone regardless of frivolous differences, I will be a part of the solution.

This book is awesome and eye opening. This is a book everyone, regardless of race, religion or creed should read. I hope teachers everywhere will consider this book as part of curriculum in American History classes. I also hope it can be a tool to opening people's eyes to the damage stupidity and ignorance can bring. Bless Mr. Hurst for this non-media biased peek into the events of that era in out history.

On Aug. 27,1960, I had just turned 11 years old and was enjoying my last easy summer days before the start of school. And while I was old enough to be aware of what happened on that day, I certainly did not know the details. Mr. Hurst has given us 'the rest of the story' and now we know.
He takes us back in time to a very different Jacksonville as he describes the educational, political, and social climate of the day; the role of the NAACP Youth Council; the events of that awful day and the aftermath. And most of all, he gives us Rutledge Pearson, who has become one of my heroes. There have been many other accounts of this day. But none can compare with this account, written by one of those brave young men who had to run for his life. We are forever grateful to him.

This book offers one of the most accurate accounts of the sit-in activities in Jacksonville, FL during the early 1960's. Very interesting reading and the pictures further validate the author's account. Would recommend that this book becomes an intregal part of telling the Jacksonville story.

IT WAS NEVER ABOUT A HOT DOG AND A COKE delivers the expected, and the unexpected, about one incident of many staged sit-ins across America, back when the vast majority of America's black citizens lived marginalized lives at the hands of racial hatred and Jim Crow laws.

With boldness and forthrightness, Rodney L. Hurst Sr. tells the story of his own active involvement in the business at hand of tearing down America's racial barriers, even if it meant only one eatery at a time. Along with present company, he knew that fighting, threatening, harassing, and demanding would never work. It was the way white America got what they wanted, and black America had to show that it was better than that. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s message was one of passive resistance, and it was followed like clockwork throughout the nation.

One of those acts came by the town of Jacksonville, Florida, and directly involved Mr. Hurst himself. He begins the book by talking about his early days of growing up in racially segregated schools and neatly brings us into the fold of the Civil Rights Movement itself and how he came to be involved in it. He also talks about the one "news item of the year" that, though it should have made headlines, was relegated to the Black Star Edition of The Florida Times-Union.

In a place called Hemming Park were several white men wearing Confederate uniforms and carrying ax handles with Confederate flags taped to them. A sign taped to a truck said "Free Ax Handles" as well as ax handles that were laid out in the open in bundles against the park's bushes and shrubbery. As the black youth gathered and prepared to do their usual sit-in work, they were warned of ongoing activities at Hemming Park and told that they could expect elevated trouble that day.

Instead of going to Woolworth's, however, the youth group took a detour to W. T. Grants, about three blocks away from Hemming. After Grant's was closed down, they walked down the street only to see an angry mob swinging ax handles and baseball bats, charging directly at them. A news reporter filming the mob scene was knocked off his car by a wielder of one of the weapons.

The mob attacked every Black person within their reach, even those who had not participated in the sit-ins or demonstrations. The September 12 issue of Life magazine showed the world what The Florida Times-Union would not - a young man, a high school football star by the name of Charlie Griffin, in a blood-drenched shirt, beaten by the terrorists who surrounded him - simply for trying to defend himself.

In the end, IT WAS NEVER ABOUT A HOT DOG AND A COKE embodies the lackadaisical mentalities of the New Millennium youth who easily forget the push for civil rights from which they now benefit. Hurst emphatically drives home the point that it is not the "past" more than it is a part of why we are where we are today. It was not about eating and drinking, the freedom fighters were not on the streets starving to death. It was about what we would call today, "the principle of the thing." In summary, the author reminds us that "Those who do not remember the past are doomed to repeat it."

The stories must be embraced so there will never again be a repetition of a history that was one of the darkest hours that America has never known. Though Jacksonville's Ax Handle Saturday was Hurst's most vivid memory of a near-brush with death, the non-physical fight that Hurst and many others faced made yet one more dent in an America where they were free, but not experiencing true freedom.

Hurst repeats the lesson "Freedom is not free" throughout the theme of the book, a very well-written, well-edited story that help us to understand the ongoing struggles of racism that must still be attacked in this hour, 40 years after the death of Dr. King. The idea, per the author, is not to be racially divisive or to live in the past, but to make certain beyond a shadow of a doubt that America knows and understands that its black citizens will never again be subjected to legalized abuse.

The book ends with a fitting tribute to Rutledge Henry Pearson, the author's mentor and inspiration, and an American History teacher whose influence on Hurst would span the length of his own life. It was from the lessons Hurst learned that his reading public receives the message to "Keep the Faith and Never Forget the Struggle." He encourages those with similar and same stories to tell and to re-tell them while they still can. Those who deal with nouveau racism must remember that at one time, the struggle came with an unwritten death warrant.

It's all downhill from here.

Reviewed by Marjani
for The RAWSISTAZ Reviewers

This book was excellent reading about this day in my city but I wish the author had not delved too much in his family. Some would have been great like getting to know a little about him, but I would have loved reading more about the actual happening that day.

An honest first-hand account of what really happened on Ax Handle Saturday in Jacksonville in 1960. It gave me a different prospective of those brave youth and the men and women behind them that struggled for dignity. Read this book!