Photo Credit: Ingrid Damiani

RODNEY L. HURST, Sr.

Civil Rights Activist | Black Historian | Author
Rodney Lawrence Hurst, Sr. is the award winning author of, “It Was Never About a Hot Dog and a Coke®!” and “Unless WE Tell It…It Never Gets Told!” He is a native of Jacksonville, Florida and writes with clarity and a historical eye. Both of Hurst's books detail the times, the mood, and the people of Northeast Florida. He also chronicles the rich legacy of Jacksonville's Black history. Hurst has dedicated his life to fighting injustices and documenting what it has meant, and continues to mean, to be living while Black in the United States. 

BOOKS

ISBN-13: 978-1595941954
ISBN-10: 1595941959
It Was Never About a Hot Dog and a Coke®! (Jan 1, 2008)
Hurst recounts with clarity the segregated civic, political, and educational climate of Jacksonville, Florida in the 1950’s and the 1960’s. "It Was Never About a Hot Dog and a Coke®" recalls the 1960 Jacksonville sit-in demonstrations through the eyes the President of the Jacksonville Youth Council NAACP, a then sixteen-year-old Hurst. Chronicled in this book is detailed history of the bloody events that transpired on August 27, 1960, a day that the press labeled Ax Handle Saturday. On that day, 200 Whites with ax handles and baseball bats attacked members of the Council who peacefully demonstrating at white-only lunch counters in downtown Jacksonville.  The attacks didn't stop there, they brutally beat any Black that could be found on the streets that afternoon. This historical account covers why they demonstrated and the aftermath that followed that fateful day. 
ISBN-13: 978-0578174532
​ISBN-10: 0578174537
Unless WE Tell It... It Never Gets Told! (Dec 8, 2015)
History, as it is usually told, ignores those Blacks who fought for equality and justice against great odds while also fighting against the racism of America. In his second book, Hurst tells the stories of some of Jacksonville’s notable Blacks, those who not only impacted the city but also the country at large.  A contemporary book of America’s Black History, Hurst shares historical accounts of Floridians who played important roles in America’s Civil Rights History and those who were, and continue to be, essential components of Black America’s historic fight against Racism. 

In "Unless WE Tell It... It Never Gets Told!," Hurst discusses the racist forces in America who would like to revise American history.  But Hurst refuses to “pretty up” the abhorrent practices of slavery or to allow the South’s par-ticipation in the misnamed Civil War to be romanticize. He will not ignore the impact of Jim Crow laws, nor will he conceal the obscenely violent acts perpetrated against the Civil Rights Movement.   It is easy to think that relations have gotten better and that things have changed when you are not feeling the brunt of racism. But, that is far from the case, and explored within this book is the fact that there are those in this country who have an apparent penchant to return to a past that absolves racist attitudes. 

CALENDAR

RECOMMENDED LINKS

GALLERY