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. 
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Speaking at the Dedication of the Rutledge H. Pearson Post Office, named after my mentor, my 8th grade American History teacher, my 9th grade Civics teacher, and the adviser to the Jacksonville Youth Council NAACP, Mr. Rutledge H. Pearson. The ceremony was held in the Jacksonville City Hall, officially changing the name from The Kings Road Post Office to The Rutledge H. Pearson Post Office.

BOOKS

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​
Never Forget Who You Are: Conversations About Racism and Identity Development" co-authored by University of North Florida professor Dr. Rudy F. Jamison, and Civil Rights activist and Black History advocate Rodney L. Hurst, is the Gold Medal Winner in the Reader Views Non-Fiction "Humanities" category, and the Reader Views “Grand Prize Winner” as the Best Non-Fiction book (readersview.com).

In Never Forget Who You Are: Conversations About
Racism and Identity Development, Dr. Rudolph “Rudy” Jamison Jr. and I offer you two options, and they are both, I think, beneficially good. You will read two philosophies and two lived experiences in each chapter about blackness, racism, respect, and pride: one from Rudy’s 50-year-old mind and eyes and the other from my 75- year-old mind and eyes. Both viewpoints will get you to the same place.
You can fight the struggle against racism and for human dignity, respect, and identity development and you can travel different paths to get to the same destination and not compromise your journey or your dignity, which is why we are asking you to join us on this reading excursion.
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There is a saying, When you are accustomed to privilege, equality feels like oppression. White America and its innate White privilege feel to share anything, and in this instance, weare talking about citizenship, is to give up what they have.
            
Never Forget Who You Are: Conversations About Racism and Identity Development is a cross-generational conversation between a baby boomer and a Generation Xer that wrestles with what it means to be Black in America. In an attempt to inspire increased attention to sustained racist ideas, Rodney and I present historical contexts, preserved social orders, personal anecdotes, and possible solutions to race relations in America. Because America has created a caste system that categorizes humanity based on power and pigmentation, and it refuses to address the severity of racism as an indelible issue, racism and identity development are structural and institutional impediments for Black folk. To be Black in America, and to not camouflage your blackness behind a veil of concession, is to perpetually resist the psychological contortion expected by a dominant White culture.


​The degree to which Blacks must deny who they are in White spaces may not be an issue for the dominant power structure, but if you’re unapologetically Black, you know the struggle is real. From education, to politics, to the world of work, to cultural socialization, Rodney and I engage in a back and forth that must happen more frequently.
 
Rodney Lawrence Hurst, Sr. is a father, a grandfather, a great-grandfather, a civil rights activist, a Black historian, a cancer survivor, and the author of three award-winning books: It was never about a hot dog and a Coke®! A personal account of the 1960 sit-in demonstrations in Jacksonville, Florida and Ax Handle Saturday; Unless WE Tell It…It Never Gets Told! and now, Never Forget Who You Are: Conversations about Racism and Identity Development. He speaks
 
Dr. Rudy F. Jamison, Jr. currently works as faculty and Assistant Director of the Center for Urban Education and Policy in University of North Florida’s College of Education and Human Services. Dr. Jamison’s academic interests include: Black leadership development, community organizing, diversification of teacher education, culturally responsive teaching/leadership, career mobility, developmental relationships, self-monitoring, and nigrescence. Dr. Jamison is committed to advancing consciousness around equity, racism, and social justice in ways that assess, challenge, and support a more virtuous humanity.


Books are available at canonpressgroup.com, Amazon.com, and Apple.com.​
ISBN-13: 978-1595941954
ISBN-10: 1595941959
It Was Never About a Hot Dog and a Coke®! (Jan 1, 2008)
Rodney L. 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 award-winning 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 the award-winning "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 participation in the misnamed Civil War to be romanticized. He does not ignore the impact of Jim Crow laws, nor does 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. 
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With Dr. Eddie Glaude Jr, the chair of the Center for African-American Studies and the William S. Tod Professor of Religion and African-American Studies at Princeton University, and a noted TV commentator and Analyst...Dr. Chris Janson, the Director of the University of North Florida's Center for Urban Education and Policy, ...and Dr. Rudy Jamison, Assistant Director of the University of North Florida's Center for Urban Education and Policy. Dr. Glaude was the keynote speaker at University of North Florida's Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Scholarship Luncheon.

CALENDAR

RECOMMENDED LINKS

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At the NAACP Freedom Fund Dinner with Ben Jealous, then the National Executive Director of the NAACP, Dr. Arnett E. Girardeau, and my wife, Ann Hurst. Ben Jealous was the Keynote Speaker.