Dennis Stone: Well, good evening, everyone. I’m Dennis Stone from the Jacksonville Urban League Center for Advocacy and social justice. and thank you for joining our monthly conversation on racial healing and reconciliation. William Malone: We’re really excited tonight to have Dennis Stone: Rodney Hearst civil rights activist, black historian and author.
Dennis Stone: as he puts it in this biography. He reminds us that he’s a father, a grandfather, and a great grandfather. a widower, a cancer survivor, and a civil rights activist.
Dennis Stone: He’s also a military veteran and award winning author of 3 books. His first book. it was never about a Hot Dog and a Coke. is a personal account of the 1960. Sitting demonstrations in Jacksonville.
Dennis Stone: And Ax handle Saturday, which I’m sure most of you have not. All of you are familiar with. In that he recounts the segregated civic, political, and educational climate of Jacksonville Dennis Stone: in the fifties and sixties the 1960 Jacksonville Youth Council, Naacp William Malone: Sit-ins.
Dennis Stone: and the violent event, the axe handle Saturday. Dennis Stone: Due to the blackout of local news about these important civil rights events in Jacksonville. His book is the only historical. active, accurate description of these sit-ins and the violence of the axe handle. Saturday.
Dennis Stone: It won over a dozen awards, including the 2,008 U.S.A. National best Books Award national Book competition first placed Goldman
Dennis Stone: Medal Award for Multicultural nonfiction. and the Florida book Awards Bronze Medal for nonfiction. As I said, he has 3 other books, but we will save those for another time or later. Dennis Stone: But I will say this, that not only does he have a significant amount of experience
Dennis Stone: lived as well as Dennis Stone: learned. Dennis Stone: but he’s a wonderful speaker, and we’re really happy to have you with us tonight. Rodney are Dennis Stone: thank you for speaking and welcome Rodney Hurst: my pleasure, Dennis.
Rodney Hurst: the the you in the introduction. When I wrote the bio. my bio. I was in the process of writing my fourth book. My fourth book is called Black and Brilliant. Rodney Hurst: and it was written for 12 to 18 year olds. Well. Rodney Hurst: Tuesday is Thursday, Tuesday Night.
Rodney Hurst: I got an email from a book competition. Rodney Hurst: a national book competition that my book won the gold medal for Rodney Hurst: Young People, 12 to 16, those 16 plus, and the southeastern regional book of the year. So now I can add. all 4 books are award winning books.
Rodney Hurst: It has been important to me to write about Rodney Hurst: experiences, cultural experiences Rodney Hurst: as a black person Rodney Hurst: in this country, because it is a continuing quest Rodney Hurst: for white folk and black folk to understand what blacks accomplished in
Rodney Hurst: the 300 years of slavery in this in this country, and who they were, and what they accomplished prior to Rodney Hurst: the slave. I always tell Rodney Hurst: young blacks and young whites, too, that the history of black folk did not start with slavery it in American history. In that vernacular
Rodney Hurst: it is almost a given that white folk discovered black folk when they kidnapped them and brought them to this country, and that is Rodney Hurst: far from being the truth.
Rodney Hurst: When I was 6 or 7 pre teen. I started school when I was 5, and I got skipped. and my pastor says favor ain’t fair. Rodney Hurst: but Rodney Hurst: I am walking around. I’m 2 years Rodney Hurst: in chronological age behind my classmates.
Rodney Hurst: but I am seeing some of the same things that they are seeing in during my time during my childhood. Then there were visible signs, those visible vestiges of segregation and racism. Rodney Hurst: to let you know who you were and where your your place was.
Rodney Hurst: So we had colored and white signs for water fountains. We had colored lunch counters and white lunch counters. We had negro waiting rooms and white waiting rooms Rodney Hurst: for a bus station for a train station when you went to
Rodney Hurst: a governmental office. That was a negro waiting room and a white waiting room. When you went Rodney Hurst: to a doctor’s office. There was a negro waiting room for patients and a white waiting room for patients.
Rodney Hurst: and I would ask, why, you know I’m I was brought up in the Baptist Church became an Episcopalian, confirmed when I was 13. I am now a Baptist, but again.
Rodney Hurst: but all this time I’m brought up in the Church. And I am asking. aren’t we sisters and brothers based on what the Bible teaches? Brotherhood and sisterhood? Rodney Hurst: That’s the case. Why am I being separated? Why
Rodney Hurst: are things separate in such a way? Where there is this dual journey, this dual walk. Rodney Hurst: just based on the color of my skin? And even though. Rodney Hurst: as a youngster that did not resonate with me. The older I got.
Rodney Hurst: the more I began to understand that the only difference Rodney Hurst: was that I had a black hue of skin.
Rodney Hurst: When I went to the eighth grade I was 11 years old, I my family transferred from one black neighborhood to another black neighborhood. and I transferred from one Negro Junior High School to another Negro Junior High School in Jacksonville.
Rodney Hurst: and I enrolled in an American history class that was taught by Mister Rutledge, Henry Pearson. Rodney Hurst: and Mr. Pearson would explain that first day of the class he would explain to his eighth grade students Rodney Hurst: this eighth grade American History book approved for Negro students
Rodney Hurst: in this Negro Junior High School. These actual classifications in the Negro division of the Duwell County public school system. Rodney Hurst: But this American history text book for eighth graders for eighth grade. Negro students only had the names of 2 blacks in those books.
Rodney Hurst: George Washington Carver, in Booker T. Washington William Malone: and Mister Pearson told us to leave that American history book at home. Rodney Hurst: He did not want us to study American history from the racist and bigoted viewpoints of white textbook authors and white historians
Rodney Hurst: who only saw the fit, saw fit to include the names of 2 blacks, as if they were the only blacks Rodney Hurst: in the history of this country to make salient contributions. Rodney Hurst: So he told us American history outside of that approved American history book for Negro students.
Rodney Hurst: He had us write letters to Alfie Gibson and Jackie Robinson and Thurbard, Marshall and Roy Wilkins. Rodney Hurst: He had us do book reports. I did my first book report in eighth grade in his class Rodney Hurst: on a person named Toussaint Loverdew, who is the father of Haiti.
Rodney Hurst: And then, when we got the responses back to those letters that we sent out. And we did get responses back. Rodney Hurst: We had to write up reports on those responses just like we did reports Rodney Hurst: for the books that we read, and we put them up
Rodney Hurst: in the classroom, and they had to be typed double space 2 to 3 pages. We were eighth graders. We did not know how to type. Rodney Hurst: Obviously there were no computers and printers.
Rodney Hurst: but when we finished those book reports we were very proud because it was Negro History week every day in Mister Pearson’s class. Rodney Hurst: and the importance in that then 55. Doctor Carter G. Woodson. Rodney Hurst: who started Negro history week
Rodney Hurst: after he started an organization called the Association for the Study of Negro Life and History. which is now the Association for the Study of African American life in history as Solomon. Rodney Hurst: but he started
Rodney Hurst: the Association for the Study of Negro Life in History in 1915, and in 1926 he started Negro History Week Rodney Hurst: because, as a graduate of Harvard, he was the the second black in this country to get a PHD. From Harvard University. There may be the boys was. First
Rodney Hurst: he felt the need, and he felt it very necessary Rodney Hurst: to make sure that blacks negroes at the time Rodney Hurst: were versed and understood some of the contributions that people look who look like them made to this country.
Rodney Hurst: And I think it is so ironic and hypocritical, and also racist that today we have white elected officials all over this country Rodney Hurst: who have decided that somehow telling the truth Rodney Hurst: about American history is divisive. Rodney Hurst: Yet throughout American history Rodney Hurst: American history. which I call
Rodney Hurst: incomplete, dishonest, and racist is divisive Rodney Hurst: young people today. Rodney Hurst: young people, yesterday our parents, our grandparents in the public school system, in colleges and universities, are fed
Rodney Hurst: tasteless and bland baby food. and we are told that it’s gourmet food as American history, and we eat it up. Rodney Hurst: We never question what’s in the text book, or what the teacher stands up and talks about, either in public schools or in colleges and universities.
Rodney Hurst: and we take that incomplete, dishonest, and racist history with us and throughout our lives, and we regurgitate it Rodney Hurst: to folk that we come in contact with. It gets to be
Rodney Hurst: a norm, as we understand American history, and it is as incorrect and divisive as it can be yet to day to teach black history.
Rodney Hurst: or to talk about black history, or to have a black history book. White elected officials are basically saying that that’s divisive. So let let me dwell just a bit Rodney Hurst: in that. And and Dennis, please keep me on on point in terms of time.
Rodney Hurst: And, by the way, those of you who Rodney Hurst: who have questions ask the questions in whatever way that it’s set up. Keep your ipods and your iphones, and your
Rodney Hurst: Tablets and your laptops, because I’m going to say some things that you have not heard before. So if you want to look them up William Malone: and decide to challenge me on what I say. That’s fine. Rodney Hurst: Just make sure that you.
Rodney Hurst: Your information is correct when you challenge me. Rodney Hurst: So let’s let’s just delve just a bit in what I call incomplete, dishonest, and racist American history. We celebrate Rodney Hurst: a holiday only one of 2 holidays named for individuals.
Rodney Hurst: Christopher Columbus Day. The other one is Martin Luther King Day, but Christopher Columbus Day. We celebrate his birthday Rodney Hurst: as the discoverer of America, and Christopher Columbus never set foot in the Continental United States. Rodney Hurst: Christopher Columbus landed in his Panola.
Rodney Hurst: which is now the Dominican Republic in Haiti. Rodney Hurst: He met was greeted by Rodney Hurst: indigenous people, call the Tanos Arawak Indians, or indigenous people. Rodney Hurst: They had no weapons. Rodney Hurst: and Christopher Columbus and his men immediately started to enslave or imprison, or take these Arawctanos Indians.
Rodney Hurst: indigenous people as captains. sending the young girls back to Spain and Italy as sex slaves. Rodney Hurst: Christopher Columbus was the first slave trader in this hemisphere, and his son Diego was the first slave trader of African flesh
Rodney Hurst: we all know. Listen, my children, and you will hear of the Midnight Ride of Paul Revere. Rodney Hurst: a poem written by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, a hundred years after it was supposed to have taken place. That ride never happened. Rodney Hurst: Betsy Ross never sold the first flag.
Rodney Hurst: Benjamin Franklin did not put a key on a kite fly. The kite up in the air to have the key on the kite struck by lightning, and therefore Benjamin Franklin invented electricity that never happened.
Rodney Hurst: We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal. that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights. Rodney Hurst: that among these rights are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. Words written by
Rodney Hurst: Thomas Jefferson in the Declaration of Independence, and at the time he wrote those words, Thomas Jefferson owned more enslaved persons than any other person in Albemarle County, Virginia. Rodney Hurst: Francis Scott Key was an Elitist.
Rodney Hurst: He felt like the only thing that Africans were capable of doing was being servants and tending to the needs of whites. Rodney Hurst: and if any wanted to do more than that they should be sent back to Africa.
Rodney Hurst: During the war of 1812, the British said to escape slaves, and those who were enslaved, that if you come and fight with me against America, we will give you your freedom, and also find a place for you to stay. Rodney Hurst: and the British called them Colonial marines.
Rodney Hurst: During the war of 1812 Francis Scott Key became a lieutenant. Rodney Hurst: and in a battle he led his men, American soldiers against Rodney Hurst: the colonial marines, black former slaves. Rodney Hurst: those that had escaped
Rodney Hurst: in a battle, and the colonial marines won that battle and won it quite decisively. Rodney Hurst: A few months later Francis Scott Key went to the British Rodney Hurst: to beg them to surrender his friend, a Doctor Beans.
Rodney Hurst: who had been captured by the British. It was. He was not a captive on a British ship. Rodney Hurst: as some American history books talk Rodney Hurst: or include. Rodney Hurst: While he was begging for the release of
Rodney Hurst: one of his friends of Doctor Bean’s. The British fired on Fort Mchenry, in the harbor of Baltimore, Maryland. make that? Yes. Rodney Hurst: and during that battle one
Rodney Hurst: many of the Colonial marines were killed. They were part of the battle. and Francis Scott P. Started writing The old to Fort Mc. Henry a poem. Rodney Hurst: and in that poem he wrote about how good he felt Rodney Hurst: when he saw these slaves
Rodney Hurst: being killed and their blood leaving their body and making up for how much they had contaminated the earth of this country. Rodney Hurst: Star Smangle Banner has everything to do with war has nothing to do with patriotism.
Rodney Hurst: There are 4 stanzas to the Star Spangled Banner. and this particular stanza about the racism of the author of the National Anthem of this country. Rodney Hurst: It stands in Number 3. Rodney Hurst: We were not taught Rodney Hurst: in school, and many young people are not taught to day
Rodney Hurst: that the writer of the 3 Musketeers, the Count of Monte Cristo, and the Man in the iron mass. Alexander Dumf was black. Rodney Hurst: We are not taught. We’re not taught that the father of Russian literature, Alexander Alexander Pushkin, was black.
Rodney Hurst: that Hannibal the great who took these hordes of elephants through the Swiss Alps, and who conquered every nation on the known earth at that time was black. Rodney Hurst: We are not taught that Saint Augustine of Hippo.
Rodney Hurst: for whom the city Saint saint Augustine is named, and who was one of the seminal figures in the philosophy and in in understanding Christianity it was black. Rodney Hurst: We are not taught that Queen Charlotte of Mecklenburg Rodney Hurst: is the great great great Rodney Hurst: grandmother
Rodney Hurst: of Queen Elizabeth the second, the recently deceased Queen of England. Rodney Hurst: and she was black. Rodney Hurst: and we are not taught Rodney Hurst: that Ludwig von Beethoven’s father and grandfather were Moors, MOOR. S. Spanish Africans. Rodney Hurst: When a young black person goes into a classroom
Rodney Hurst: and opens a history book or opens a literature book or opens a science book. Rodney Hurst: and he or she cannot read about the Syrian contributions by folk who look like them. Yet you can read about
Rodney Hurst: Europeans and white Americans, and what they contributed to this country, then the playing field is not even even Rodney Hurst: so. They’re not taught that the first person Rodney Hurst: to perform open heart surgery or heart surgery was Daniel Hale Williams, who was black.
Rodney Hurst: We don’t include in the history books that the man who classified blood plasma. Charles Drew was black.
Rodney Hurst: that Benjamin Banneker invented the first clock and completed laying out the city of Washington, DC. That he was black, that Matt Hinson was the first person to set foot on the North Pole, and he was black. That Garret Morgan
Rodney Hurst: invented the gas mask and also the variation of the traffic light that we have today with the 3 lights. When he started working on the traffic light. It just said, Stop and go. He put the caution light in and synchronized all 3. He was like, we are not taught that Grenville would invented an engineering device to go on the train to let the train engineer know when another train was near. We are not taught that Elijah Mccoy
Rodney Hurst: 45 inventions, including 15 inventions for long distance, trucking and lubrication. And when they talk about the real Mccoy at that time they were talking about inventions by larger Mccoy. Rodney Hurst: So it is deliberate. Rodney Hurst: It is deliberate that you don’t talk about
Rodney Hurst: the contributions made by those persons who look like me Rodney Hurst: I met A. Rodney Hurst: Is is there a question, Dennis? We’re just Rodney Hurst: Dennis. or Dennis Stone: sorry. No, no question. Rodney Hurst: I met a
Rodney Hurst: a couple of years ago here in Jacksonville we had a the Inaugural Civil Rights Conference. Rodney Hurst: and one of the persons who spoke Rodney Hurst: at that conference was Dr. Freeman Hrabowski, HRAB. OWSK. I. The third.
Rodney Hurst: He’s a rhythm, and with that a name like Robowski he was black. Rodney Hurst: He came from Birmingham. He was part of the Birmingham Children’s Crusade. He was arrested when he was 13.
Rodney Hurst: Douse, with the fireman. Water Hoses, in Birmingham, arrested, stayed in jail for 3 days, at age 13, Rodney Hurst: but he became the President of University Maryland, at Baltimore College, Umbc. Rodney Hurst: At age 40, and stayed there for 30 years, retired last year.
Rodney Hurst: and they specialize in the stem Rodney Hurst: curriculum, science, technology, engineering math. Rodney Hurst: And he said one night. 2 years ago, he got a call Rodney Hurst: from one of his students, one of his graduates. And so, and the graduate said Rodney Hurst: Dr. Rabowski. We did it.
Rodney Hurst: We discovered the vaccine for the Covid Rodney Hurst: virus. Rodney Hurst: Her name was Kismkia Corbett. Rodney Hurst: She was black. Rodney Hurst: but she was the lead doctor scientist on the team that discovered the vaccine Rodney Hurst: for Covid Rodney Hurst: Henrietta lacks Rodney Hurst: died 60, 70 years ago.
Rodney Hurst: but she had contracted cancer. Rodney Hurst: And when
Rodney Hurst: the scientists and doctors isolated some of her cancer cells, they found out that her cancer cells did not die the way other cancer cells from other persons would die so they could perform more experiments on her cells than they could on others, and they were able to use herself from Henrietta lacks now called. These cells were called Heli, HELA.
Rodney Hurst: And many pharmaceutical companies companies made billions of dollars Rodney Hurst: of the cells that came from the body of Henrietta lacks LACK. S. Rodney Hurst: And they didn’t tell. Her family did not tell her she died. She never knew.
Rodney Hurst: did not tell her family that their mother, their sister, their grandmother, was this great person, that they should be benefiting from her cancer cells that’s now being used by scientists all over this country and eventually into the world, and many pharmaceutical companies got obscenely wealthy as a result, and finally, in 2023 last year.
Rodney Hurst: as result of a suit child Rodney Hurst: on behalf of the family, with the lead attorney being Ben Crump. Rodney Hurst: they filed suit against
Rodney Hurst: a dozen or a number. Let me put it. Like that pharmaceutical companies they were compensated. The amount of the settlement was not disclosed, but it was the first time that had happened. Rodney Hurst: A Philip Randolph, who was born in Crescent City, Florida, moved to Jacksonville when he was 2,
Rodney Hurst: graduated from Cookman Institute, which was the only institution in the State of Florida where blacks could graduate from high school. Rodney Hurst: He graduated in 1 7, valedictorian of his class here in Jacksonville, at the Cookman Institute. Rodney Hurst: and later Mary Mcleod, with whom merged her
Rodney Hurst: Mary Mcleod Bethune School for girls with the Cookman Institute in Jacksonville, and that’s where the name Bethune Cookman comes from. Rodney Hurst: but a Philip Randolph, after Rodney Hurst: representing black laborers and janitors, and Rodney Hurst: though porters who cleaned up after rich white folk on these sleeping cars
Rodney Hurst: by the Pullman Company. after developing an organization called the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters. Rodney Hurst: He fought for them for these black men to get a labor contract for 12 years from 1925 to 1937,
Rodney Hurst: it is considered one of the greatest labor contracts in the history of the labor movement. Rodney Hurst: and in the early 19 forties A. Philip Randolph challenged President Roosevelt to do something about Rodney Hurst: black jobs for blacks in Federal employment. and threatened a march on Washington in 1,941,
Rodney Hurst: President Roosevelt decided to start or to create what was called the Fair Employment Practices Commission Rodney Hurst: to hire blacks. Rodney Hurst: and that commission led to Katherine Johnson of hidden figures Rodney Hurst: being hired.
Rodney Hurst: And of course, as the computers were beginning to start, those of you who were familiar with the story know that Astronaut, Alan Shepard and John Glenn would not go up in a rocket Rodney Hurst: until Katherine Johnson checked the figures of the computer.
Rodney Hurst: It would have been nice if young black girls could have read about that in a book. Rodney Hurst: instead of seeing that on the movie screen
Rodney Hurst: would have been good if this country were honest enough to talk about these contributions as opposed to waiting until Hollywood made a film about it so they can make some money. As a result. Rodney Hurst: I met Thurgood Marshall when I was 14,
Rodney Hurst: but Mr. Pearson would stand up in front when he first stood up in front of our class, and he told us to leave the book at home. He also told us that freedom is not free.
Rodney Hurst: If you’re not a part of the solution, then you are part of the problem. Rodney Hurst: and he encouraged us all to join the Youth Council in Aacp, which I did at age 11 I became president of 15, and led the sit-in
Rodney Hurst: demonstrations, and that led to Axe Handle Saturday. at age 16, 2 months after I graduated from high school. Rodney Hurst: But I’m sitting in a restaurant in Jacksonville next to the Nacp office at the corner of Beaver and Broad Street. and in walks Earl Johnson.
Rodney Hurst: who was the Naacp attorney. Thurgood, Marshall. and Constance bake a motley. Rodney Hurst: and I talk about this in 2 of my 4 books. the books that you see right above my head here. Rodney Hurst: Now, when you
Rodney Hurst: when you meet, I’m 14. When you meet someone like a thurbit marshal, they are bigger than life. We had studied about Thurgood Marshall. I knew who Thurgood Marshall was did not know who Constance Baker Motley was later found out in that conversation that Constance Baker Motley was the lawyer, one the only female in the what I call the dream team, the brown decision
Rodney Hurst: of 1954 Rodney Hurst: that integrated the schools. She wrote the legal brief that went to the Supreme Court that led to that decision by the Supreme Court.
Rodney Hurst: Patanja Brown Jackson. When she was she became the first black female appointed to the Supreme Court by President Biden. She listed Constance Baker, Matthew as her hero. Rodney Hurst: Thurgood Marshland, and Attorney Johnson and
Rodney Hurst: Ms. Motley came over to the table. I mean, I’m all struck. My mother would tell me when I was allstruck, my mouth would open, and and she would always tell me to close my mouth. She would have told me that a number of times that day, because I know my mouth stayed open.
Rodney Hurst: So we had a bunch of questions to ask this giant big man, too. Rodney Hurst: and he started telling us a story about the Brovlin 4, Rodney Hurst: and I won’t get into all of the particulars about it. But where is where’s the book? But this is the book here.
Rodney Hurst: That was written by Gilbert King. It’s called the Devil in the Grove. It won a Pulitzer prize. Rodney Hurst: 4 black men were accused of raping a white female. They did not do.
Rodney Hurst: and Willis Mccall, who is considered one of the most racist share racist shares in the history of this State and in the South Rodney Hurst: when they arrested these 4 men. Eventually they killed one. During the arrest phase they
Rodney Hurst: tortured another. and he He pled guilty, which he did not do. but they tortured him into a guilty plea. Rodney Hurst: and when they have the trial. the remaining 2 black persons Rodney Hurst: were given the death, the electric chair, the a death penalty, death sentence. Rodney Hurst: Thurgood Marshall, who
Rodney Hurst: filed the appeal on the case, was able to have the case that that verdict thrown out. So he was in Florida, doing some investigatory work
Rodney Hurst: based on the new trial that they were going to have, and Willis Mccall had found out that he was in Groveland, Florida, a part of Lake County. Rodney Hurst: back. During those days there were no hotels and motels, so blacks
Rodney Hurst: stayed in what we call Black B. And B’s. There were some. Some black folk had homes designated for as guest homes for people to come and stay. So Thurgood Marshall was staying at in effect. A black B. And B.
Rodney Hurst: And a black funeral director found. Went to his house, knew where he was staying, because when a celebrity like Thurgood, Marshall came to town. Everyone in the black community knew it.
Rodney Hurst: but he went to the house where Thurgood Marshall was staying, and he told him that the sheriff had sent out some goon squads to find him. Rodney Hurst: and he said, But I’ve got a plan
Rodney Hurst: to get you out of Groveland, Florida. I’ll be back in 15 min. Now this is Thurgood Marshall telling the story. Rodney Hurst: So 50 min later the Rodney Hurst: funeral director comes back with a hearse. Rodney Hurst: and in the back of the hearse was the casket.
Rodney Hurst: he told Thurgood. Marshall, I am going to put you in this casket. Rodney Hurst: I’m going to drive you to Rodney Hurst: the next county. and 2 Ocala
Rodney Hurst: and a man will take you from Ocala to Jacksonville. So you can get on the train. He say, yeah, I want to go back to New York. Okay. Rodney Hurst: Robert Marshall got in. The casket man takes him to O’calla somewhere in between
Rodney Hurst: him, getting getting Thurgood Marshall out of groveling. Obviously he gets out of the casket. Rodney Hurst: turned him over to this man, who then drove Thurgood Marshall on to Jacksonville. I’m telling this story in Orlando at a speaking engagement, and afterwards an elderly gentleman of Mr. Fieldbler
Rodney Hurst: came up to me and said, Mr. Hers I was. I had to smile as you were telling the story about Thurgood Marshall. Rodney Hurst: I said, oh, really, you familiar with that story? You said? Yes, sir, I am. I am the man that they brought Mister Marshall to to drive to
Rodney Hurst: Jacksonville, Florida. Rodney Hurst: I was telling Gilbert King the gentleman who wrote the book won the Pulitzer prize, and he told me he said, right now I had heard about that. Rodney Hurst: But this is the first about that story. First time I’d had it documented.
Rodney Hurst: Now I tell that story because we look at some of these civil rights, great Rodney Hurst: as if it was just turning the pages in a book, but their lives were in their hands every day. Vernon Dahmer.
Rodney Hurst: who was killed in Mississippi, President of the Mississippi Conference of Branches because he was registering people to vote. The Klan came to his house one night. burned the house down. He got his wife and his 4 boys to safety, and he stayed to protect his house and his property, and was killed.
Rodney Hurst: Meant they ever was killed by an assassin’s, but a sniper’s bullet in his driveway. The 4 young girls in Birmingham, Alabama. Rodney Hurst: Martin Luther King in Memphis, Tennessee. These persons did nothing more, but either encouraged persons to vote. Rodney Hurst: encourage them to to stand up for their rights.
Rodney Hurst: Herodoty Moore and his wife lived in men’s Florida, and on their 20 fifth wedding anniversary their home was bombed. Rodney Hurst: and Harry was killed. Rodney Hurst: Harry and his wife both advocated voting Rodney Hurst: for blacks here in the State of Florida, and equal pay for black teachers.
Rodney Hurst: his wife, Dad. 3 years. 3 days after the after the bombing they both were inducted into the Florida Civil Rights Hall of Fame, and I had the honor Rodney Hurst: to be the keynote speaker during their induction ceremonies now. And and and I’m gonna close with that. And I talk about
Rodney Hurst: these events, these portions of American history Rodney Hurst: and others, and this is just a microcosm of what is not told. Rodney Hurst: And I tell those stories because Rodney Hurst: black folk
Rodney Hurst: does not owe White America anything in terms of what they have done to help develop this country Rodney Hurst: again. Our history did not start Rodney Hurst: with slavery. Rodney Hurst: and even at the end of slavery, a hundred 59 years ago. Rodney Hurst: this country told us you’re free.
Rodney Hurst: After we had. Rodney Hurst: after we were responsible for American capitalism. After we built Wall Street figuratively and literally. Rodney Hurst: after we built the Capitol and the White House after we helped build buildings and the infrastructure on every Ivy League College
Rodney Hurst: after we made this country obscenely wealthy. They said you were free, but they gave reparations to each plantation, enslavers enslaved owners, plantation owners. Rodney Hurst: They got reparations from the Federal Government for every enslaved person that they lost. Rodney Hurst: Yet in a hundred, 59 years. with nothing
Rodney Hurst: we still help develop this country. Rodney Hurst: That is what is not taught. Rodney Hurst: That’s why racist Rodney Hurst: white elected officials don’t want you to know
Rodney Hurst: what black folk have done in this country, because it will shine a spotlight on the racism of America for 300 years of slavery. And since the end of Rodney Hurst: so again, thank you for letting me share
Rodney Hurst: just a few things with you. Thanks for the invitation. Dennis and William Rodney Hurst: and I will entertain whatever questions there might be from. Dennis Stone: Well, thank you. So thank you so much. I I learned something from you every time I hear your talks. And I I’m
Dennis Stone: it’s unfortunate that you could go on for the next Dennis Stone: several weeks telling stories like that because of what’s happened in this country. But I did. My first question is
Dennis Stone: from Brookstain, who says, does Mr. Hirst have any recommendations for how we can tackle this problem? You’re talking about Dennis Stone: the lack of acknowledgement of contributions, inventions by black women and men and education. Dennis Stone: or rather the intentional whitewashing, comes out.
Rodney Hurst: You know one of the things those of us who Rodney Hurst: who who Rodney Hurst: consider ourselves Christians. It always say that Rodney Hurst: God has a way of jerking you from time to time to let you understand that
Rodney Hurst: what you thought you were doing was not the things you should have been doing Rodney Hurst: somewhere in the process. even after white America would not Rodney Hurst: allow enslaved persons to read and write, and making it against the law. Rodney Hurst: we decided that the oppressor
Rodney Hurst: would tell an honest history of the oppressed Rodney Hurst: that did not happen. Rodney Hurst: Yet we never internalize that part of our responsibility Rodney Hurst: as formerly impressed, oppressed people. Rodney Hurst: still oppressed in some regards, was to teach our own history.
Rodney Hurst: And I think that that’s what happens to day our churches and our community organizations, now fraternities and our sororities. Rodney Hurst: and even our HB. C’s.
Rodney Hurst: Don’t teach American history. Don’t teach black history as it should be taught. Now, some churches in And especially in South Florida. As a result of efforts by the Association for the Start of African American Life and history, they’ve started what they call Freedom School.
Rodney Hurst: and they’re teaching black history on weekends in 2 h and 3 h shifts Rodney Hurst: in Sarasota and in St. Petersburg and in Rodney Hurst: Tampa they’ve started, and in Jacksonville, at Mount Sinai, through the James World and Johnson Branch of Osala, they’ve started teaching black history on weekends.
Rodney Hurst: We have got to internalize that it is our responsibility to teach young blacks Rodney Hurst: what people who look like them did in this country, and on whose so shoulders they are standing. So when we look at, what can we do? Even though we don’t have the identifiable vestiges of segregation?
Rodney Hurst: Certainly the educational arena Rodney Hurst: is as much a part of racism as anything that you can internalize and understand. And it is our responsibility to start teaching the truth Rodney Hurst: about black history. What black history does is that it shines a spotlight on white history.
Rodney Hurst: So when you have people talking about Confederate monuments and the Lost Cause. and yet they don’t wanna admit that 11 States seceded from the United States of America. Rodney Hurst: organized an enemy government called the Confederacy, and then sought to overthrow the United States of America.
Rodney Hurst: and the reason they did it ever. All of those 11 States had to list in what’s called Secessionist papers
Rodney Hurst: as to why they were seceding from the United States of America, and all 11 States said they were seceding because of slavery, not States rights, not Southern heritage, not economics. But they were seceding because they wanted to maintain slavery.
Rodney Hurst: Yet today no one, when they say, Keep the Confederate monuments up. Rodney Hurst: But those monuments are monuments to slavery. Oh, no, no, no, no! It didn’t have anything to do. We didn’t fight the war for slavery. Yes.
Rodney Hurst: So when we talk about history, when we talk about American history, tell the truth about American history. When we talk about black history, make sure that young black children and young white children understand the contributions by black folk
Rodney Hurst: to American society and to the development of this country, and if you don’t do anything but Rodney Hurst: make sure that what that young black person of that young white person understands one fact, a month. Rodney Hurst: because American history is repetitious.
Rodney Hurst: We come up with these little cute Christopher Columbus sailed the ocean blue blue. George Washington could not tell a lie. So he told the truth that he chopped down the cherry tree. Rodney Hurst: But those are the gimmicks that we use to teach American history.
Rodney Hurst: because anything that resonates with young people that they can remember over and over again. That’s what they will do. So you give them the gimmicks to to to remember alive. But you don’t tell them the truth, cause you don’t have those same kinds of.
Rodney Hurst: So one of the things we can do is start. Rodney Hurst: First of all, we’ve got to know black history first. Rodney Hurst: and all of these groups who love to go on cruises, who love to have their
Black and white balls. They’re all white parties all these other things. I have nothing against that. That’s if that’s what they want to do. Fine. But in the midst of all of that
Rodney Hurst: teach young black children about their heritage and about their history. That’s one of the first things we can do. Rodney Hurst: Stop thinking that the oppressor Rodney Hurst: is going to teach the oppressed history Dennis Stone: other questions for. Mr. Hearst.
William Malone: do you see any possibility of getting the Duval County school systems to change, to open their doors? Rodney Hurst: Well, III think, even though we Rodney Hurst: we talk about it over and over again, I think that
Rodney Hurst: we really have to internalize how important it is to vote. I mean, that is the cornerstone of of our democracy. Rodney Hurst: and many of us Rodney Hurst: black folk Rodney Hurst: don’t put the same Rodney Hurst: importance Rodney Hurst: on getting out and voting that we do some other things.
Rodney Hurst: and that did not just happen Rodney Hurst: when you understand it. I’ve got a good friend named Charlie Cobb, who was Rodney Hurst: one of the real icons of the student, non violent coordinating committee. Sncc. And he Rodney Hurst: he worked in 1964 in Mississippi.
Rodney Hurst: and one of the things they had they were working on was voter registration Rodney Hurst: in 1964, in the State of Mississippi Rodney Hurst: there were population wise. There were more blacks in Mississippi than whites, 1964,
Rodney Hurst: but only 6%. Of blacks in the State of Mississippi were registered to vote. Rodney Hurst: That’s one of the things that Snip started voter registration. That’s the reason why Rodney Hurst: Cheney Schwerner and Goodman
Rodney Hurst: were killed because they were involved in registration. That’s why Valozo, a white housewife from Detroit, was killed. She was involved with voter registration, that’s all. It was registering people to vote. Rodney Hurst: and we don’t internalize how important it is. I mean, we see now, as we
Rodney Hurst: come to another critical election at the national level. How important it is to be registered to vote!
Rodney Hurst: But we don’t maintain that, you know. Vote for President and governor and mayor, but also vote for these local elections, school board, and city Council, and all of those, too. Vote for all of them. That is part of your birthright as a citizen.
Rodney Hurst: That’s what we have to internalize, how important it is, and that has to be our sermon Rodney Hurst: day in and day out. How important it is for black folk to vote
William Malone: our speaker last month. Talk about the poor people’s campaign which is working to get the bog out, and it sounded like a great organization. Rodney Hurst: you know the Rodney Hurst: when, when
Rodney Hurst: lot of people said when when Doctor King started talking about poor folk and economy and the war. Then that’s when he had the bull’s eye put on his back. Rodney Hurst: Bishop out of North Carolina is leading the pork people’s campaign that Bishop, barber
Rodney Hurst: and there is in this great country Rodney Hurst: the richest country in the world. Rodney Hurst: and the number of homeless, and the number of young people who go to. Rodney Hurst: To. To sleep hungry at night Rodney Hurst: is is unfathomable Rodney Hurst: that we don’t.
Rodney Hurst: We’ve got billionaires who, doing the pandemic. had their wealth increased by a hundred 35%. Rodney Hurst: And yet Rodney Hurst: we have not raised the Federal minimum wage in this country in years. Rodney Hurst: Still, it’s 7, 75, I think 7, 85,
Rodney Hurst: because every time there’s a movement to do something about the Federal minimum wage or doing things, there are always those who stand in the way to block it. For instance, in 19, in the early 19 thirties
Rodney Hurst: under the new deal programs, they passed the Social Security Act. and as a compromise to Southern elected officials in Congress. Rodney Hurst: They eliminated domestic workers and migrant workers from the Social Security Act. Those persons did not qualify, even though they were working full time in their jobs.
Rodney Hurst: 65% of every black person in this country was either a domestic work or a migrant worker. In the early 1930 S. When the Social Security Administration, when the Social Security Act was passed. Rodney Hurst: So for more than almost 30 years after it was passed.
Rodney Hurst: we did not have that safety net. Rodney Hurst: So when we retired we would have some money to look forward to when we could no longer work. Rodney Hurst: That’s the history of this country. this country of of wealth and the richest country in the world.
Rodney Hurst: So what you have to keep on doing as oppressed people Rodney Hurst: keep on fighting for, who you are. Keep on fighting for what you are. Rodney Hurst: and don’t get tired. Dennis Stone: Thank you. II might just add a couple of things if you watch
Dennis Stone: You may be familiar with the much touted Civil War series by Ken Burns on public television. If you watch Dennis Stone: a series done by a doctor Gates from Harvard Dennis Stone: 25 years later on reconstruction. and then go back and watch Burns. You’ll see how history was. It is
Dennis Stone: tainted by a perspective that you know, even even the Dennis Stone: supposedly most brilliant writers and cinematographers. Yeah, it’s just it’s it’s just Dennis Stone: it. Well. Dennis Stone: it’s a wake up call. But and the other thing I wanted to mention is, I put the link in the
Dennis Stone: chat. There’s a great what act play Dennis Stone: on Thurgood Marshall that was filmed at Howard in there Memorial Auditorium, and it’s just brilliant. Dennis Stone: Oh. Rodney Hurst: the the 4, the 4 books that I’ve written
Rodney Hurst: after I wrote the first one, and as I would travel to speak on, it was never about a hot dog and a coke. Rodney Hurst: which again, is the only history. It it it was going to be a personal account. It has become a history book
Rodney Hurst: now, because there are things there that you won’t find any place else, especially since the white press like that all news about it.
Rodney Hurst: But I was going to write my third book. Never forget who you are. That was going to be the second book, but as I traveled a lot of people said, You know, hey, mister? Hers? You keep talking about black history, but I can’t find anything about black history for blacks in Jacksonville.
Rodney Hurst: So I wrote the second book. Unless we tell it, it never gets told about Black Jacksonville history. Starting with James Weldon Johnson and Augusta Savage, and a Philip Randolph and
Rodney Hurst: Johnetta Bitch Cole and Cleanser Brown, one of my great friends, and a revered. a former executive director of the Urban League. In fact, he passed while he was still director of the Urban League Rodney Hurst: and and the the school integration plans that Thurgood Marshall, in coming to town.
Rodney Hurst: and Charlie Cobb and Ronnie Belton and Alton Yates, and those persons that impacted not only this city and state. Rodney Hurst: but the country. Rodney Hurst: And when we?
Rodney Hurst: We? We understand that I also talk about my involvement in changing the name of a white High school named after after the founder of the Ku Klux Klan, which the School Board did in 1958, with Nathan Bedford Farr’s.
Rodney Hurst: and the fact that Dr. Vitti, who was the superintendent, asked if I would be one of the persons who would talk in support of changing the name
Rodney Hurst: in a panel. Discussion to young people at Forest the day that they voted, whether to keep the name or to change the name. The young people at Nathan Bedford fires voted Rodney Hurst: 67 to 33% to change the name Rodney Hurst: because they did not understand who and what.
Rodney Hurst: Nathan Bedford Forest was a slave trader, the Fort Pillow butcher. the a general in the Confederacy, and one of the founders of the Ku Klux Klan and the First Imperial Wizard. Rodney Hurst: When
Rodney Hurst: Mayor Deegan, in answering someone’s question in the chat, it was a positive thing to take down the Confederate monument and memorial. It’s a positive thing when you take down all references to a war that was fought Rodney Hurst: to maintain slavery. Rodney Hurst: We cannot. in this
Rodney Hurst: dual cultural society, where we, we have culture, clashes every day. Rodney Hurst: we cannot have monuments Rodney Hurst: that attest to and enemy government fighting to overthrow this country Rodney Hurst: because of slavery, and say, Oh, no, no, you you misinterpreted. It’s about Southern heritage.
Rodney Hurst: Well, but part of your Southern heritage, including having slaves. Yeah, but that’s not why the wall was fall. Rodney Hurst: Well, why did you fight it Rodney Hurst: so? Any references to a Southern monument Rodney Hurst: needs to come down
Rodney Hurst: any references to a war fought to maintain slavery needs to come down. That’s not historical. Rodney Hurst: That’s racist. Just like slavery was racist.
Dennis Stone: Well, thank you for being with us tonight. I always promise people will finish at 8, so that they continue to come and feel that they can Dennis Stone: still have a late dinner or get to bed early, so Dennis Stone: I would. It would be wonderful if you could come back
Dennis Stone: for another talk to continue the conversation. That would be great. Rodney Hurst: You let me know, and we’ll massage schedules to get it done. Thank you for the invitation. Rodney Hurst: It was an honor to spend time with you and
Dennis Stone: and the persons who are online, all they are was all ours. Mr. Hirsch, thank you so much.
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