Striving for Justice: A Black Sheriff in the Deep South

On a sweltering day in August 1960, in the segregated Deep South city of Jacksonville, Florida, a seventeen-year-old Black boy finished his dishwashing job at Morrison’s Cafeteria, walked out the back door, and found himself in the middle of a nightmare.

Hundreds of white men with ax handles and baseball bats were attacking Black sit-in protestors in Hemming Park. Suddenly surrounded, the young man endured menacing blows and racist taunts. He called for help from a white police officer sta...