Skip to main content
Rodney L. Hurst Oral History

Rodney L. Hurst Oral History

Object number2021.001.0104
Date11/10/2021
ClassificationsOral Histories
Oral history interview subject Rodney L. Hurst
Oral history interviewer Stephen Fagin
ObjectOral history
Credit LineOral History Collection/The Sixth Floor Museum at Dealey Plaza
MediumBorn digital (.m2ts file), Born digital (.m4a file), Born digital (.mp4 file)
DimensionsDuration: 88 Minutes
DescriptionVideotaped oral history interview with Rodney L. Hurst. As president of the Jacksonville, Florida NAACP Youth Council, Hurst led a series of local sit-in demonstrations, which resulted in an attack by 200 white supremacists on August 27, 1960. Stationed at Carswell Air Force Base in Fort Worth in 1963, he was part of the honor detail when President and Mrs. Kennedy departed for Dallas one hour prior to the assassination. Hurst is the author of several books, including an award-winning account of his civil rights activism, It Was Never About a Hot Dog and a Coke (2008). Interview conducted over Zoom on November 10, 2021 by Stephen Fagin. The interview is one hour and twenty-eight minutes long.
Curatorial Commentary
Rodney L. Hurst's first book, It Was Never About a Hot Dog and a Coke (2008), has won multiple awards, including first place for multicultural nonfiction at the 2008 National Best Books Awards. It also received the First Annual Stetson Kennedy Award from the Florida Historical Society in 2009. Mr. Hurst continues to write and speak on civil rights activism. A seventy-five minute multimedia presentation about Ax Handle Saturday, recorded August 26, 2020, may be viewed on the YouTube channel of the University of North Florida Department of English: The Justice Sessions: Rodney Hurst on Ax Handle Saturday, 8/26/20 - YouTube. - Stephen Fagin, Curator
Rodney Davis-Gilbert Oral History
Rodney Davis-Gilbert
06/28/2011
Marsha Middleton Oral History
Marsha Middleton
12/09/2020
Dr. Howard Kirschenbaum Oral History
Dr. Howard Kirschenbaum
11/16/2021
Thomas M. Armstrong Oral History
Thomas M. Armstrong
05/07/2021
Dr. Raphael Cassimere Jr. Oral History
Dr. Raphael Cassimere Jr.
05/14/2021
Penny Patch Oral History
Penny Patch
04/01/2022
Halsey Beemer Oral History
Halsey Beemer
05/04/2022
Robert Powell Oral History
Robert Powell
08/17/2021
Mario Salas Oral History
Mario Salas
12/14/2021
Dr. Mimi Real Oral History
Dr. Mimi Real
07/21/2021
Rev. Rob Eller-Isaacs Oral History
Rev. Rob Eller-Isaacs
09/21/2021
Dr. Wornie Reed Oral History
Dr. Wornie Reed
09/23/2021