Jacksonville shootings refocus attention on city’s racist past and the struggle to move on

Parishioners pray during a service for the victims of a racist mass shooting in Jacksonville, Fla. By some measures, the city was making strides to emerge from its racist past. But the killing of three Black people Saturday by a young, white shooter was a painful and startling reminder that the remnants of racism continue to fester in Jacksonville, Fla. What happened in Jacksonville, said longtime resident Rodney Hurst, 79, “could have happened anywhere, except it did happen in Jacksonville.” The shooting occurred as the Jacksonville community prepared for an annual commemoration of what is known as Ax Handle Saturday. “I don’t think you can use one person to say there’s a racism issue in Jacksonville,” she said, even if a historical pattern of racial divides persists today, particularly in wealth and the economy. There are still many unknowns about the shooter’s motives and why he chose that particular neighborhood, Gibson said, even though “it was obvious that he was trying to attack Black people regardless of who they were.” Social justice activists such as Michael Sampson, who founded the Jacksonville Community Action Committee, have long hoped for permanent change but continue waiting. “You had a racist killer indiscriminately trying to kill Black people, and now this happened in Jacksonville — it happened in Jacksonville — so there’s a culture that needs to be addressed out there.” Ax Handle Saturday serves as a continuing reminder of Jacksonville’s racist past, Sampson said, and the brutality against Black residents that was repeated with the shooting and deaths of three people.