Have you ever wondered what life was like in Jacksonville half a century ago? It was a different era of history, culture and politics but there are often parallels between the kind of stories that made headlines then and today. As interesting as the differences may be, so are the similarities. These are some of the top stories from this week in 1964. The items were compiled from the Jacksonville Public Library’s periodical archives by Staff Writer Max Marbut.
• The NAACP called for federal investigation of the action of Jacksonville Mayor Haydon Burns in swearingin 496 special police officers and then warning African-Americans that there would be no further civil rights demonstrations.
Burns swore in the city’s firefighters as law enforcement officers during a live television address to the community.
“Certain adults in recent days have told some Negro youths that their civil rights entitle them to force their presence at certain hotels, restaurants and other businesses. As mayor of all the people, I want to set these youths straight. You do not have such a legal or civil right,” said Burns, in his response to the request for an investigation.
Two days of violence followed Burn’s announcement.
More than 100 African-Americans were arrested, a number of them juveniles. Youths were charged with offenses ranging from carrying concealed weapons and Molotov cocktails or unlawful assembly.
It was reported that crowds of African-American youths stoned police and fire department vehicles at Matthew W. Gilbert School and overturned and burned a vehicle at New Stanton High School.
Of those arrested, 42 were juveniles and were lodged at the Juvenile Shelter.
Several small fires were reported in the northwestern and western sections of the city. At least three of the blazes were attributed to fire bombs. No one was hurt.
The greatest damage attributed to a fire bomb was to a building at 1057 W. Forsyth St. Damage to the structure and contents was estimated at $1,400.
A blast from a shotgun blew out two windows of Central Adult School at Church and Liberty streets, a block from police headquarters. Ten people were in the second-story room, but none was hurt.
Other acts of vandalism included rocks, bricks and bottles being thrown at automobiles. One motorist was reported injured by flying glass from a broken windshield.
After conferring with Justice Department officials, President Lyndon B. Johnson declared that federal intervention would not be warranted in Jacksonville.
White House sources said the conferees felt the Jacksonville violence was “a local situation as of this point.”
George Reedy, White House press secretary, said Johnson was in “continuing touch” with the Justice Department on the situation. He said department observers were on the scene in Jacksonville.
• The City Council approved transfer of $4,800 from a surplus in the elections account to the Parks Department for proposed reactivation and beautification of the decorative fountain in San Marco Square.
Council member Lavern Reynolds said Southside civic clubs, women’s groups and San Marco shopping center business owners had been requesting reactivation of the fountain. The water to the fountain was shut off due to complaints that wind blew water over cars parked nearby.
The $4,800 was for a clear plastic cover to keep wind from blowing the water and to keep trash and other debris out of the fountain. Other improvement would include installation of neon lights and recirculating pumping equipment.
• Russell Hicken, director of the Jacksonville Art Museum, released to the Recreation and Cultural Committee of the Jacksonville Area Chamber of Commerce plans for a new $550,000 structure to be built on a site overlooking Little Pottsburg Creek.
“Plans for the building are off the drawing boards but no construction can be started until financial arrangements are finished,” he said.
Hicken had resigned as director to accept a similar position in Tampa effective May 4.
• Robert Spiro Jr., dean of the College of Liberal Arts at Mercer University in Macon, Ga., was named president of Jacksonville University.
Spiro would replace Franklyn Johnson, who resigned the post in 1963 to become president of California State College at Los Angeles.
“While it is with genuine regret that we leave our friends and work at Mercer and in Macon, Mrs. Spiro and I look forward with keen anticipation to the challenging opportunities of Jacksonville University. The city of Jacksonville impresses me as a dynamic, progressive community throbbing with great energy, proud of its past yet eager to enter the future,” said Spiro.
• The Alfred I. duPont Foundation took action to preserve the Treaty Oak from further damage.
“I went to see the tree with men from the Davey Tree Expert Co. and we found a terrible lot of damage,” said Henry Dew, president of the foundation.
“People had torn off bark as souvenirs and carved their initial in the bark. Children had broken off some smaller limbs and were climbing all over the tree,” he said.
Davey had been caring for the tree for 25 years and inspected it annually. Dew ordered the company to immediately brace the limbs, fertilize the ground and repair the tree.
The company also was erecting a 6-foot-high wire fence with barbed wire across the top.
“We want to do everything possible to preserve the tree so that people can look at it and enjoy it without doing damage,” Dew said. “We do hope the City Commission will find a way to make the tree part of a park.”
Jessie Ball duPont purchased the land on which the tree, estimated in 1964 to be 500 years old, in the 1930s to preserve it against possible destruction as the city grew.
• The John F. Kennedy commemorative 50-cent coin arrived in Jacksonville and was being requested by customers at local banks, which were doling out the coins on a limited bases — only one or a few to a customer.
The Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta had distributed 28,825 of the coins in Jacksonville, on the basis of one to every $12,000 in deposits. Almost 500,000 were being distributed throughout the state.
• An unidentified man tried to summon an elevator to the third floor of the Universal-Marion Building (now JEA Tower Downtown) and wound up evacuating more than 1,000 employees and tying up some offices for more than an hour.
A spokesman from the Jacksonville Fire Department said a man thought the fire alarm in the corridor of the 18-story building was an elevator button. The man stood by dumbfounded as the evacuation progressed and three fire engine companies arrived at the scene.
A firefighter said the complete major response was required in any alarm in the “high value district of town.”
No charges were filed against the alarm-puller.
• Circuit Judge Charles A. Luckie ordered a Jacksonville police officer held under $7,500 bond for Criminal Court action on a charge of second-degree murder in the fatal shooting of the officer’s 19-year-old female companion at a local motel.
At a habeas corpus hearing, Luckie ruled that evidence presented in the slaying did not constitute sufficient probable cause to hold Grady A. Belger, 32, on a first-degree murder charge.
Luckie ruled, however, there was probable cause to hold the officer on a second-degree murder count and remanded the case to Criminal Court.
Belger was accused of shooting on March 14 Margaret Snowden in a room they shared at Slappey’s Motel along North Main Street.
Belger had been held in jail without bond after a hearing before a justice of the peace that resulted in a recommendation for grand jury action.
At the hearing, Belger testified he “jokingly” put his pistol to the head of the victim without any intent to harm her and that the gun discharged by accident.
Appearing before Luckie, Belger’s attorney, Lacey Mahon Jr., claimed there was no evidence to show the victim died as a result of premeditation, the test for first-degree murder.
• Six Duval County high schools and two junior high schools were described as having “gone modern” by offering electronic language laboratories.
Englewood, Terry Parker, New Stanton, Paxon, Ribault and Forrest high schools and Darnell-Cookman and Joseph Stillwell junior high schools offered the $6,000 electronic aids to teaching foreign languages.
The audio-lingual (listen and speak) approach to learning a new language had proven successful in other school systems, said Earl G. Harris foreign language coordinator.
“First, students learn to listen and understand by ear. Next, they imitate in speech only what they have heard. Then they read only what has been spoken in practice and understood. Finally, they write only what has been heard, spoken and read,” he said