Ax Handle Saturday Mural (Eastside Civil Rights Mural)

The University of North Florida’s Center for Urban Education and Policy (CUEP) and The Eastside Brotherhood collaborated with The Jacksonville Cultural Council Public Art Week to paint a mural inspired by an event in Jacksonville’s history, known as “Ax Handle Saturday”. UNF and students from different Jacksonville high schools completed this interpretation of Ax Handle Saturday on the walls of The Eastside Brotherhood in 2018. The mural's name is Eastside Civil Rights Mural, but often referred to as the Ax Handle Saturday Mural. In 1960, The Youth Council of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People were doing a peaceful protest, by sitting at a whites-only lunch counter in downtown Jacksonville. The NAACP started being attacked and spit on. Ultimately, several white people beat them with ax handles and baseball bats. This mural brings light to this historical moment in Jacksonville’s history.