FRIDAY August 28, 2020 jaxdailyrecord.com • 35 cents
Mixed-use project near Memorial Park advances PAGE 2 Public legal notices begin on page 4
Daily Record JACKSONVILLE
AX HANDLE SATURDAY • 60 YEARS LATER
Stein Mart workers face uncertain job market
DailyA VIOLENT Record REMEMBERING DAY JACKSONVILLE
But while retail jobs are shrinking, there are still more than 7,000 active postings in the Northeast Florida area.
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BY KATIE GARWOOD STAFF WRITER
JACKSONVILLE
Photos by Katie Garwood
Attendees bow their heads in prayer at the commemoration of the 60th anniversary of Ax Handle Saturday at noon Aug. 27 at James Weldon Johnson Park Downtown. For more photos and coverage of the event, visit JaxDailyRecord.com
Commemoration reflects on how city has – and hasn’t – changed.
T
he Jacksonville Chapter of the NAACP hosted a commemoration of the 60th anniversary of Ax Handle Saturday at noon Aug. 27 at James Weldon Johnson Park Downtown. Saturday, Aug. 27, 1960, was the day that young black protesters were staging sit-in demonstrations to protest racial segregation at lunch counters in stores around the park. They were confronted by a mob of about 200 white men who attacked them with ax handles and clubs, leaving a bloody mark on Jacksonville’s civil rights history.
Rodney Hurst Sr., president of the Jacksonville Youth Council of the NAACP in August 1960, introduced local civil rights leaders, elected and appointed officials and others who reflected on how Jacksonville has - and hasn’t - changed. “Sit-in demonstrations were about we and us, not me and I. And it revolved around the togetherness of who we were, who we understood our legacy revolved around and we knew that there was a black face looking back at us in the mirror,” Hurst said. BY MAX MARBUT & MIKE MENDENHALL
Rodney Hurst Sr. speaks at the commemoration Aug. 27. Hurst was the 16-year-old president of the NAACP Youth Council and demonstrator who had to flee for his life on Ax Handle Saturday.
There are opportunities in Jacksonville for Stein Mart employees who are losing their jobs, but the available roles may be in different lines of work. Around 500 people in Jacksonville will lose their job because the off-price fashion retailer is going out of business, according to an estimate from the company’s lead independent director, Richard Sisisky. In its Chapter 11 bankruptcy filing, Stein Mart cited “difficult business conditions” in the retail industry. “In general, retailers have experienced decreased store traffic and have lost market share to fast-growing e-commerce retailers. The declines in store traffic have been especially pertinent for apparel and accessories retailers, such as the Company, which have also experienced lower operating margins as a result,” the filing said. It said COVID-19 store closures caused further problems for retailers. The second wave in July caused more decline in store traffic, leading to the bankruptcies of Brooks Brothers, Lord & Taylor, Ascena (Ann Taylor) and Tailored Brands (Men’s Wearhouse and Jos. A. Bank), among others. “The Company’s sales decline in July 2020 made it impossible for the Company to propose a realistic repayment plan for the outstanding accounts payable owed to vendors from the initial COVID-19 shut-down,” the filSEE JOBS, PAGE 3
Darifair issued foundation permit The city issued a permit Aug. 18 for Darifair Foods LLC to put down the foundation for its Southside Innovation and Technical Center in Flagler Center. The foundation permit shows a job cost of $15 million. Stellar Group Inc. is the contractor. Darifair is a Jacksonville-based foodscience company based in Mandarin at 4131 Sunbeam Road. It now occupies a 13,500-square-foot office building. Darifair intends to build an almost 43,000-square-foot building with about 5,300 square feet of unenclosed space at 13129 Flagler Center Blvd.
VOLUME 107, NO. 201 • ONE SECTION