Festival commemorates passage of Civil Rights Act

While the nation marks the 50th anniversary of the signing of the Civil Rights Act on July 2, 1964, many in Northeast Florida remember the struggles of local citizens in helping to achieve that goal. The Florida Heritage Book Festival commemorates those struggles leading to the historic legislation with a 90-minute panel discussion on Saturday, September 27, featuring four distinguished panelists.

Charles E. Cobb, Jr., is a former editorial staffer for National Geographic. From 1962-1967, Mr. Cobb served as field secretary for the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) in Mississippi. He later worked for National Public Radio as a foreign affairs reporter before joining the National Geographic staff. He’s authored several books on civil rights, and has been inducted into the National Association of Black Journalists Hall of Fame.

Dr. David Colburn is a professor of history, an author, director of the Reuben O’D. Askew Institute on Politics and Society, and interim director of the Bob Graham Center for Public Service at the University of Florida. He’s author of Racial Change & Community in Crisis, St. Augustine, 1877 to 1980. Dr. Colburn will moderate the discussion.

Also on the panel is Dr. R. B. Hayling, considered the father of the St. Augustine Civil Rights Movement for his role as advisor to the local NAACP’s Youth Council. He organized demonstrations and attracted the attention of the national media and Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Fearing for the safety of his family, Dr. Hayling moved away from St. Augustine in 1965, but today is considered a hero and was recently inducted into Florida’s Civil Rights Hall of Fame.

The fourth panelist is Rodney Lawrence Hurst, Sr., a civil rights activist and the author of It was never about a hot dog and a Coke! The book chronicles Jacksonville’s racial atmosphere and his role in the bloody events of August 27, 1960, known as Ax Handle Saturday.
Join us at the Flagler College Lewis Auditorium, 9:30 a.m. on Saturday, September 27, for this important discussion.

Meet our guest blogger — Lisa Black, a real life CSI

Lisa Black will tell you she spent the happiest five years of her life in a morgue. In her job as a forensic scientist at the Cuyahoga County Coroner’s Office in Cleveland, Ohio, she analyzed hairs, fibers, blood, DNA and other forms of trace evidence. Today she works as a latent print examiner for the police department of Cape Coral, Florida. Her experience as a forensic scientist is front-and-center in her string of bestselling crime thrillers. Lisa is the keynote speaker at the Writers Conference luncheon on Friday, September 26. As a Featured Author at Saturday’s Festival, she’ll discuss her latest book, The Price of Innocence, at 1:55 p.m. at the Markland House on the Flagler College campus. Today she is our guest blogger.

Crime scenes are the most interesting part of forensic science. You get to actually see the setting instead of individual, out-of-context pieces of evidence, and picture how it all went down. And it gets you out of the bloody lab. (Read more)

Anne Dalton cuts the copyright confusion

As Senior Attorney for Radio City Music Hall, Network News/Business Affairs Counsel for ABC News “20/20” and Associate Producer for ABC in New York City, Anne acquired the skills and experience necessary to assist creative artists with legal matters. She currently represents a wide variety of creative artists, and understands the confusion many writers face when it comes to copyrights. If you’re one of those who wants to better understand the Copyright Law, plan to attend her workshop, “How I stopped Worrying and Learned to Love Copyright,” at the Writers Conference on Friday, September 26, at 1:30 p.m. at the Flagler College Ringhaver Student Center. She will use “five legal horror stories” to show authors how to protect themselves and their writing.

Be a “Big Fish” and help support the Festival

The Florida Heritage Book Festival’s first special event of the year promises to be a fun show-and-tell surrounding the film Big Fish, and the author of the book, Daniel Wallace. On Thursday, June 26, at 8:00 p.m. at St. Augustine’s Southeast Branch Library, we’ll show Tim Burton’s adaptation of the film, and then hear from the author via Skype. Wallace is the author of five novels, and Big Fish was his first. Burton made the motion picture in 2003, and a musical version made it to Broadway in 2013.

The evening is being presented to help promote the upcoming Florida Heritage Book Festival & Writers Conference. A suggested donation of $5 will help support our Festival.