Civil rights protesters said they planned to picket City Hall all week and warned that marches were not out of the question.
“We will picket because we are not satisfied and if we find that we need action, we’ll take it,” said Rutledge Pearson, president of the Florida and Jacksonville chapters of the NAACP.
Pearson said he had “encouragement and discouragement” after meetings with city officials.
“There are men sitting in city government that don’t understand our problems,” he said.
Pearson was convinced the city commissioners fell into three categories.
“One group has hate in their hearts and don’t want to do anything. Many don’t know what to do and others know what to do but don’t have the courage to do it. But they are talking to us now. This week, we’ll see if they’re sincere,” said Pearson.
“Don’t get the idea that we are free in Jacksonville. We are far from free,” he added.
• Segregationist Warren Folks was bound over to Criminal Court to face charges of contributing to the delinquency of a minor and conspiring to riot.
The delinquency count charged Folks with attempting to entice a boy to participate in racial disorders. The youth’s father signed a complaint, resulting in a warrant being issued for Folks’ arrest.
The accused waived a preliminary hearing on the charges before Juvenile Court Judge Gordon Duncan Jr.
Duncan released Folks on his own recognizance, freeing Folks, who had been held under $7,500 bond.
Folks, a 46-year-old barber and Ku Klux Klan member, was scheduled to appear before Judge John Santora in Municipal Court to answer charges of disorderly conduct and of interfering with a lawful assembly.
The charges stemmed from Folks’ actions July 18 at a march Downtown by members of the NAACP.
• Responding to a longstanding request by the NAACP that blacks be appointed to the city’s policy-making boards, the City Commission nominated I.H. Burney, a prominent black businessman, to the city Recreation Board and left an opening for appointment of an African-American to the Jacksonville Housing Authority.
City Council quickly approved Burney’s nomination and set the stage for shuffling members on other city boards.
Named to the Recreation Board in addition to Burney for one-year terms were attorney Daniel Naughton and Dr. Roy Sloat, a dentist.
Holdover members who were reappointed were John Maxim and Thomas Mallem.
• A Circuit Court jury was perhaps the first in the nation to be barred from hearing evidence that had been declared inadmissible by the U.S. Supreme Court.
The panel acquitted Samuel Beck, who was accused of fatally shooting his estranged wife.
When he was arrested, Beck reportedly made a full confession to investigating homicide detectives.
However, the confession could not be introduced during his trial.
The court ruled an accused man had to be formally advised of his rights not to make any statement and to have the benefit of a lawyer’s counsel and advice immediately following his arrest and before being questioned by police or prosecutors.
Beck was not afforded the rights.
The case was heard by Judge Tyrie A. Boyer. Assistant State Attorney Frank Scruby prosecuted Beck, who was defended by John Paul Howard.
• Fans packed the Coliseum for the Southern Heavyweight Wrestling Championship, which featured The Mauler versus Lou Thesz.
Also on the card, The Great Malenko would face Eddie Graham and Jose Lotario and Les Walsh had a tag-team match with Tarzan Tyler and Sputnik Monroe.
General admission was $1, a reserved seat was $2 and children were admitted for 50 cents.
• Shoppers were notified they soon would say goodbye to the 58-cent half-gallon of milk.
The Northeast Florida Milk Producers Association said the wholesale cost of a gallon of Class 1 raw milk would be increased from 55 cents to about 65 cents per gallon before pasteurization, bottling or cartoning.
The amount of the increase in retail price was not definite, but one milk dealer, H.C. Skinner, said he would guess milk would go up to 63 cents for a half-gallon.
“You have to find out what you can get for your product and still stay in business,” he said.
• Navy bases in Jacksonville were getting ready to open their swimming pools to the children of needy families as part of a nationwide program announced by the Department of Defense and the federal Office of Economic Opportunity.
The Pentagon agreed to share pools on about 40 military installations in 35 cities.
The local swimming program was being worked out by Navy officials and Gordon Bunch, executive director of Greater Jacksonville Economic Opportunity.
Only two of four city-operated pools were in use this week in 1966. They reopened in 1965 after being closed for several summers because of efforts to integrate them.
• Meninak Club members went exploring, in a fashion, and found the perfect place to beat Jacksonville’s heat.
During their meeting at the Mayflower Hotel, club members were taken on a film tour of the South Pole. It was narrated by Lt. Cmdr. Richard LaCroix, who was stationed at Jacksonville Naval Air Station.
He spent 15 months in Antarctica as a member of Operation Deepfreeze, which was begun in 1953 by 101 countries taking part in the International Geophysical Year.
It was continued in 1954 by 12 nations, including the United States, which operated five bases in the polar region, LaCroix said.
• Fifty Boy Scouts from Troop 5, sponsored by Christ the King Catholic Church, left for a two-week campout in the mountains of North Carolina.
Scoutmaster Bob Coyle said the trip was to “fulfill every youngster’s dream of being out in the wide open spaces of Daniel Boone country, feeling happy to be alive and owing no one anything for two weeks.”
The first week’s camp would be at Big Santeelah Creek, near Robbinsville, N.C.
During that time, in addition to reviewing Indian lore, the Scouts would fully organize and begin conditioning themselves for the following week’s 40-mile, four-day, three-night trek on the Appalachian Trail.
• A series of travel films shown at the Haydon Burns Library auditorium on Wednesday evenings was proving to be a popular summer activity.
Jeff Driggers, head of the art and music department, said the free series would be extended through August because every showing attracted a capacity audience to the air-conditioned building.