JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – Like its namesake, President Andrew Jackson, Jacksonville is a city where race plays a prominent role in its history.

“We do have our issues,” said Isaiah Rumlin, president of the Jacksonville chapter of the NAACP.

He said the city has known its share of unrest, dating back to the civil rights movement of the 1960s. He’s also concerned the same could happen during the Republican National Convention in August.

“We know we're going to have some problems here and there's going to be some demonstration taking place,” Rumlin said.

The head of the county’s GOP hopes that’s not the case.

“It’s only divisive, if you choose to make it so,” said Dean Black, chairman of the Duval County, Florida Republican Party.

President Trump is scheduled to give his renomination speech on August 27, 60 years to the day of a violent episode in Jacksonville’s civil rights movement.

It’s known as Ax Handle Saturday.

“It was just a bloody day in the city of Jacksonville,” Rumlin said. “And it will be a day that we will never forget.”

What happened next is a disturbing part of Jacksonville’s history. On that August day in 1960, a group of about 200 white men – brandishing baseball bats and ax handles – attacked a group of African American protesters at a lunch counter sit-in. The violence eventually spread into a park and nearby streets, where the mob attacked any African Americans in sight.

“It didn’t make any difference who you were. If you had black skin, you were attacked,” said Rodney Hurst, Sr., who survived Ax Handle Saturday.

Hurst was a teenager then, participating in a lunch counter sit-in, when the violence began.

“Our only option then was to run for safety because there was nothing,” he said. “There were no policemen downtown for protection of any kind, so we started running.”

He later wrote a book about his experience, called “It Was Never About a Hot Dog and a Coke.”

“The title, ‘It Was Never About a Hot Dog and a Coke,’ simply means that it was about human dignity and respect,” he said.

A 60th anniversary commemoration of Ax Handle Saturday has long been planned in the downtown park where it took place. Organizers said the RNC being in town at the same time won’t change that.

“The Republican Party has connected Donald Trump’s acceptance speech in an inextricable way to the anniversary of Ax Handle Saturday,” Hurst said. “We don’t mind. If you want to do something on August 27, that’s fine. What we’re commemorating happened 60 years ago.”

It’s an incident that, despite the passage of time, remains very much in the present.

Just last week, the city of Jacksonville removed a Confederate monument from the public park where violence occurred on Ax Handle Saturday in 1960. The school district there is also now looking at whether schools named after confederate leaders will be renamed.

Vice President Mike Pence and his wife Karen Pence will be featured speakers during Night 3 of the Republican National Convention, slated to begin at 8:30 p.m. ET.

The third night of the convention is taking place amid a series of national emergencies, including Hurricane Laura striking the Gulf Coast, unrest in Wisconsin, and the coronavirus pandemic that has claimed nearly 180,000 American lives since March.

During Tuesday’s portion of the Republican National Convention, Melania Trump spoke out about the unrest after Jacob Blake was shot by police in Kenosha, Wisconsin, on Sunday.

“I have reflected on the racial unrest in our country. It is a harsh reality that we are not proud of parts of our history,” the first lady said.

“I like to call on the citizens of this country to take a moment, pause, and look at things from all perspectives. I urge people to come together in a civil manner, so we can work and live up to our standard American ideas,” she added. “I also ask people to stop the violence and looting being done in the name of justice and never make assumptions based on the color of a person's skin. Instead of tearing things down, let's reflect on our mistakes.”

As the first lady delivered her remarks, crowds of demonstrators clashed with police for the third straight night in Kenosha. Amid the chaos, two people were fatally wounded and a third person was shot. Kyle Rittenhouse, 17, has been charged in connection with Tuesday's shootings.

While the first lady was among three Trumps not named Donald Trump who spoke on Tuesday, the only Trump family member listed on Wednesday’s schedule is the president’s daughter-in-law Lara Lea Trump, wife of Eric Trump. She is a senior adviser to the Trump campaign.

The theme of Wednesday’s section of the convention is “Land of Heroes,” and the GOP says that the party "will honor our nation's heroes and their contributions to writing our great American story

Wednesday’s portion of the convention will include a speech from Trump outgoing adviser Kellyanne Conway, who is stepping away from her role at the White House to spend time with family. Her husband, George Conway, is also stepping back from the Lincoln Project, which is a group of anti-Trump Republicans who are campaigning to defeat the president in November.

Others slated to speak: White House Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany, Sens. Marsha Blackburn of Tennessee and Joni Ernst of Iowa and Reps. Dan Crenshaw of Texas and Elise Stefanik of New York.

WASHINGTON —

Never did Karlin Younger expect an everyday chore to spark a federal investigation. But the lunch break she decided to use to do laundry on Jan. 6 did just that in our nation's Capitol.

"I was doing a now infamous load of laundry, just changing it over from the washer to the dryer," she recalled.

It was that load, the Wisconsin native who now lives and works in D.C., was taking back to her building when she looked down and saw something odd.

"My first reaction was, 'This has got to be trash,' until I kind of leaned closer and saw that it was, in fact, something that looked like a bomb.

She noticed the piping, wires and a timer pointed to the number 20.

"You're on that edge of, 'I don't want to bother anybody, I want to make sure this is real,'" she recalled from her home in Washington. "You don't want to go down as the person who evacuates a city block for a hoax. But at the same time, there was just enough of that gut instinct that said, 'This isn't a place you put a hoax, I have to have somebody check this out.'"

She decided to alert a security guard nearby. The bomb had been placed next to the headquarters of the Republican National Committee.

Younger would later learn it was the first of two pipe bombs discovered that day, the same day a mob attacked the United States Capitol in support of President Donald Trump and his false claims alleging the election was "stolen."

Investigators found the other potentially deadly device near the Democratic headquarters about a quarter-mile south of Younger's building.

Federal investigators published a wanted poster with an image of the person they believe planted both bombs. The FBI is offering a $50,000 reward to find the person.

For younger, the personal reward was knowing she was in a position to help.

"I mostly say I just got really lucky," she said. "The lesson I've learned is really to just trust your gut and if you see something, say something."