Sixty-one years later, newly unearthed footage offers a rare and chilling glimpse at the violence that consumed downtown Jacksonville on the day known as Ax Handle Saturday.

This photograph provided by Alton Yates shows a mob of men, some wielding ax handles and other implements against peaceful protesters, on Ax Handle Saturday. “Not a single member of one group came into contact with a single member of the opposite group,” he said. But national publication LIFE magazine had already published proof of the violence that happened on the day that came to be known as Ax Handle Saturday: a photo of Charlie Griffin in a bloodied shirt with a gash above his eye. In 1960, the mayor told one story of Ax Handle Saturday. February is Black History Month, and News4Jax is celebrating Black culture by highlighting stories in the community.