JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — A Banned Books Week event at state Rep. Angie Nixon’s coffee shop turned into a heated exchange Monday when critics showed up and challenged her over the images on one of its walls.
Nixon, the Democratic nominee for U.S. Senate, hosted the event at Café Resistance, her coffee shop and bookstore. It was billed as a conversation about reading, critical thinking and history, but it quickly turned to a wall featuring 12 Black activists from the civil rights era, among them Angela Davis, George Jackson and Assata Shakur.
“Multiple people on that wall are people that killed cops,” one critic told Nixon.
Shakur was convicted in the 1973 killing of a New Jersey state trooper. Davis was acquitted of charges in a 1970 case.
Nixon pushed back.
“That is not a celebration of anyone,” she said. “It is talking about people who came from the civil rights movement who actually were fighting back and pushing back against discrimination.”
When one critic asked why the shop doesn’t feature more widely recognized civil rights leaders, like Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., Nixon pointed to the shelves.
“MLK is all around here,” she said. “We have some books and stories all about MLK that’s all along these walls.”
Nixon said the wall is meant to tell the full story of the people on it.
“It’s true and accurate history that happened to people that were a part of a civil rights movement, and people should know what they did, what they were convicted of, what [they] were exonerated of,” Nixon said. “What’s wrong with me having that up there?”
“So am I supposed to hide history? No,” she added. “Do you want me to ban history?”
The wall has drawn criticism from conservative national outlets since Nixon won the Democratic Senate primary in August, and Nixon has been hit hard on issues like this in TV campaign ads.
Action News Jax invited Nixon and Sen. Ashley Moody to debate these issues and their policy differences at a televised debate the station planned to produce at UNF this month. Moody would not agree to appear on stage with Nixon.
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