On Saturday, August 27, 1960, forty Youth Council demonstrators from the Jacksonville Branch of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, advised by local civil rights leader Rutledge H. Pearson (1929-1967), held sit-ins at the W.T. Grant Department Store at the corner of West Adams and North Main Streets and at Woolworth's Five and Ten Cent Store on Hogan Street across from Hemming Park, seeking access to whites-only lunch counters. They were met by one hundred fifty white males wielding axe handles and baseball bats, and many of the youths were injured while others sought safety at the adjacent Snyder Memorial Methodist Church. Though not the beginning of the Jacksonville civil rights movement, the conflict became a turning point that awakened many to the seriousness of the African-American community's demand for equal rights, equal opportunity, human dignity, and respect, and it inspired further resolve among supporters to accomplish these goals. Within the decade, lunch counters were integrated, Duval County public schools began to desegregate, four African-Americans were elected to City Council, and segregation in public accommodations, including parks, restrooms, and water fountains, ended.