Family Tells City Racial Slurs in Downtown Incident Will Keep Them from Visiting Fernandina Again

The city was told the incident took place outside of Tasty's Burgers.

By Mike Lednovich/Editor

FERNANDINA BEACH — A family that visits Fernandina Beach every year said it will not return after occupants of a pickup truck shouted racial slurs at them while they ate outside a downtown restaurant, according to an account Commissioner Genece Minshew detailed to the City Commission Tuesday.

Minshew said City Manager Sarah Campbell and Police Chief Jeffrey Tambasco received a letter from a woman describing what Minshew called “a really awful racial incident” in the city. Commissioners also received copies of the letter and were asked to respond.

The Fernandina Observer has submitted a public records request to the city for a copy of the letter and has not independently verified the family’s account.

According to Minshew, the family was eating outside Tasty’s Burgers at the corner of Eighth and Centre streets when a red pickup truck stopped at the traffic light.

“They come here every year to visit,” Minshew said. She said people in the truck “proceeded to spew hate and racial epithets” and call the family names until the light changed.

Minshew said the encounter was so upsetting that the woman became ill.

“They’re saying now that they’re never coming back,” Minshew said.

Minshew did not identify the family. Her remarks did not establish whether police have identified the occupants of the pickup or whether a police report was filed.

Minshew said commissioners and others who received the letter had been encouraged to write to the family.

“We’ve all written — hopefully several of us have written them — and said, ‘We’re very sorry,’” she said.

Minshew’s disclosure came five days after a separate incident at Fernandina Beach High School drew regional attention and an investigation by the Nassau County School District.

The district investigated student conduct during a Sept. 10 volleyball match between Fernandina Beach High School and Andrew Jackson High School after Fernandina Beach students were seen holding up a Black baby doll while shouting from the stands.

The district said its investigation found that the doll had been issued to a Fernandina Beach High student for a parenting-class assignment and was brought to the gym in a baby carrier. During the match, multiple students removed the doll from the carrier, and two students held it overhead while shouting.

The district called the conduct “inappropriate and unacceptable” and said students involved violated the Student Code of Conduct. It said those cases were being addressed under district procedures but did not disclose the disciplinary action, citing federal student privacy laws.

The investigation did not substantiate reports that racial slurs were spoken during the match.

Minshew used the downtown incident to call on residents to confront racist and hateful behavior when they encounter it.

“I think that we need to all be honest about how welcoming and affirming we are as a community, and that there is hate out there, and that there is name-calling,” she said.

“We encourage it when we don’t speak up about it,” Minshew said. “And so, it is just one more instance of something that is, I think, we all have to be responsible for and take some responsibility for it.”

“If you see something, you should be saying something,” she said. “And I certainly hope that this family will come back and give us another chance.”