Just Another Bombing?: This is Donal and Iona's Story
New Documentary Shares Survivors’ Story of Civil Rights-era Bombing in Jacksonville, Fla.
60th Anniversary of the bombing is February 16, 2024
Just Another Bombing?: This is Donal and Iona's Story takes audiences on a poignant journey through a little-known incident of the 1960s Civil Rights era. Iona Godfrey King and her son Donal Godfrey share their deeply moving account of surviving a Klan bombing of their home with three other family members on February 16, 1964, in Jacksonville, Fla.
The reason for the bombing?
Six-year-old Donal was the first Black student to enroll in the neighborhood Lackawanna Elementary School.
The documentary (25 min.) relies on interviews with King and Godfrey, archival footage, and FBI and court documents to explore moments leading up to and after the domestic-terror attack. Ms. King was a 24-year-old domestic worker at the time. She says that she acted on her own to send her son to the whites-only school believing he would be safe. She knew nothing of a NAACP plan in the works to integrate Jacksonville's schools.
To the media, it was just another bombing of another Black family.
“It was expected,” says Ms. King.
The silence from city and school officials was deafening. No one talked about it. The incident is seldom included among historical accounts of school desegregation in Jacksonville.
Filmmaker Hal Jacobs, the same age as Donal, lived a few streets over in the segregated white section of the neighborhood. He only learned about the incident a few years ago from an online article by Jacksonville author Tim Gilmore.
But the story doesn't end with a bombing.
Over the course of 10 years, Ms. King began taking college classes at Edward Waters College and became a director of Head Start centers. After receiving a bachelor's degree in elementary education, she taught at Florida Junior College (now Florida State College at Jacksonville) for 25 years.
Donal joined the military after high school and later worked for the U.S. State Department in the area of information systems security. In 2022 he retired and moved permanently to Ghana.
Just Another Bombing? is not only a tribute to the strength of the human spirit but a powerful call to remember the struggles and injustices faced by marginalized communities during the Civil Rights Movement.
The documentary challenges viewers to confront the past and understand the legacy of white supremacy and racial injustice still with us today.
SCREENINGS
Friday, January 12, 7 p.m. - Waller’s Coffee Shop (Decatur, Ga.), Benefit Screening for Ms. King Jacksonville screenings’ travel/hotel ($15)
The film is scheduled for Jacksonville screenings before it becomes available to film festivals and PBS stations (available online in 2025).
Jacksonville screenings will include talkbacks with Ms. Iona King, Mr. Godfrey, Producer/Director Hal Jacobs, and special guests.
Tuesday, Feb. 20, 1:45 p.m. - Free (Registration Required) - University of North Florida, The Justice Sessions
Wednesday, Feb. 21, 7:00 p.m. - Sun-Ray Cinema, 1028 Park St., Jacksonville, FL 32204 [$10 ADVANCE TICKETS]
Thursday, Feb. 22, 4:00 p.m. - Registration Required (WAITING LIST ONLY) - Murray Hill Library, Jacksonville Public Library Screening Room Series
MEDIA COVERAGE
“City recognizes man targeted by KKK in 1964,” First Coast News, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vp0KodTpJsM
“Man targeted by KKK as a child in 1964 reflects on attack,” First Coast News, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-_4Re4Wnl8A
ADDITIONAL INFORMATION
60 Years Later: the Klan Bombing of the Home of Donal and Iona Godfrey, Tim Gilmore
New Story: A New Film About Iona and Donal Godfrey and the KKK Bombing, but also a Story about Desegregation Battles and How that Long and Winding Road Ends at Jacksonville Classical Academy, https://jaxpsychogeo.com, Tim Gilmore
The Klan in Jax, part 2 of 7: Lackawanna Elementary School, https://jaxpsychogeo.com, Tim Gilmore
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Donal_Godfrey
https://www.hjacobscreative.com/blog/2023/10/21/the-house-bombing
FOR MEDIA INQUIRIES, interviews, photos, or group screening requests, please contact: Hal Jacobs.