using text input to search Access date column with between/and
===

I have a form that will take 2 dates.

    <form name="dateInput" action="dateResult.jsp" method="get">
    <input type="text" name="startDate" />
    <input type="text" name="endDate" />
    <input type="submit" value="Submit" />
    </form>

I want it to be able to filter and show me all records that have a date in between the two inputs on the results page. 

Parsing the texts into dates: 

    <%
      DateFormat formatter;
      formatter = new SimpleDateFormat("MM/dd/yyyy"); 
      
      String startDay; 
      startDay = request.getParameter("startDate");
        
      java.util.Date startingDay = formatter.parse(startDay);

      String endDay;
      endDay = request.getParameter("endDate");
      
      java.util.Date endingDay = formatter.parse(endDay);
    %>

SQL Query: 

    rs = stmt.executeQuery( "SELECT * FROM [Inventory Tracking] WHERE [Inventory Tracking].[Purchase_Date] => "+ startingDay +" AND < "+endingDay);

I've been messing around with it for a few hours and every change I make either returns a blank results page or an error page. What am I doing wrong? 

Should I be converting the java.util.Date to java.sql.Date? 

Should I use BETWEEN/AND instead of < and >'s?