The St. Augustine movement was a part of the wider
Civil Rights Movement
The civil rights movement was a nonviolent social and political movement and campaign from 1954 to 1968 in the United States to abolish legalized institutional Racial segregation in the United States, racial segregation, Racial discrimination ...
, taking place in
St. Augustine, Florida from 1963 to 1964. It was a major event in the city's long history and had a role in the passage of the
Civil Rights Act of 1964
The Civil Rights Act of 1964 () is a landmark civil rights and United States labor law, labor law in the United States that outlaws discrimination based on Race (human categorization), race, Person of color, color, religion, sex, and nationa ...
.
Background
Despite the unanimous 1954
Supreme Court
A supreme court is the highest court within the hierarchy of courts in most legal jurisdictions. Other descriptions for such courts include court of last resort, apex court, and high (or final) court of appeal. Broadly speaking, the decisions of ...
decision in
Brown v. Board of Education
''Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka'', 347 U.S. 483 (1954), was a landmark decision by the U.S. Supreme Court, which ruled that U.S. state laws establishing racial segregation in public schools are unconstitutional, even if the segrega ...
that the "
separate but equal
Separate but equal was a legal doctrine in United States constitutional law, according to which racial segregation did not necessarily violate the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution, which nominally guaranteed "equal protec ...
" legal status of racially segregated public schools rendered them inherently unequal, St. Augustine still had only six black children admitted into white schools by 1964. The homes of two of the families of these children were burned by local
segregationist
Racial segregation is the systematic separation of people into racial or other ethnic groups in daily life. Racial segregation can amount to the international crime of apartheid and a crime against humanity under the Statute of the Interna ...
s, while other families were forced to move out of the county because the parents were fired from their jobs.
400th anniversary
St. Augustine was scheduled to celebrate its 400th anniversary in 1965.
Memorial ceremonies for the anniversary were expected to get the attention of international media, and city officials excluded African Americans from planning of the festivities.
The preparations focused mainly on the "Spanish past that endorsed pluralism and Pan-American brotherhood" while ignoring the history of slavery in the US and the
Jim Crow laws
The Jim Crow laws were state and local laws enforcing racial segregation in the Southern United States. Other areas of the United States were affected by formal and informal policies of segregation as well, but many states outside the Sout ...
still in force in the Southern states at the time.
General characteristics
St. Augustine was a city with a population of about 15,000 and was largely dependent on tourism. Black people accounted for 23% of the population but racial segregation and Jim Crow prevented them from playing any sort of role in the local political and economic affairs.
History
Robert Hayling
Dr.
Robert Hayling
Robert Bagner Hayling (November 20, 1929 – December 20, 2015) was an American dentist and civil rights activist.
Early life
Robert Bagner Hayling was born in Tallahassee, Florida, to Charles C. Hayling, Sr., an academic who had a 33-year career ...
is generally considered the "father" of the St. Augustine movement. A Tallahassee native, Hayling served as an Air Force officer, and then became the first black dentist in Florida to be elected to the American Dental Association. He set up business in St. Augustine in 1960 and joined the local
National Association for the Advancement of Colored People
The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) is a civil rights organization in the United States, formed in 1909 as an interracial endeavor to advance justice for African Americans by a group including W. E. ...
(NAACP) that year. Under his leadership the local chapter was growing and began to put pressure on the local government to desegregate the city.
An opportunity to protest came in 1963 as St. Augustine was preparing for its 400th year anniversary. The local NAACP wrote a letter to Vice President Lyndon B. Johnson asking that he cancel his visit to St. Augustine in March 1963 where he was planning on dedicating a Spanish landmark.
While the campaign was successful at convincing Vice President
Lyndon B. Johnson
Lyndon Baines Johnson (; August 27, 1908January 22, 1973), often referred to by his initials LBJ, was an American politician who served as the 36th president of the United States from 1963 to 1969. He had previously served as the 37th vice ...
to speak before an interracial audience in St. Augustine, it had no effect on the overall
Jim Crow laws
The Jim Crow laws were state and local laws enforcing racial segregation in the Southern United States. Other areas of the United States were affected by formal and informal policies of segregation as well, but many states outside the Sout ...
. The NAACP campaign lacked a direct action component and Hayling believed that this was a major failing. Hayling founded an NAACP Youth Council that engaged in
nonviolent
Nonviolence is the personal practice of not causing harm to others under any condition. It may come from the belief that hurting people, animals and/or the environment is unnecessary to achieve an outcome and it may refer to a general philosoph ...
direct action, including wade-ins at the local segregated swimming pools.
Sit-in protest
A
sit-in protest on July 18, 1963, at the local
Woolworth's
Woolworth, Woolworth's, or Woolworths may refer to:
Businesses
* F. W. Woolworth Company, the original US-based chain of "five and dime" (5¢ and 10¢) stores
* Woolworths Group (United Kingdom), former operator of the Woolworths chain of shops ...
lunch counter ended in the arrest and imprisonment of 16 young black protesters and seven juveniles.
These protesters were offered plea deals offering release in return for a pledge to abstain from any further protesting. Four of the arrested juveniles, two girls and two boys, refused the plea bargain. These four children were JoeAnn Anderson,
Audrey Nell Edwards, Willie Carl Singleton, and Samuel White, and they came to be known as "the St. Augustine Four". They were sent to "reform" school and retained for six months.
Their case was publicized as an egregious injustice by
Jackie Robinson, the NAACP, the ''
Pittsburgh Courier
The ''Pittsburgh Courier'' was an African-American weekly newspaper published in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, from 1907 until October 22, 1966. By the 1930s, the ''Courier'' was one of the leading black newspapers in the United States.
It was acqu ...
'', and others.
Finally, a special action of the governor and cabinet of Florida freed them in January 1964.
Armed attacks and self-defense
In addition to nonviolent direct action, the St. Augustine movement practiced armed self-defense. In spring of 1963, the NAACP aggressively lobbied for the city's federal funding to be suspended until it came into compliance with existing federal civil rights legislation and the ''Brown v. Board of Education'' decision. This led to the
Ku Klux Klan (KKK) stepping up its death threats against activists. In June, Dr. Hayling publicly stated, "I and the others have armed. We will shoot first and answer questions later. We are not going to die like
Medgar Evers
Medgar Wiley Evers (; July 2, 1925June 12, 1963) was an American civil rights activist and the NAACP's first field secretary in Mississippi, who was murdered by Byron De La Beckwith. Evers, a decorated U.S. Army combat veteran who had served i ...
." The comment made national headlines. When Klan nightriders terrorized black neighborhoods in St. Augustine, Hayling's NAACP members often drove them off with gunfire.
In September 1963, the Klan staged a rally of several hundred Klansmen on the outskirts of town. They seized Robert Hayling and three other NAACP activists (Clyde Jenkins, James Jackson, and James Hauser), and beat them with fists, chains, and clubs.
[St. Augustine Movement](_blank)
– M.L. King Research & Education Institute, Stanford University The four men were rescued by
Florida Highway Patrol officers. St. Johns
County Sheriff
A sheriff is a government official, with varying duties, existing in some countries with historical ties to England where the office originated. There is an analogous, although independently developed, office in Iceland that is commonly transla ...
L. O. Davis arrested four white men for the beating and also arrested the four unarmed blacks for "assaulting" the large crowd of armed Klansmen. Charges against the Klansmen were dismissed, but Hayling was convicted of "criminal assault" against the KKK mob.
After the incident at the September Klan rally, tensions escalated further. In October, a carload of KKK night riders raced through the black neighborhood of Lincolnville shooting into homes. When blacks returned fire, one Klansman was killed. NAACP activist Rev. Goldie Eubanks and three others were indicted for murder (they were later acquitted). Disturbed by Hayling's militancy, the national NAACP removed him as head of the Youth Council. Hayling, Eubanks, Henry Twine, Kathrine Twine, and other activists left the NAACP and contacted the
Southern Christian Leadership Conference
The Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) is an African-American civil rights organization based in Atlanta, Georgia. SCLC is closely associated with its first president, Martin Luther King Jr., who had a large role in the American civi ...
(SCLC), led by
Martin Luther King Jr.
Martin Luther King Jr. (born Michael King Jr.; January 15, 1929 – April 4, 1968) was an American Baptist minister and activist, one of the most prominent leaders in the civil rights movement from 1955 until his assassination in 1968 ...
, for assistance.
Spring Break protests
In the spring of 1964, Hayling put out a call to northern college students to come to St. Augustine for spring break, not to go to the beach, but to take part in civil rights activities. Accompanying them were four prominent
Boston
Boston (), officially the City of Boston, is the state capital and most populous city of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, as well as the cultural and financial center of the New England region of the United States. It is the 24th- mo ...
women: the wife of the vice president of the
John Hancock Insurance Company
John is a common English name and surname:
* John (given name)
* John (surname)
John may also refer to:
New Testament
Works
* Gospel of John, a title often shortened to John
* First Epistle of John, often shortened to 1 John
* Second ...
, and three wives of
Episcopal bishop
A bishop is an ordained clergy member who is entrusted with a position of authority and oversight in a religious institution.
In Christianity, bishops are normally responsible for the governance of dioceses. The role or office of bishop is ca ...
s (including Hester Campbell, daughter of
William Ernest Hocking
William Ernest Hocking (August 10, 1873 – June 12, 1966) was an American idealist philosopher at Harvard University. He continued the work of his philosophical teacher Josiah Royce (the founder of American idealism) in revising idealism to integ ...
and granddaughter of
John Boyle O'Reilly
John Boyle O'Reilly (28 June 1844 – 10 August 1890) was an Irish poet, journalist, author and activist. As a youth in Ireland, he was a member of the Irish Republican Brotherhood, or Fenians, for which he was transported to Western Australi ...
). It was front-page news on April 1, 1964, when one of them, Mrs. Mary Parkman Peabody, the 72-year-old mother of the governor of
, was arrested in an integrated group at the Ponce de Leon Motor Lodge, north of town.
That event brought the movement in St. Augustine to international attention. Over the next few months, the city got more publicity than it had ever previously received in its four centuries of existence. The massive nonviolent direct action campaign was led by Hayling and by SCLC staff, including: Martin Luther King Jr.,
Ralph Abernathy
Ralph David Abernathy Sr. (March 11, 1926 – April 17, 1990) was an American civil rights activist and Baptist minister. He was ordained in the Baptist tradition in 1948. As a leader of the civil rights movement, he was a close friend and ...
,
Andrew Young
Andrew Jackson Young Jr. (born March 12, 1932) is an American politician, diplomat, and activist. Beginning his career as a pastor, Young was an early leader in the civil rights movement, serving as executive director of the Southern Christian L ...
,
Hosea Williams
Hosea Lorenzo Williams (January 5, 1926 – November 16, 2000) was an American civil rights leader, activist, ordained minister, businessman, philanthropist, scientist, and politician. He is best known as a trusted member of fellow famed civil r ...
,
C. T. Vivian
Cordy Tindell Vivian (July 30, 1924July 17, 2020) was an American minister, author, and close friend and lieutenant of Martin Luther King Jr. during the civil rights movement. Vivian resided in Atlanta, Georgia, and founded the C. T. Vivian Lead ...
,
Fred Shuttlesworth
Frederick Lee Shuttlesworth (born Fred Lee Robinson, March 18, 1922 – October 5, 2011) was a U.S. civil rights activist who led the fight against segregation and other forms of racism as a minister in Birmingham, Alabama. He was a co-founder o ...
, Willie Bolden, J. T. Johnson,
Dorothy Cotton
Dorothy Cotton (June 9, 1930 – June 10, 2018) was an American civil rights activist, who was a leader in the Civil Rights Movement in the United States and a member of the inner-circle of one of its main organizations, the Southern Christian ...
, and others. Civil rights activists made St. Augustine the stage for a moral drama enacted before a world audience.
Increasing violence
From May until July 1964, protesters endured abuse and verbal assaults, usually without any retaliation, although this time police were often intervening to prevent violence between protesters and counter-protesters. The movement engaged in nightly marches down King Street. The protesters were met by white segregationists who violently attacked them, and hundreds of the marchers were arrested and incarcerated. The jail was filled, so subsequent detainees were kept in an uncovered stockade in the hot sun.
When attempts were made to integrate the beaches of
Anastasia Island
Anastasia Island is a barrier island located off the northeast Atlantic coast of Florida in the United States. It sits east of St. Augustine, running north–south in a slightly southeastern direction to Matanzas Inlet. The island is about long ...
, demonstrators were beaten and driven into the water by segregationists. Some of the protesters could not swim and had to be saved from possible drowning by other demonstrators.
Death threats against the leadership were reaching a fever pitch, especially against Dr. King. In the first week of June, a cottage that was scheduled to house the SCLC president went up in flames. In response, Hayling and his team stepped up their armed patrols, a policy which King personally disapproved of. Nonetheless, King was under Hayling's armed protection every night he spent in St. Augustine. On June 10, the
filibuster
A filibuster is a political procedure in which one or more members of a legislative body prolong debate on proposed legislation so as to delay or entirely prevent decision. It is sometimes referred to as "talking a bill to death" or "talking out ...
against the Civil Rights Act (one of the longest filibusters in history) finally collapsed.
Monson Motor Lodge
St. Augustine was the only place in Florida where King was arrested; his arrest there occurred on June 11, 1964, on the steps of the
Monson Motor Lodge
The Monson Motor Lodge, at 32 Avenida Menendez, Saint Augustine, Florida, was in 1964 the site of a landmark protest event of the Civil Rights Movement. The site was before that occupied by the Monson House, a 19th-century boarding house.
The ...
restaurant. He wrote a "Letter from the St. Augustine Jail" to his old friend,
Rabbi Israel Dresner, in
New Jersey
New Jersey is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern regions of the United States. It is bordered on the north and east by the state of New York; on the east, southeast, and south by the Atlantic Ocean; on the west by the Delaware ...
, urging him to recruit rabbis to come to St. Augustine and take part in the movement. The result was the arrest of 17 rabbis on June 18, 1964 at the Monson motel, the largest mass arrest of rabbis in American history.
Among the arrested were
Eugene Borowitz
Eugene B. Borowitz (February 20, 1924 – January 22, 2016) was an American leader and philosopher in Reform Judaism, known largely for his work on Jewish theology and Jewish ethics. He also edited a Jewish journal, ''Sh'ma'', and taught at the Heb ...
,
Michael Robinson,
Murray Saltzman
Murray Saltzman (November 26, 1929 – January 5, 2010) was an American reform Jewish rabbi and civil rights leader.
Biography
Saltzman was born to a Russian-immigrant family in Brooklyn, New York, the youngest of three sons. After first enrollin ...
and
Allen Secher
Rabbi Allen Secher (born February 14, 1935) is a rabbi, civil and human rights activist,
radio host, television producer, actor, author and public speaker.
Early life
Allen was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. His father was Jack Secher and h ...
.
While in jail, the rabbis authored a manifesto titled, "Why We Went".
On June 18, a grand jury suggested that SCLC withdraw for a 30-day cooling-off period. In response, Hayling and King released a joint statement declaring "there will be neither peace nor tranquility in this community until the righteous demands of the Negro are fully met".
The demonstrations came to a climax
when a group of black and white protesters jumped into the swimming pool at the Monson Motor Lodge. In response to the protest, James Brock—who was the manager of the hotel, in addition to being the president of the Florida Hotel & Motel Association—poured what he claimed to be
muriatic acid
Hydrochloric acid, also known as muriatic acid, is an aqueous solution of hydrogen chloride. It is a colorless solution with a distinctive pungent smell. It is classified as a strong acid. It is a component of the gastric acid in the digestiv ...
into the pool to burn the protesters.
Photographs of this, and of a policeman jumping into the pool to arrest them, were broadcast around the world.
Aftermath
Official committee
On June 30, Florida Governor
Farris Bryant announced the formation of a biracial committee to restore interracial communication in St. Augustine. Although matters were far from resolved, national SCLC leaders left St. Augustine on 1 July, the day before President Lyndon Johnson signed the Civil Rights Act into law.
Racial tensions
Despite this national success, black residents in St. Augustine continued to face violence and intimidation. Consistent threats and picketing by the Klan led many of the town's businesses to remain segregated. Although SCLC continued to provide some financial support to activists in St. Augustine beyond July 1964, the organization never returned to the city. With his dental practice financially destitute after the loss of his white patients, and the safety of his wife and children uncertain, Robert Hayling decided to move to Ft. Lauderdale, Florida, in 1966.
["Robert B. Hayling" The King Encyclopedia](_blank)
/ref>
The black Florida Normal Industrial and Memorial College, whose students had been involved in the protests, felt itself unwelcome in St. Augustine and in 1965 purchased a tract of land in Dade County, moving there in 1968. The school is today Florida Memorial University
Florida Memorial University is a private historically black university in Miami Gardens, Florida. It is a member of the United Negro College Fund and historically related to Baptists although it claims a focus on broader Christianity.
History ...
.
Legacy
Monson Motor Lodge
The motel and pool were demolished in March 2003, despite five years of protests, thus eliminating one of the nation's important landmarks of the civil rights movement. A Hilton Hotel
Hilton Hotels & Resorts (formerly known as Hilton Hotels) is a global brand of full-service hotels and resorts and the flagship brand of American multinational hospitality company Hilton.
The original company was founded by Conrad Hilton. As ...
was built on the site. In 2003, nearly four decades after Robert Hayling left St. Augustine, the city's mayor issued a Certificate of Recognition for Hayling's "contributions to the betterment of our society," and a street was named after him.
St. Augustine Foot Soldiers Monument
The St. Augustine Foot Soldiers Monument
St. Augustine Foot Soldiers Monument is located near the corner of King St. and Charlotte St. in the Southeast corner of the ''Plaza de la Constitución'' (known as "the Plaza"), a historic public park in downtown St. Augustine, Florida. It is in ...
is located near the corner of King St. and Charlotte St., in the Southeast corner of the Plaza De La Constitucion, which is a prominent, historic public park. The monument, commissioned by the St. Augustine Foot Soldiers Remembrance Project, Inc., was unveiled on May 14, 2011.
The ''Resilience: Black Heritage in St. Augustine'' Project
''Resilience: Black Heritage in St. Augustine'' is a yearlong community project celebrated in 2021 by local archives, libraries, and museums in recognition of the many contributions the Black community has made and continues to make in building St. Augustine's cultural heritage through more than 455 years of its history. Fourteen local institutions throughout St. Augustine, Florida, Jacksonville, Florida
Jacksonville is a city located on the Atlantic coast of northeast Florida, the most populous city proper in the state and is the largest city by area in the contiguous United States as of 2020. It is the seat of Duval County, with which the ...
, and Gainesville, Florida
Gainesville is the county seat of Alachua County, Florida, Alachua County, Florida, and the largest city in North Central Florida, with a population of 141,085 in 2020. It is the principal city of the Gainesville metropolitan area, Florida, Gaine ...
have contributed to the project, includin
Accord Civil Rights Museum and Freedom Trail
Castillo de San Marcos National Monument
The Castillo de San Marcos (Spanish for "St. Mark's Castle") is the oldest masonry fort in the continental United States; it is located on the western shore of Matanzas Bay in the city of St. Augustine, Florida.
It was designed by the Spanish e ...
Flagler College Proctor Library
Flagler College Honors Program, Florida Museum of Natural History
The Florida Museum of Natural History (FLMNH) is Florida's official state-sponsored and chartered natural-history museum. Its main facilities are located at 3215 Hull Road on the campus of the University of Florida in Gainesville.
The main pub ...
, Fort Mose Historical Society, Governor's House Cultural Center and Museum, Lincolnville Museum and Cultural Center, St. Augustine Historical Society, St Johns County Public Library System
St. Johns County Public Library System serves the surrounding areas of St. Johns County, Florida, including St. Augustine, Ponte Vedra Beach, Fruit Cove, and Hastings. The library system has six branches, two bookmobiles, and offers books-by-mail ...
, Timucuan Ecological and Historic Preserve
The Timucuan Ecological and Historic Preserve is a U.S. National Preserve in Jacksonville, Florida. It comprises of wetlands, waterways, and other habitats in northeastern Duval County. Managed by the National Park Service in cooperation with th ...
, University of North Florida Digital Humanities Institute, Ximenez-Fatio House Museum, and th
St. Johns County Cultural Council
Throughout 2021 collaborating institutions are hosting a variety of programs, lectures, tours, and special digital humanities projects, and the group has also created a website that contains many educational resources. The Resilience logo is a bell, symbolizing freedom and liberty, themes interwoven into the city's past and present.[Wooster, Casey and Laura Marion. "Resilience: Centering Black Heritage in St. Augustine," ''Source: The Magazine of the University of Florida George A. Smathers Libraries'', Vol. 4, No. 1 (2021), 19-21. https://doi.org/10.32473/sourceuf.v4i1 ]
See also
* Excelsior Museum and Cultural Center
* Lincolnville Historic District
References
Further reading
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
External links
Civil Rights Library of St. Augustine
- A digital archive composed solely of primary source materials related to the St. Augustine Civil Rights Movement
St. Augustine's Civil Rights Movement
- A video with Professor Michael Butler, faculty member of the Humanities Department at Flagler College
Flagler College is a private liberal arts college in St. Augustine, Florida. It was founded in 1968 and offers 33 undergraduate majors and one master's program. It also has a campus in Tallahassee.
History
Founded in 1968, the campus comprises ...
, as presenter. He discusses the history of the Civil Rights Movement
The civil rights movement was a nonviolent social and political movement and campaign from 1954 to 1968 in the United States to abolish legalized institutional Racial segregation in the United States, racial segregation, Racial discrimination ...
in St. Augustine, Florida. Published March 25, 2015 on C-SPAN
Cable-Satellite Public Affairs Network (C-SPAN ) is an American cable and satellite television network that was created in 1979 by the cable television industry as a nonprofit public service. It televises many proceedings of the United States ...
; about 26 minutes.
ACCORD Freedom Trail
- St. Augustine Civil Rights Movement and Freedom Trail sites
Speaking and Protesting in America- Mississippi Project; Andrew Young Interview / Ted Mascott
- The Resilience: Black Heritage in St. Augustine website with educational resources
- An article in Source: The Magazine of the University of Florida George A. Smathers Libraries about the Resilience project
- The Resilience: Black Heritage in St. Augustine Digital Exhibit
- Florida Humanities Council: Florida Stories Walking Tour, Walk St. Augustine: Lincolnville
- DPLA: Digital Public Library of America - A digital archive composed of primary source materials related to the St. Augustine Civil Rights Movement
{{DEFAULTSORT:Saint Augustine movement
Civil rights movement
St. Augustine, Florida
1963 in Florida
1964 in Florida
History of racial segregation in the United States
African-American history of Florida
Civil rights protests in the United States
Riots and civil disorder in Florida