In 2005, local St. Augustine Gay activists won a landmark First Amendment case against our City of St. Augustine – the result was a federal court order that saw Rainbow flags flying on our historic Bridge of Lions in honor of Gay pride from June 8-13, 2005.
Bigots fumed and picketed, while spewing 32 pages of Anonymice hate on the St. Augustine Record’s “Talk of the Town” website.
Scared-witless City Commissioners then voted 3-1 on June 13, 2005 to ban all but government flags from our bridge, with only Commissioner Joe Boles voting against. Now-Mayor Boles was the only Commissioner who voted correctly twice, respecting the First Amendment. With Susan Burk, he voted to allow the Rainbow flags. In Burk’s absence, he was the only Commissioner to vote against the transparently retaliatory move to ban all but government flags from our Bridge.
In honor of the upcoming monument to Rev. Andrew Young, we should fly 42 American flags from our Bridge and another seven along the Bayfront (where controversial former City Manager Bill Harriss had flagpoles removed after the federal court victory).
The City of St. Augustine is all about healing now – working to promote a national civil rights museum and finally doing right by our African-American communities of Lincolnville and West Augustine.
In the spirit of healing, our City of .St. Augustine should adopt the policy that was in effect until 2005: allowing non-profit community groups – including the 40th Accord, Lighthouse Museum, NAACP, Gay Pride, etc. – to fly flags from the Bridge for special occasions linked to our City’s history.
What do you reckon?
"Let us contemplate our forefathers, and posterity,
and resolve to maintain the rights bequeathed to us
from the former, for the sake of the latter. The
necessity of the times, more than ever, calls for
our utmost circumspection, deliberation, fortitude
and perseverance. Let us remember that "if we
suffer tamely a lawless attack upon our liberty,
we encourage it, and involve others in our doom,"
it is a very serious consideration ... that millions
yet unborn may be the miserable sharers of the event."
-- Samuel Adams
On a sweltering St. Augustine evening in June 1964, civil rights leader Andrew Young led a group of 300 marchers from St. Mary's Church to the corner of St. George and King streets, where a waiting mob of white men knocked Young to the ground and beat and kicked him.
On a sweltering St. Augustine evening in June 1964, civil rights leader Andrew Young led a group of 300 marchers from St. Mary's Church to the corner of St. George and King streets, where a waiting mob of white men knocked Young to the ground and beat and kicked him.
The bloody Young, beaten three times, stood up after each attack and continued marching.
The St. Augustine City Commission, on a motion by Commissioner Errol Jones, voted last week to commemorate Young's courage and leadership during his June 9, 1964 "March to the Plaza."
They decided to spend "not more than $10,000" to build a 6-foot by 25-foot concrete, granite and bronze monument to be installed June 4 on the Plaza de la Constitucion.
Commissioner Nancy Sikes-Kline cast the lone dissenting vote, saying she was "shocked by the price tag" of up to $10,000.
"It's pretty elaborate for a sidewalk," she said. "It'll go to $15,000 before we know it."
Mayor Joe Boles and Vice Mayor Leanna Freeman were both absent.
Commissioner Bill Leary said the significance of the march was the support it gave to the nonviolent message of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. at a critical time.
The march's peaceful reaction to brutal mob violence "broke the (congressional) filibuster and led to the enactment of the Civil Rights Act," he said.
City officials said Jeremy Marquis of Halback & Associates, a design firm in St. Augustine, offered his services to design the monument at no cost.
However, the commission won't discuss possible designs until April 11, when Marquis submits his drawings and all the absent commissioners have returned.
Marquis did outline a possible visual concept: The memorial sidewalk would replicate Young's footprints, symbolically leading into the future and also illustrating his willingness to "cross over and reason with the mob on the other side of the street."
Monument visitors could walk in those steps or beside them, he said. "Either has a lot of symbolism."
Jones said the sidewalk should be a gift by the city to its residents, adding that some who marched are no longer here or would not be here long.
"Andrew Young has talked about St. Augustine being a major focal point for 2014 (the 50th anniversary of the city's civil rights struggles)," Jones said, adding that he expects some political and other celebrities to come down for the dedication.
Leary said he sees a need for some explanation of the memorial's context.
"Many students today don't know who Andrew Young is," he said. "I'd hate to have such a beautiful monument here and have people in 20 years from now ask, 'What is this?'"St. A
Our own State Senator, longtime Tallahassee lobbyist John Thrasher (R-Beach condo), made the controversial proposal that has inspired me today to revise the proposal for our St. Augustine National Historical Park, Seashore and Scenic Coastal Parkway.
Controversial State Senator John Thrasher and other Tallahassee politicians recently wanted to steal state parks for golf courses.
No way. The people have been heard and heeded. The bill is dead in the water.
But we’ve learned our lesson from the disrespect Thrasher showed to our environmental heritage.
Prediction: We’re going to preserve and protect our environmental and historic heritage here in St. Augustine, including a National Civil Rights Museum at the site of the moribund San Sebastian Inner Harbor project, with shops, restaurants, a working waterfront with shrimp boats at the docks, and artists and entertainers in the public space, as at Key West’s Mallory Square. We've also added an I-95 interchange for West Augustine and King Street.
Inspired, I’ve expanded the scope of the St. Augustine National Historical Park, Seashore and Scenic Coastal Parkway Act to include state parks and beaches in Flagler County, also adding Haitian and Cuban history to the findings and purposes sections.
I've also added funding for an I-95 interchange serving West Augustine and King Street.
We’re proposing an “emerald necklace of parks,” with a civil rights component, stretching from the Duval County line to the Volusia County line – bigger than Cape Cod National Seashore, with 11,000 years of human history, celebrating indigenous (Native-American), African-American, Spanish, Minorcan, Greek, Cuban, Haitian, Roman Catholic, Jewish, Protestant, British, American, Civil War, military, nautical, Flagler-era and Civil Rights history, including some ten current state parks and Water Management District lands.
State Senator John Thrasher, thanks for your inspiration – we’ve made our park proposal stronger.
What do you reckon?
