St. Augustine gets its first civil rights museum -- former office of Dr. Robert Hayling, D.D.S. at 79 Bridge Street

Museum, monument dedicated on 50th anniversary of Civil Rights Act
Posted: July 2, 2014 - 10:52pm

By SHELDON GARDNER
sheldon.gardner@staugustine.com


A ribbon was cut and history was made Wednesday on Bridge Street.

That’s how Richard Burton Sr. referred to the grand opening of the ACCORD Civil Rights Museum on the 50th anniversary of the signing of the Civil Rights Act.

“This is just the beginning,” said Burton, a minister who is part of the group behind the museum.

For Dr. Robert Hayling, 84, who helped cut the red, white and blue ribbon, the event offered a chance to reflect on the past.

The building at 79 Bridge St. housed his dental practice during a time when St. Augustine was segregated. The building also was a meeting place of civil rights leaders during the movement.

“Dr. Hayling, you’re going to be the first through the door,” a woman said, and dozens of people slowly followed him inside. The organization ACCORD (Anniversary to Commemorate the Civil Rights Demonstrations) worked to get the museum opened with donations.

Hayling was among the civil rights activists at events throughout the day, including the annual ACCORD Freedom Trail Luncheon. At the luncheon, the “St. Augustine Four” were given the Dr. Robert B. Hayling Award of Valor.

During the 1960s, the four teenagers were jailed for months after a sit-in demonstration at a local “whites-only” lunch counter.

The day ended with a ceremony hosted by city officials and a wreath-laying at the St. Augustine Foot Soldiers Monument, where Hayling, civil rights activist Barbara Vickers, Mayor Joe Boles and Commissioner Nancy Sikes-Kline posed for photos.

The monument is in the Plaza de la Constitucion.

Hayling remembered the sacrifices people made as he stood inside the museum, surrounded by display cases containing news clippings and other items from the era.

“It is a reminder of the blood, and the sweat, and the tears … ” he said. “Those of us who are here should carry on in their name and … make the world a better place, including St. Augustine.”

Hayling and his family faced attacks on their lives during the ‘60s, he said.

Sit-ins, kneel-ins and other demonstrations all took place in St. Augustine. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and other leaders spoke at local churches, ate and lived with people in the community while working toward the goal of equal rights.

Vickers also used the phrase, “blood, sweat and tears,” when she spoke to the approximately 100 people in The Treasury on the Plaza about the sacrifices of the foot soldiers, the people who participated in the movement.

Many of the people who participated in demonstrations don’t have their names and faces printed in history books or in newspapers.

The monument honors them, said Vickers, who helped bring the monument to the Plaza.

“Those foot soldiers will never die,” she said.

When Hayling spoke to the crowd at the Treasury, he talked about his past and his hopes for the future.

“ … I live in hopes today, tomorrow and forever, that the City of St. Augustine will come forth and live by that creed … that all men are created equal,” he said.