We are winning. I heartily and strongly agree with St. Augustine's civil rights historian, David Nolan:
On Sunday, February 2, 2025 at 11:12:01 AM EST, David NOLAN <saveourhistory@comcast.net> wrote:
Dear friend,
Back in 1964, President Lyndon Johnson was told that if he wanted to keep an eye on the leaders of the civil rights movement, he should just look at the St. Johns County Jail (in St. Augustine, Florida), because that's where they all were incarcerated.
This was during the last major campaign that led to the passage of the landmark Civil Rights Act of 1964 (Martin Luther King went from here to the White House for the signing of that law).
Now the St. Johns County government is proposing to tear down this landmark and make it disappear.
(Proof that no idea is so bad that it will not someday arise!).
Not only did Martin Luther King write his "Letter From the St. Augustine Jail" here, but also the members of the largest mass arrest of rabbis in American history drafted their widely reprinted letter "Why We Went," which is still read around the country (and publicly read here in St. Augustine at the site of their arrest every June).
Would you take a moment to add your voice to those who say this project needs to go back to the drawing boards and not further diminish our civil rights legacy?
There is a Freedom Trail marker on the building: https://www.hmdb.org/m.asp?m=40728
The St. Augustine Jewish Historical Society has a Facebook page about it: https://www.facebook.com/groups/1157440745772126/
There is a petition that can be signed: https://www.change.org/Saveourjail
The time is short: the county's Cultural Resource Review Board is to hold a hearing on February 10, and the county has already been approaching demolition contractors.
The County Commission will make the final decision. Last year they made quite an effort to have St. Augustine become the location of the state's proposed Black History Museum--successfully. How ironic if they follow that up by demolishing one of their most important surviving civil rights landmarks!
The members of the County Commission can be contacted at: boccoffice@sjcfl.us
Will you take a moment to let them know that the whole wide world is watching?
Many thanks, and please feel free to send this on to let others know!
Sincerely,
David Nolan
St. Augustine, FL
1 comment:
The horrific prison industry machine has eclipsed the historical significance of any one jail... that's one problem. 6 million people on some kind of supervision or behind bars in the USA...1.8 million behind bars. Who knows how many people have passed through that system over the last 30 years. I bet it's an embarrassing number.... embarrassment to the USA.
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