St. Augustine Vice Mayor Nancy Sikes-Kline, Mayor Joseph Boles and Commissioner Roxanne Horvath yesterday made Dr. Robert B. Hayling, D.D.S. "the most honored man in St. Augustine hisory" in the words of former State Senator Tony Hill, an aide to Jacksonville's mayor.
Referring to the unfinished agenda of civil and human rights in America, civil rights leader Dr. Hayling advised the ACCORD luncheon, "Never ever give up."
Like Nelson Mandela, Dr. Hayling's quiet dignity and refusal to be bitter promotes healing.
Dr. Hayling, a dentist, moved here from Meharray Medical College in Nashville in 1960. He organized local youth and elders into a formidable civil rights movement. In response, the KKK killed his dog and broke his hands -- he was beaten, hospitalized for two weeks, shot at (his pregnant wife was nearly killed) and he and his family were intimidated enough to depart St. Augustine, where he started the first integrated medical professional practice in 1960.
Dr. Healing noted that there are still "evil people out there intending to do great harm," warning activists to keep working.
Referring to National Security Administration (NSA) surveillance of Americans in America, Dr. Hayling said that he did not believe "any government needs al the information gathering on all of us," stating there are "some things governments do not Need to Know about each and every one of us." Data gathering technology threatens to turn us into "robots," without "individuality," Dr. Hayling said.
Dr. Hayling said that thanks to the courage of all in the St. Augustine Movement, he was pleased that -- as opposed to 50 years ago -- when he drove from Lauderhill to St. Augustine, he was able to eat at restaurants and use rest rooms -- a right legally denied African-Americans by statute and police force until 1964 under the Florida Legislature's "Jim Crow" segregation laws, which was overruled by Congress and the President in enacting the 1964 Civil Rights Act.
The courage ofDr. Hayling and other "Civil Rights Foot Soldiers" -- and events here in St. Augustine -- helped President Lyndon B. Johnson break the U.S. Senate filibuster, as Johnson's tape recordings reveal.
Civil Rights are rooted in the Golden Rule, Dr. Hayling said: "Do unto others as you would have them do unto you."
Before the presentation luncheon, I greeted Dr. Hayling and asked if he knew that he has the same birthday as Robert F. Kennedy (November 20) -- RFK was born in 1925 and Dr. Hayling was born in 1929. Dr. Hayling didn't know that.
That's okay, because when I moved to St. Augustine in 1999, I did not know about the St. Augustine Movement, or Dr. King and Dr. Hayling and Rev. Young and the St. Augustine Four, or the largest mass arrest of rabbis in American history, or the arrest of the Massachusets Governor's mother, or the muriatic acid poured into the Monson Hotel pooll, or the beach wade-ins and beatings at St. Augustine Beach.
As Harry S Truman said: "The only thing new under the sun is the history you don't know." Thanks to the St. Augustine City Commission and ACCORD for preserving, protecting and defending our history and human rights.
St. Augustine Record article at: http://staugustine.com/news/local-news/2013-07-02
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