Proud to live in St. Augustine, Florida where some of our courageous friends and neighbors were civil rights foot soldiers who marched with Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. in 1964, helping expose Jim Crow segregation, helping President Lyndon Johnson break the segregationist filibuster in the United States Senate and enact the 1964 Civil Rights Act. As LBJ said to Congress after Selma, "We SHALL overcome!"
54 years ago tonight, Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. was in the St. Johns County Jail, arrested for asking for service at the Monson Restaurant (since demolished over objections of historians and historic preservationists, the Monson is the site of controversial developer KANTI PATEL's Bayfront Hilton).
To this day, our other-directed political boss, corrupt St. Johns County Sheriff, DAVID SHOAR, is violating civil rights, as demonstrated by his coverups of the shootings of Michelle O'Connell and Andrea Sheldon.
St. Johns County Sheriff DAVID SHOAR, who changed his name from HOAR in 1994, has a website that chauvinistically defends the late evil St. Johns County Sheriff L.O. Davis with three material falsehoods, falsely claiming Dr. King was arrested here by federal agents, that LO. Davis held the town together, and that Davis was vindicated by the Florida State Senate, which voted 44-2 to remove him for corruption in 1970.
In jail, Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. wrote a letter to Rabbi Israel "Sy" Dressner, who brought sixteen rabbis and an administrator here, resulting in the largest mass arrest of rabbis in American history only one week later, on June 18, 1964. Six of the surviving rabbis visited in 2014, and I was honored to have lunch with Rabbi Dressner and Rabbi Alan Secher at a lunch in the church basement at St. Paul A.M.E. Church on the anniversary date -- we were served a modified version of Dr. King's favorite meal, suitable for rabbis, prepared by Ms. Cora Tyson, one of the ladies who cooked for Dr. King and made his daily pitchers of iced tea while he was in St. Augustine.
As a result of the courage of thousands of civil rights foot soldiers, Dr. King, Rev. Ralph David Abernathy, Rev. Andrew Jackson Young, Jr. (later our UN Ambassador), and legal work by William Kuntsler, et al., St. Augustine was in international headlines, helping President Lyndon Johnson break the Senate filibuster, signing the 1964 Civil Rights Act== into law on July 2, 1964. Dr. King won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1964, after which both Sheriff L.O. Davis and Police Chief Virgil Stuart insulted Dr. King, calling him and his supporters "outside agitators."
In 2005, corrupt St. Augustine City Manager WILLIAM BARRY HARRISS tried to block a civil rights monument, falsely telling Commissioners that only Spanish colonial history could be commemorated in the Plaza de la Constitucion (Slave Market Square), where there have long been monuments to the Confederate and other war veterans. Commissioners voted to allow the civil rights monument, but required proponents to raise the money.
In 2011, mutatis mutandis, mirabile dictu, we band of brothers and sisters in St. Augustine proudly dedicated two (2) civil rights monuments in our Slave Market Square, one to Andrew Young (paid for by the City) and one to the civil rights foot soldiers (privately funded but the City erected a base).
In 2017, there there were demands to remove two Confederate cenotaphs in our historic area. I opposed them. Having been a civil rights advocate most of my life, I would not be silent as malice and anger were preached at St. Paul A.M.E., and putative ministers of the gospel, white and black, competed in dueling dueling ideologies -- "TAKE 'EM DOWN" (black racist Rev. Ronald Rawls) vs. "Don't Change A Thing" (white racist preacher Douglas Russo).
In our small town, scene of so much history, I found myself standing between hope and history, squarely in the middle of these two camps, with friends on both "sides," as they declared themselves.
My liberal friends were shocked them I did not join them in they animadversions.
My Tea Party friends were puzzled, wondering why I agreed with them.
I am a thinking liberal. My first boss was Senator Ted Kennedy, for whom I went to work as an intern/staff assistant at age 17.5, as a freshman and sophomore. I worked for Senators Gary W. Hart (D-Colo.) and Jim Sasser (D-Tenn.), was editor of a crusading weekly newspaper, the Appalachian Observer, in Clinton, Tenn, and went on to clerk for the Chief Judge of the U.S. Department of Labor (Nahum Litt) and serve as Legal Counsel for Constitutional Rights at the Government Accountability Project, defending whistleblowers there and in private practice until I was disbarred after zealous advocacy.
Everything that I learned from parents, priests, teachers, judges, lawyers and clients influenced my opinion. We did not want to be another Charlottesville. We did not want to act out of fear or ignorance (or fear of ignorance).
We needed to listen to everyone and vindicate everyone's vision -- preserving the past and telling the truth about it.
In the words of Robert F. Kennedy's Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights, Burke Marshall, "Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall catch hell from both sides."
We came to appreciate how RFK civl rights attorney John Doar felt when he stood between angry police and angry African-Americans in Birmingham, preventing violence:
I came to appreciate how my boyhood hero, RFK, felt the night of April 4, 1968 after Dr. King was murdered in Memphis; RFK spoke in Indianapolis, preventing violence:
My advice to both the St. Augustine City Commission and to the University of Florida was to leave the two memorials or monuments unharmed, but to add others, including one for KKK-infiltarting civil rights hero Stetson Kennedy and St. Augustine Movement leaders Dr. Robert S. Hayling, D.D.S. and Barbara Vickers, and add context and interpretation to promote healing.
I am proud of the City and UF. I don't always agree with them, but on this occasion, they've done the right thing. Both the City Commission and UF St. Augustine votes were unanimous. Unanimous votes for common sense and healing to continue here.
Now, a biracial committee like the one African-Americans unsuccessfully requested 55 years ago is diligently contextualizing one memorial to Confederate veterans, while the University of Florida will soon do the same for another, to General William Wing Loring.
Soon St. Augustine will be the first American city to contextualize Confederate memorials or monuments, rather than removing, destroying or ignoring them.
How cool is that?
We're working. on heeling here.
As JFK said, "Here on Earth, God's work must truly be our own."
Remember the past:
Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Was Arrested in St. Augustine, Florida For Violating "Jim Crow" Segregation Laws -- TRANSCRIPT of Arrest by SAPD Chief Virgil Stuart
Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and Rev. Ralph David Abernathy in St. Johns County Jail
(Dr. King said "it was the nicest jail I've ever been in.")
By David Nolan (St. Augustine's noted civil rights historian)
St. Augustine was the only place in Florida where Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. was arrested during the civil rights movement.
It happened on June 11, 1964 on the steps of the Monson Motor Lodge restaurant on the Bayfront.
Here is the conversation that took place between Dr. King and James Brock, the manager of the Monson:
KING: I and my friends have come to lunch.
BROCK: We can’t serve you. We are not integrated.
KING: We’ll wait around. We feel you should serve us.
BROCK: You are on private property. We reserve the right to refuse service. I ask you on behalf of myself, my wife, and my children to leave.
KING: We are sorry you have that attitude. You are doing a disservice to the nation.
BROCK: You can’t push this thing. We are a small business. We are caught in the middle of something. We find ourselves between two armed camps. If we integrate now it would hurt our business.
KING: We will stand here and hope that in the process that our conscious efforts will make this a better land.
BROCK: We will integrate under one of two conditions: by federal court order, or if a responsible group of citizens ask us to open to all customers.
KING: We are glad to know that you would do it under those conditions.
DR. RALPH ABERNATHY: Does your invitation to serve tourists include Negroes?
BROCK: Negroes can only be served in the service area of the restaurant. Maids and chauffeurs of white visitors have been served that way in the past.
KING: Can’t you see how this humiliates us?
BROCK: Will you please take your nonviolent army somewhere else? I must remind you that I have already had 85 people arrested before at my place.
[At this point Police Chief Virgil Stuart arrived]
BROCK to STUART: I’m glad you are here. I have asked Dr. King to leave twice, but he has refused.
STUART to KING’S party: You are all under arrest.
STUART later testified that it was only "outside agitators" who raised Civil Rights concerns, and Dr. King won the Nobel Peace Prize that year
Here's how The New York Times covered the story of Dr. King's arrest here in 1964:
ST. AUGUSTINE, Fla., June 11—The Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was jailed today after he attempted to eat in one of St. Augustine's finer restaurants overlooking Matanzas Bay.
While Dr. King and 17 companions were held on charges of violating Florida's unwanted guest law, other civil rights demonstrators made another night march through crowds of jeering whites.
The whites threw firecrackers into the line of 200 marchers as they circled the old Slave Market. But there were so many helmeted officers— one for every marcher‐that the cursing whites made no attempt to assault the demonstrators as they had done previously.
After the march a crowd of white youths attempted to form a march of their own but were blocked by state troopers and police dogs.
“If the niggers can march why can’t we?” they shouted.
At one point, the crowd broke through the line and darted toward the Negro neighborhood where the marchers were reassembling in a church. But about 50 troopers and deputies ran in a body for two blocks and cut them off.
Shortly before the march, authorities found a cache of weapons including sulphuric acid, chains and clubs hidden beneath a wall along the parade route.
The city had taken two steps to reduce the danger. Workmen removed the bricks that boarded flower beds in the little park that adjoins the old slave market, and an electrician installed seven mercury vapor lights that will illuminate dark corners of the square.
Last night, white men and youths lurking in the shadows hurled bricks at state troopers who were trying to guard civil rights demonstrators from a cursing mob. The whites broke through the police line and slugged and kicked several demonstrators. Other marchers said they were burned by acid thrown from the crowd.
Tranquil During Day
By day downtown St. Augustine is the picture of tranquility with old men playing checkers in the slave market and tourists viewing old Spanish buildings from horse drawn surreys. At night it is the scene of an outpouring of racial hatred and violence.
Dr. King was arrested on the doorstep of the Monson Motor Lodge Restaurant after a 20‐minute confrontation with the president and general manager of the concern, James Brock.
Everyone in town had known for 24 hours that Dr. King would be arrested. He had announced yesterday that he would go to jail to dramatize discrimination against Negroes in the nation's oldest city.
When Dr. King and his chief aide, the Rev. Ralph D. Abernaty, arrived shortly after noon, Mr. Brock was waiting.
The night before Mr. Brock, who also is president of the Florida Hotel and Motel Association, had been seen on a downtown street carrying a shotgun, a billy stick, a pistol and a flashlight. He was one of several businessmen in town who were made special deputies yesterday by Sheriff L. O. Davis The sheriff said he had appealed to the city's civic clubs to help maintain law and order.
Mr. Brock told Dr. King that he and his party of eight persons were not wanted. The two then began a polite debate of the civil rights issue.
Fears for His Business
Dr. King asked if Mr. Brock understood the “humiliation our people have to go through.” Mr. Brock replied he would integrate his business if the substantial white citizens of the community asked him to or if he were served with a Federal Court order.
“You realize it would be detrimental to my business to serve you here,” Mr. Brock said. “I have unfortunately had to arrest 84 persons here since Easter.”
Then he turned. to the tele
As the cameras and reporters recorded the colloquy, a burly white man, impatient for his lunch, bulled his way through the crowd, violently shoved Dr. King aside and entered the restaurant.
Finally, Sheriff Davis and a deputy arrived and whisked Dr. King and his companions off to jail. Dr. King was expected to remain in jail for a few days while demonstrations continue.
There were indications that the authorities were beginning to crack down on the gangs of whites who have repeatedly set
State troopers, sent in yester‐day by Gov. Farris Bryant, used tear gas to break up the mob that caused last night's outbreak. And for the first time white assailants were arrested.
Sheriff Davis said four St. Augustine youths were charged with disorderly conduct and resisting arrest and a fifth was charged with carrying a concealed weapon, a large chain.
White House Informed
In Tallahassee, Governor Bryant said he had informed the White House law and order would be maintained without use of Federal troops or marshals. Dr. King earlier had asked President Johnson to send
“It is anticipated there will be more demonstrations,” Governor Bryant said. “We cannot guarantee that someone won’t throw a rock. We cannot completely stop every overt act. To do that we’d have to line the sidewalks with police. But law and order can be and will be maintained.”
Before he went to jail, Dr. King observed that law enforcement had improved since state troopers reinforced the local authorities.
In Jacksonville, Federal District Judge Bryan Simpson said in a court order that there had been a deliberate attempt by law enforcement officers in St. Augustine to break he civil rights movement here by punishing those arrested. Judge Simpson ordered bonds for the defendants in sit‐in cases reduced and ordered Sheriff Davis to stop putting prisoners in an outdoor pen in the open sun and in padded cells.
“More than cruel and unusual punishment has been shown,” Judge Simpson said in his order. “Here is exposed in its raw ugliness, studied and cynical brutality deliberated and contrived to break men, physically and mentally.”
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