Martin Luther King Jr. in the Ancient City

Words by Christine Van Dyk

It was the 400th anniversary of the founding of St. Augustine when Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. arrived in the nation’s oldest city. The town was charming, known for centuries-old coquina cottages and a historic fort overlooking the Matanzas River; but its beauty betrayed a tranquility it did not entirely possess. The path King would eventually walk along these cobbled streets would bring into question the nation’s appetite for civil rights and the small town’s willingness to welcome change in their own backyard.

Less than a year before, civil unrest had taken root in the Ancient City after a local dentist was attacked by the Ku Klux Klan. The assault of Dr. Robert Hayling during a sit-in seemed unthinkable, but it was only the beginning. What followed were beatings, firebombings, and the police use of cattle prods at a peaceful demonstration.

When local civil rights leaders reached out to the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, King was part of the delegation sent to help. The group launched a nationwide campaign to attract college students and supporters to the city for sit-ins and protests. St. Augustine was thought to be the ideal battleground to fight segregation because despite its highly-racist population, the city was also heavily reliant on northern tourist dollars.

While in St. Augustine, King resided in a beach cottage on Anastasia Island. Together with a number of volunteers, including Hayling, he worked to organize protests and spoke at local churches to garner support. As a result, he was threatened and shots were fired at the home where he stayed.

The unrest would reach its boiling point at the Monson Motor Lodge and Restaurant. Overlooking St. Augustine’s picturesque bay front, the property is now a popular Hilton vacation resort; but it is best known for the events of June 1964. 

It all began with lunch.

It was June 11 when King and several SCLC members entered the lodge’s ‘whites-only’ restaurant and attempted to order. The owner, James Brock, refused to serve them and asked that they leave. When the group politely declined, they were quickly arrested and sent to the St. Johns County Jail. Shortly after, a grand jury convened to ask Dr. King and the SCLC to leave St. Augustine immediately. He refused and remained in the city for what would become a pivotal event in the civil rights cause.

A week after the sit-in at Monson Motor Lodge, a group of black and white protestors jumped into the segregated pool at the motel to cool off from the summer heat. What happened next seems almost unbelievable. In an attempt to get them to leave, Brock dumped a jar of acid into the pool where they swam.

“He was losing it,” J.T. Johnson, one of the protestors there that day, said. “Everybody was kind of caught off guard. I tried to calm the gang down. I knew that there was too much water for that acid to do anything.”

But the swimmers’ frantic fears were captured on film by the many news outlets there that day. “Somehow they’d gotten word that something was going to happen at the pool that day,” J.T. recalled in a StoryCorps excerpt shared on NPR’s Morning Edition. “And I think that’s when President [Lyndon B.] Johnson got the message.”

The following day, the Civil Rights Act was approved, after an 83-day filibuster in the U.S. Senate.

“I’m not so sure the Civil Rights Act would have been passed had [there] not been a St. Augustine,” J.T. said. “It was a milestone. We were young, and we thought we’d done something —and we had.”

Experience It For Yourself

Most people are familiar with the Lincoln Memorial where King spoke the words “I have a dream” and the Memphis hotel where he was assassinated. But did you also know there are civil rights sites throughout the Ancient City?

• The Monson Steps, from the original motor lodge, now the Hilton St. Augustine Historic Bayfront Hotel

• 81 Bridge Street, where King stayed with the Price family and where his signature remains in the family Bible

• St. Paul AME Church, where he gave several well-known speeches. 

Experience these sites and more aboard the St. Augustine bus tour.