1964 Monson Motor Lodge protests

Series of events during the civil rights movement January 2021 May 2020 time of day November 2020 1964 Monson Motor Lodge protest St. Augustine movementin the Civil Rights Movement James Brock pouring acid.jpg James Brock pouring acid into his pool June 18, 1964 Monson Motor LodgeSt. Augustine, Florida * Civil Rights Bill debates in congress Racial segregation in Florida Desegregation *Arrest of protesters Immediate backlash against civil rights protests Later desegregation Ku Klux Klan firebombing of the Monson Motor Lodge Protesters Reform Rabbis Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) Segregationists Off-duty police officers Albert VorspanHosea WilliamsIsrael S. Dresner James Brock A civil rights protest occurred on June 18, 1964, at the Monson Motor Lodge in St. Augustine, Florida. The campaign between June and July 1964 was led by Robert Hayling, Martin Luther King Jr., Ralph Abernathy, Andrew Young, Hosea Williams, C. T. Vivian and Fred Shuttlesworth, among others. St. Augustine was chosen to be the next battleground against racial segregation on account of it being both highly racist yet also relying heavily on the northern tourism dollar. Furthermore, the city was due to celebrate its 400th anniversary the following year, which would heighten the campaign's profile even more. Nightly marches to the slave market were organized; marchers were regularly attacked and beaten. At the same time in the U.S. Senate, the Civil Rights Act of 1964 was being filibustered. On June 10, the filibuster collapsed. The following day, King was arrested in St. Augustine. King had attempted to be served lunch at the Monson Motor Lodge, but the owner, James Brock—who was also the president of the St. Augustine Hotel, Motel, and Restaurant Owners Association—refused to serve him. King was arrested for trespassing and jailed; while imprisoned, he wrote a letter to Israel Dresner, a leading Reform rabbi, urging him to recruit rabbis to come to St. Augustine and take part in the movement. This they did, and, at another confrontation at the Monson, 17 rabbis were arrested on June 18. This was the largest mass arrest of rabbis in American history.Schindler, Anne. "The largest mass arrest of rabbis in US history", WJCT-FM, June 4, 2024. Accessed March 15, 2025. "In the spring of 1964, as St. Augustine celebrated its 400th anniversary and civil rights protesters clashed with violent klansmen, the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. brought in rabbinical reinforcements from around the country. They joined civil rights organizers at the Monson Motor Lodge 'swim-in' on June 18, 1964, and all 16 of them were arrested." At the same time, a group of black and white activistsprotesters who had arrived from Albany, Georgianamed J.T. Johnson, Brenda Darten, and Mamie Nell Ford, jumped into the Monson's swimming pool. Brock appeared to pour muriatic acid into the pool to burn the protesters. Photographs of this, and of a policeman jumping into the pool in everything but his shoes to arrest them, made headline news around the world. After the Civil Rights Act had been passed, St. Augustine businesses—particularly in the restaurant and culinary trades—were slow at desegregating. Eventually, the courts forced Brock and his colleagues to integrate their businesses, and soon after he did, the Monson was firebombed by the Ku Klux Klan (KKK), who violently opposed desegregation. The state judge was unsympathetic to his predicament, however, feeling that Brock and his colleagues had brought the violence of the KKK upon themselves; they had taken advantage of it while it was in their favor, and could not stop it now that it was not. On June 30, Florida Governor Farris Bryant announced the formation of a biracial committee to restore interracial communication in St. Augustine. Although the Civil Rights Act had passed, there were further problems for both Brock personally and Florida particularly. He had been repeatedly refused bank loans to pay for the damage caused by the firebombing, and declared himself bankrupt the following year. Also in 1965, although the city celebrated its quadricentennial, there was still a palpable underlying racial tension; the tourist trade had been badly damaged and it has been estimated that St. Augustine lost millions of dollars in tourism. Hotels, motels, and restaurants were especially badly hit. Background St. Augustine movement SCLC planning St. Augustine, Florida, a beautiful town and our nation's oldest city, was the scene of raging tempers, flaring violence, and the most corrupt coalition of segregationist opposition outside of Mississippi. It was a stronghold of the Ku Klux Klan and the John Birch Society. There the Klan made a last-ditch stand against the nonviolent movement. They flocked to St. Augustine's Slave Market Plaza from all across north Florida, Georgia, and Alabama. Klansmen abducted four Negroes and beat them unconscious with clubs, ax handles, and pistol butts...St. Augustine was a testing ground. Can the Deep South change? Could southern states maintain law and order in the face of change? Could local citizens, black and white, work together to make democracy a reality throughout America?King 1998 138 Martin Luther King on St. Augustine, Florida right 25em #FFFFF0 The Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) had decided to renew their campaign against segregation,Oates 1982 286 and give "new dignity to the movement".Colburn 1985 64The SCLC leadership was particularly concerned with a recent trend for young blacks to defend themselves physically from white racists and matching violence with violence, and intended the St. Augustine campaign "to demonstrate to blacks throughout the country that nonviolence was a much more effective instrument for change".Colburn 1985 62 note The leadership was originally divided on where to target. James Bevel, for example, wanted to focus on one state—Alabama—whereas Hosea Williams advocated the Floridian seaside holiday town of St. Augustine.Dorrien 2018 365 St. Augustine was approaching its 400th anniversary.Known as the "Ancient City",Oates 1982 286 St. Augustine had been founded in 1565 by the Spanish conquistador Pedro Menéndez de Avilés. It is the oldest continuously occupied settlement of European origin in the contiguous United States.NPS 2020aNPS 2020b It is the second-oldest continuously inhabited city of European origin in United States territory after San Juan, Puerto Rico (founded in 1521).Thompson 2014 34 Johnson's government had pledged US 350000 1964 to the town to help finance the celebrationsOates 1982 285 and restore its architectural ruins.Webb 2010 169 note Although much smaller than previous civil rights battlegrounds, such as Birmingham, Alabama, it was no less—and probably more—violently segregated, argues author Jim Bishop. Unlike Birmingham, racial power lay not with the mayor and chief of police, he says, but in:Bishop 1971 340 Herbert E. Wolfe, banker and bigwig in the Democratic Party; it was the St. Augustine Record, a mirror for white faces; it was an organization called the Ancient City Hunting Club, composed of rifle experts who sometimes made a sport of hunting two-legged "coons." Politics was divided between two political groups: the far right and the ultra-far right. Anyone who was plain right risked being called a Communist.Bishop 1971 340 Choosing of St. Augustine For King—recently named Time Magazine's Man of the YearSnodgrass 2009 181—it was his preferred choice of "non-violent battlefield" for "expos[ing] Klan savagery to the eyes of the world".Oates 1982 286 It was a highly segregated town, argues the author Thomas E. Jackson, and its celebrations would be restricted to whites only. It was deliberately chosen, continues Jackson, as it had "a business elite vulnerable to negative publicity because it was dependent on northern tourist dollars, a police force with close ties to the Klan, and a reputation for brutal extralegal violence".Jackson 2007 190 Social ethicist and theologian Gary Dorrien has described St. Augustine as Florida's "most violently racist city...a Klan stronghold policed by unabashedly racist thugs", where "Blacks who tried to enroll their children in public schools got their homes bombed".Dorrien 2018 365 scholar Stephen B. Oates says of St. Augustine's law enforcement:Oates 1982 285 However, suggests Webb, this was known to be a dangerous strategy. The Florida Advisory Committee to the United States Commission on Civil Rights informed them that St. Augustine was a "segregated superbomb...with an extremely short fuse".Webb 2010 169 Here Sheriff L. O. Davis, "a buffoonish, burly, thuggish man", employed an auxiliary force of one hundred deputies, many of them prominent Klansmen, to "keep the niggers in line." Here barrel-chested Hoisted "Hoss" Manucy, dressed in cowboy paraphernalia, led a bunch of Klan-style bullyboys who called themselves the Ancient City Gun Club. They patrolled the county in radio cars with Confederate flags on their antennas. harassing Negroes at will. Manucy boasted that he had no vices, that he didn't smoke, drink, or chase women. All he did was "beat and kill niggers."Oates 1982 285 Law enforcement in St. Augustine, says David Chalmers, can be summed up in the response to the Klansmen who rioted and the blacks who trespassed: the formers' bonds rarely rose above US 25 1964, while the latter's could "run into thousands".Chalmers 2003 45 The Mayor of St. Augustine has been described by scholar L. V. Baldwin as a "biblical fundamentalist who tolerated such lawlessness while insisting that 'God segregated the races when he made the skins a different color'".Baldwin 2002 90–91 received advance warning of the SCLC plans, including that protesters would include figures such as Governor Peabody's mother. The Boston Globe asked the mayor whether he had ever heard of her; he had not. When asked what would happen if, during the protests, she violated segregation laws, the mayor replied, "if she comes down and breaks the law, we are going to arrest her".Colburn 1985 64 James Brock David Garrow has described Brock as "a relative moderate" in the St. Augustine business community,Garrow 1986 330 although he was personally a segregationist.Chalmers 2003 45 Warren, similarly, has said that Brock was "a decent man caught between the violence of the Klan and the unwillingness of community leaders to find meaningful ways to end segregation",Warren 2008 156 while Colburn says he was usually gregarious and "rather mild-mannered, religious man who suddenly found himself thrust" into a civil rights struggle.Colburn 1985 92, 99 Chalmers suggests that, while he was willing to desegregate, "he dare not be the first".Chalmers 2003 44–45 Brock later explained his position as he saw it: "if I integrated, there wouldn't be more than one Negro a month registered at the motel, but the first night I integrated, all my windows would be busted in".Chalmers 2003 45 Prelude Beginning the campaign alt=Black and white photograph of a segregationist arrested|left|thumb|A segregationist being arrested, June 1964; their bail bond was usually a fraction of their opponents'. The campaign in St. Augustine effectively began on Easter Sunday, March 29, 1964,Colaiaco 1988 99 and was deliberately aimed at the city's food and tourism industries, which, argues sociologist Ralph C. Scott, "were as much about race as they were about national and class privilege".Scott 2018 16 This was also the first, but not last, time that the Monson Motor Lodge,Colaiaco 1988 99 at 32 Avenida MenendezCobb 2008 350—a "big posh lily white" motelScott 2018 16—was to be targeted.Colaiaco 1988 99 Monson's was targeted because its owner, James Brock, was not only a prominent local businessman and president of the trade association, but the motel was regularly patronized by reporters, so was felt to provide easy access to the media.Colburn 1985 91 An interracial group, which included the 72-year-old mother of Massachusetts' Governor, Endicott Peabody, and the wife of that state's Episcopal Bishop, John Burgess,Colaiaco 1988 99Burgess was the first black Episcopal bishop in the United States.Colaiaco 1988 99 note led by Reverend David Robinson,Colburn 1985 65 attempted to integrate the motel's restaurant.Colaiaco 1988 99 Peabody and Burgess and 37 othersColburn 1985 65 were arrested and the affair made national headlines.Colaiaco 1988 99 The mayor condemned the protests, not as local discontent over segregation, but the work of "scalawags" from the north.Colburn 1985 65 Colburn argues that "the arrest and subsequent imprisonment of this 72-year-old drew the nation's attention to conditions in St. Augustine as no other incident had. It was a watershed in the community's race relations."Colburn 1985 67Mrs Peabody's husband, notes Colburn, was unsurprised, commenting "that's the kind of thing she always does".Colburn 1985 67 Sheriff Davis put a sign behind his desk that read: "St Johns County famous jail. Mrs Peabody of the Boston Peabodys Stayed here two nights Reasonable fines...$35 and up."Nolan 1992 77 note It was not long before leading members of the SCLC—Vivian, Williams, Lee, Shuttlesworth and James Bevel—arrived in St. Augustine and launched workshops on non-violent militant protest.Colaiaco 1988 99 Focussing on local businesses, such as the Monson, would, the SCLC concluded, apply fiscal pressure on the business community and persuade the local whites to see the benefit to granting concessions,Colaiaco 1988 100 and by the end of May the motel was subject to almost daily sit ins.Chalmers 2003 43 Jackson suggests that, as far as their strategy went, King and the SCLC had learned from the Birmingham campaign of the previous year that "vivid images of confrontation, with black and white protesters putting their bodies on the line against white supremacists moved the nation more effectively than inspired preaching or patient lobbying".Jackson 2007 190 To increase pressure on authorities, King and the SCLC turned to "wade-ins" to integrate public pools and beaches.Shaw 2018 248Analogous to sit-ins in cafes and restaurants, wade-ins had first been used on St. Augustine's beaches in summer 1963.Cruz 2012 254 note In retaliation, large numbers of Ku Klux Klan arrived in St. Augustine in droves and commenced drive-by shootings in black neighborhoods, as well as attacking demonstrations with iron bars and bicycle chains.Jackson 2007 190The KKK was already extremely active in St. Augustine and had made the national media with their kidnapping and beating of a local dentist and activist Robert Hayling. The klansmen were found not guilty of attempted murder; Hayling was found guilty of assaulting them.Belknap 1987 131Kirk 2005 104 note By now, argues the historian Michael R. Belnap, St. Augustine was "slipping into chaos".Belknap 1987 131 Confrontations occurred by day and night; one occasion, King only narrowly managed to persuade the young men not to go home and fetch their guns; Brun suggests that "had they done so, St. Augustine would have gone down as the most violent racial battle in King's nonviolent movement".Bruns 2006 102 Sit-in protest King arrived in St. Augustine on Sunday, May 31,Oates 1982 287 and stayed in Lincolnville, less than a mile from Monson Motor Lodge; Lincolnville was home to prominent leaders of the black community.Pellegrino 2013 359 Apart from St. Augustine, King is known to have visited several other cities in Florida. Such as: Tampa in 1961,2013-01-15 King's Speech: Remembering Martin Luther King Jr.'s 1961 Stop In Tampa https://wusfnews.wusf.usf.edu/culture/2013-01-15/kings-speech-remembering-martin-luther-king-jr-s-1961-stop-in-tampa 2021-06-12 WUSF Public Media en JacksonvilleDavis Ennis January 20, 2020 Five Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. sites in Jacksonville https://www.thejaxsonmag.com/article/five-dr-martin-luther-king-jr-sites-in-jacksonville/ live 2021-06-12 The Jaxson en https://web.archive.org/web/20190413095603/https://www.thejaxsonmag.com/article/five-dr-martin-luther-king-jr-sites-in-jacksonville/ April 13, 2019 and Miami several times.2020-01-17 How Dr. MLK Jr.'s Legacy Still Lives On in Miami Today https://culturecrusaders.com/2020/01/17/how-dr-mlk-jr-s-legacy-still-lives-on-in-miami-today/ 2021-06-12 Culture Crusaders en-US Dorrien posits that he was deliberately kept out of St. Augustine by his colleagues as it was deemed too dangerous to risk his life there.Dorrien 2018 366 At a strategy meeting he "spoke of touching white hearts with Christian non-violence". His audience, on the other hand, says Bishop, "wondered if King knew their town": white community leaders knew the SCLC's strategy. They also knew that bigger and stronger cities had eventually come to agreements with King in return for peace on the streets. St. Augustine, though, was "prepared to die on its feet rather than truckle to King", comments Bishop.Bishop 1971 340 King had made a tactical decision to get arrested to intensify the struggle.Garrow 1986 330 As such, he intended to take part in a sit in at Monson Motor Lodge's,Colburn 1985 67 a traditional—and segregated—motel and restaurant overlooking Matanzas Bay.Oates 1982 289 At around 12:20,Branch 1998 355 on June 11, King and his colleagues Ralph Abernathy, Bernard Lee, Clyde Jenkins,Lindquist 2018 76 Will England,Branch 1998 339 a white chaplain from Boston University,Warren 2008 76 and five othersGarrow 1986 330 arrived at the Monson for lunch.Branch 1998 355 The SCLC had alerted the press to King's presenceColburn 1985 91 and several were there to witness King—who wore a black badge with the word "equal" in whiteColburn 1985 92—arrive.Branch 1998 355 The motel manager, James Brock, was also awaiting him on the welcome mat.Colburn 1985 91 Brock told his visitors that they were on private property.Colburn 1985 92 Although Brock tried to talk privately to King—who introduced himself as "Martin King"—microphones were pushed between them. Newsmen jockeyed for position, amid shouts of "duck your head" and "get that flashgun down".Colburn 1985 92 The delegation attempted to enter the restaurant,Lindquist 2018 76 but Brock told that the restaurant did not serve blacks. King said they would wait until it did, and some of those with him began a sit in.Bruns 2006 102 Brock's and King's conversation was polite.Lindquist 2018 76 The manager told King and his party, "we can't serve you. We're not integrated."Branch 1998 339 He did state, though, that he would give them entrance should either they present "a federal court order or if a group of St. Augustine businessmen prevail upon me".Colburn 1985 92 Their discussion lasted around 15 minutes;Garrow 1986 331 Scholar David Colburn describes there being something of a carnival atmosphere to King and Brock's encounter, particularly as King responded with sermon-like replies.Colburn 1985 92 Brock eventually asked King and his party to leave, but, argues Colburn, King "had no intention of leaving. He was there to be arrested."Colburn 1985 92 Their conversation ended with Brock beginning to lose his temper, demanding of King, "will you take your nonviolent army somewhere else? I have already had 85 people arrested here." To this King replied, "we'll wait in the hope that the conscience of someone will be aroused".Bishop 1971 343 Abernethy asked why Brock had a sign welcoming tourists such as themselves.Branch 1998 339 Brock publicly told King that the only blacks allowed on the premises were servants of white patrons, who allowed them to eat in the service area.Branch 1998 339 In response, King asked Brock, if he understood "the humiliation our people go through".Branch 1998 339 Brock, in turn, appealed to King to see it from his point of view. As a respected local businessman, he argued, it would damage him and his social position if he allowed black people into his restaurant.Brock was a Rotarian, head of the local Community Chest and president of the local Florida Hotel and Motel Association, among other things.Branch 1998 339 note Asking that King understand Brock's responsibilities to his family, he announced to the gathered reporters "I would like to invite my many friends throughout the country to visit Monson's. We expect to remain segregated."Branch 1998 339 Activist arrests However, says Garrow, Brock was becoming "increasingly exasperated" with the situation,Garrow 1986 331 and appears to have called the police.Warren 2008 76Garrow 1986 331 In the meantime, other customers had arrived at the motel and, interrupting Brock' and King's discussion,Colburn 1985 92 a white customer asked if the restaurant was open yet. Brock replied in the affirmative, and the customer physically pushed his way through King's party, calling King a black bastard as he did so.Branch 1998 339 At this point, the Chief of police Virgil Stuart and Sheriff L. O. Davis,Warren 2008 76 arrived in possession of arrest warrant for breach of the peace, conspiracy and trespass against King and his colleagues.Branch 1998 339 Brock, says Colburn, "breathed a sigh of relief".Colburn 1985 92 King and his companions were arrested under Florida's "unwanted guest" law.Colaiaco 1988 103 Branch describes how, then:Branch 1998 339Eight volunteers, including a white woman, stepped forward on Davis's announcement that he would accommodate anyone who wanted to join King in jail. A Negro teenager changed his mind when asked pointedly by Stuart if he were sure.Branch 1998 339 King and his colleagues refused to post bail, which led automatically to their imprisonment in the crowded St John's County Jail.Warren 2008 76Simpson, says Dorrien, "excoriated St. Augustine's concrete sweatboxes, miniature cells, and chicken coops customized for civil rights prisoners: 'Here is exposed, in its raw ugliness, studied and cynical brutality, deliberately contrived to break men physically and mentally'."Dorrien 2018 366 note Fear of a jailhouse lynching led King to be moved to Jacksonville. Before he was sent there and wishing, says Branch, to "maintain the spirit of the St. Augustine movement", King wrote to Israel "Sy" Dresner in New York, who, as a 1961 Freedom Rider, had supported King on a previous occasion,They had sung "John the Baptist was a Baptist" in an Albany church together. Rieder 2008 271 note requesting him to come to St. Augustine and act as an independent witness to events:Branch 1998 340 King also telegraphed Johnson to tell him that he had witnessed "most complete breakdown of law and order since Oxford, Mississippi".Oates 1982 290By which King was referring to the Ole Miss riot of 1962. James Meredith, an African American, was stopped from enrolling at the University of Mississippi, even after the federal courts had ruled that he be admitted. Meredith traveled to Oxford under armed guard to register, but riots by segregationists broke out in protest of his admittance. That night, cars were burned, federal law enforcement was pelted with rocks, bricks and small arms fire, and university property was damaged by 3,000 rioters. Two civilians were killed by gunshot wounds, and the riot spread into adjacent areas of the city of Oxford.Doyle 2001 78–81 note Dear Sy. I am dictating this letter from the St. Augustine City Jail...Perhaps if this letter could be read to your brethren next week, it might be considered a 'call' to St. Augustine...I would imagine that some 30 or so rabbis would make a tremendous impact on this community and the nation. We would hope that some would be prepared to submit to arrest.Branch 1998 340King had already attempted, without success, to persuade celebrities to come to St. Augustine; all had refused, except Marlon Brando, who had written to say he had wanted to but, unfortunately, he had a bleeding ulcer and "great personal strife" to deal with at the time.Branch 1998 340 Chalmers notes that "rabbis and ministers, white students and college professors, and black teenagers went to jail" instead.Chalmers 2003 44 note Johnson replied to King's telegram and was keen to know if it pleased King, who was known to have been upset at having heard an unfounded rumor that Johnson was intending to drop his support for the Bill; Johnson also wanted King to know that the White House was in contact with the State Governor.Ellis 2013 156 While in prison, says Webb, King also "secretly testified" to a grand jury that he would prevent future night marches if a biracial commission were to be established.Webb 2010 170 Civil Rights Bill debates Furthermore, comments attorney Dan Warren, the Civil Rights Bill filibuster in the Senate had just been ended, and the ensuing maneuvers to delay it yet again by segregationist operators like Rep. Howard Smith of Virginia made King's arrest "particularly timely".Warren 2008 76 The filibuster had gone on for 75 days,Warren 2008 77When the bill came before the full Senate for debate on March 30, a bloc southern Democratic Senators and one Republican Senator led by Richard Russell (D-GA) launched a filibuster to prevent its passage.Loevy 1997 29–31 Said Russell: "We will resist to the bitter end any measure or any movement which would have a tendency to bring about social equality and intermingling, and amalgamation of the races in our (Southern) states".Napolitano 2009 188 note and on the day before King was arrested, the Senate voted for cloture of the debate,Warren 2008 77 the first time in United States history that the Senate had closed down one of its own debates on civil rights; the passage of the bill was now "virtually inevitable".Colaiaco 1988 103 It is possible, argues the scholar James A. Colaiaco that, "had the white population of St. Augustine continued to allow the demonstrators to march unmolested, the protest would have probably died out within a few weeks. But once again, SCLC provoked white racists".Colaiaco 1988 100 However, says Garrow, the situation was about to take "a turn for the worse".Garrow 1986 333 Prison release and tensions alt=Black and white photograph of a St. Augustine KKK rally|thumb|Ku Klux Klan rally in St. Augustine, July 23, 1964: Note Charles Conley Lynch in the Confederate flag vest, holding microphone. King was released from jail the following day. Looking, according to Hayling, haggard and frightened", he refused to talk about his overnight imprisonment and left St. Augustine immediately,Oates 1982 290 traveling first to Springfield College and Yale University to collect honorary degrees and then to Washington, DC to be photographed with Johnson.Joseph 2020 76 King had ensured that "the nation's attention would be focused on the brutal actions of the Klan and the adamant stand elected officials of St. Augustine had taken to prevent demonstrators from protesting segregation".Warren 2008 77–78 Klan demonstrations continued over the next few days. On the 14th, Klansman, attorney, and leader of the newly founded National States' Rights Party J. B. Stoner spoke before a large crowd at the Slave Market, declaring that "tonight, we're going to find out whether white people have any rights! When the Constitution said all men are created equal, it wasn't talking about niggers. The coons have been parading around St. Augustine for a long time."Colaiaco 1988 103Stoner, suggests Chalmers, "whose skills with dynamite and in defending dynamiters gave him particular prestige in Klan circles [although] was not much of an orator".Chalmers 2003 43 note King was accused of being a "longtime associate" of communism, while the Supreme Court was "Jew-stacked".Colaiaco 1988 103Following which, says Colaiaco, "Stoner led a mob of angry whites —bearing Confederate flags and signs reading 'Kill the Civil Rights Bill' and 'Put George Wallace on the Supreme Court'—to the black section of town" where they were accompanied by state troopers and dogs.Colaiaco 1988 103 note Accompanied by local Klan leader Charles Conley Lynch—whose trademark costume, notes Garrow, was a "vest cut from a Confederate battle flag"—Stoner "claimed that African Americans were sexually depraved brutes more closely related to apes than humans...The two men evoked the Lost Cause as a means to rally white males in defense of their wives and daughters".Garrow 1986 172 The same day King was released from jail, a number of city business leaders met at the Monson. These included Herbert E. Wolfe, known as St. Augustine's "One Man Power Structure", four executives from the Fairchild Stratos corporation, and the mayor. The businessmen proposed to the latter that he support the creation of a committee to examine racial tensions in the city.Colburn 1985 94 This was not intended to have any black members, although, comments Bishop, "this oversight was called to their attention". The committee was then suggested to be a biracial one.Bishop 1971 344 The mayor, however, saw this as surrendering to the SCLC, and refused.Colburn 1985 94 The committee was, in any case, not indeed to have to negotiate with King or Abernethy, as it was deliberately phrased as wishing to deal with law-abiding locals.Bishop 1971 344 Nor, indeed, did they wish to talk to locals they had not chosen: Hayling, although local, was deemed not to pass the "law-abiding" criterion, having already been arrested.Bishop 1971 346 In the background, an offer had been made by the city authorities to set up a biracial commission comprising five blacks and five whites.Garrow 1986 333 This would investigate complaints regarding segregation in return for an end to the demonstrations and mass meetings; it was supported by the SCLC as a fair compromise, and at a secret meeting of St. Augustine businessmen, the new committee was also endorsed. A Grand Jury was due to decide the issue over the next few days.Garrow 1986 333 Protest meetings On the evening of Wednesday, June 17, leading Reform Jewish leader Albert Vorspan and 16 colleaguesBranch 1998 354 from eight different statesSlate 2006 550 joined a mass-meeting in the First Baptist Church, where King "announced their entrance to an enthusiastic crowd". Dresner addressed the crowd—the only member of the delegation with experience of these meetings—in the form of a call and response sermon.Branch 1998 354Call and response derives from historical African roots which then entered the American diasporic tradition, and in doing so created a new, unique tradition in the United States.Epstein 1977 73, 199, 206 Its use by a Jewish rabbi in a Southern Baptist church "astonished his colleagues... [and] evoked a tumultuous response", says Branch.Branch 1998 354 note The rabbis left the church and followed Fred Shuttlesworth, Andrew Young,Branch 1998 354—King's deputy in the townRieder 2008 235—and 300 othersGarrow 1986 333 on a long march to the old St. Augustine Slave Market,Branch 1998 354 which historian Clive Webb calls a "symbolic focus of protest" in St. Augustine.Webb 2010 169Nightly marches to the Slave Market, originally the idea of Hosea Williams, had become a regular occurrence and often led to violence. On May 28, notes the rabbi and author Marc Schneier, "as Andrew Young led a column of marchers, they were set upon by Klansmen wielding chains and iron pipes. Local police looked on while Young was beaten unconscious. Newspapers and television stations ran pictures of the beating."Schneier 1999 125 King saw night marches as a method of increasing the "creative tension" that would attract and hold the attention of the rest of the country.Oates 1982 287 Notes Colaiaco, "Sheriff Davis told Young and other black leaders: 'We are declaring martial law. You had no permit for the earlier marches, and no permits will be given for other marches'. SCLC had fomented the 'creative tension' they needed".Colaiaco 1988 101 note and then to the Monson Motel.Garrow 1986 333 The rabbis dispersed to the local homes where they were being billeted, while King and his colleagues discussed strategy.Branch 1998 354 Branch argues that it was originally Hosea Williams' idea to launch an integration against a swimming pool, with the aim of maintaining popular momentum. However, "Williams suffered a ribbing when he refused to lead one of his own wild schemes...Williams admitted he could not swim".Branch 1998 354 Protest Protesters enter the motel Shuttlesworth and C. T. Vivian led a group of around 50 supporters to Downtown's Monson Motor LodgeBranch 1998 354 at about 12:40 pm.Colburn 1985 99 King observed the operation from a waterfront park over the road;Branch 1998 355 Again, Brock met the integrated group at the doors and again announced his was a segregated business.Colburn 1985 99 By now, suggests Colburn, the almost daily marches to and trespasses on his business—combined with equal pressure from segregationists not to surrender—had worn away Brock's usual calm and pleasant demeanor, leaving him irritable and short-tempered. He had also received death threats.Colburn 1985 99Following one march on his motel, his mother-in-law had had a heart attack.Colburn 1985 99 note Warren has described it as being a "rather comical scene, arranged primarily for its news value", particularly due to Brock'sWarren 2008 118 "frantic, comical antics".Warren 2008 118 Described by Branch as "normally a bookish and controlled businessman", Brock locked the doors on the group on their arrival at 12:40 pm.Branch 1998 354Bookish, says Branch, to the extent that he "routinely showed reporters an office adding machine with his precise tabulation of integrationists arrested at Monson's, standing thus far at 239".Branch 1998 354 note Jewish prayers In an attempt to distract the motel authorities from the activists' plans at the rear of the building, Rabbi Israel S. Dresner led 15 colleagues in an open-air Hebrew prayer meeting in the parking lot.Lindquist 2018 76 The rabbis requested Brock to allow them to enter his restaurant and eat, which he refused. He appears to have begun losing his temper when, on his refusal, the rabbis knelt to pray in his car parkBranch 1998 354 for him.Colburn 1985 99 At this, Brock—a Baptist deacon and a superintendent of the local Sunday School—lost control.Colburn 1985 99 By now, the police were on the scene, and Branch describes Brock as pushing each kneeling rabbi, one at a time, towards them to be arrested.Branch 1998 354 Protesters enter pool In the meantime, SCLCLindquist 2018 76 activists Al Lingo and J. T. Johnson, leading a group of supporters,Lindquist 2018 76 attempted an integration:Lindquist 2018 76 this time, a "dive-in".Bishop 1971 344 Again, the press had been alerted.Colburn 1985 98 Seven minutes after the rabbis' arrival at the front door, shouts from the swimming pool drew everyone. There, they saw a number of young people swimming together, both black and white, Branch 1998 354three men and two womenWarren 2008 118.Two white activists, both possessing room keys, indicating they were guests, stated that they had invited friends to use the pool, as they believed to be within their rights.Branch 1998 354 Brock's reaction to protesters News cameras began rolling.Warren 2008 118 Brock told the white swimmers "you're not putting these people in my pool",Colburn 1985 99 and—"with exaggerated gusto", suggests WarrenWarren 2008 118—went to his office and brought out a 2 usgal L drum of hydrochloric acid and poured it into the pool.Branch 1998 354Colburn 1985 99 This was a cleaning fluid,Garrow 1986 333 and Brock was "screaming that he would burn them out", comments Branch.Branch 1998 354This was a harmless threat, suggests Branch, as hydrochloric acid was a "relatively harmless" cleaning fluid that Brock had available,Branch 1998 354 although in a high enough concentration it can damage human tissue and organs.Cruz 2012 254 note Brock also yelled that he was "cleaning the pool", a presumed reference to it now being, in his eyes, racially contaminated.Snodgrass 2009 181 Another report states that he also allowed an alligator into the pool.Haygood 2015 179 Crowding and Dr. King's arrival As they attempted to leave the pool, members of the straining crowd shouted numerous threats, including to shoot, stone, or drown the swimmersBranch 1998 354 and called for dogs.Colburn 1985 100 Police held them back. By then, suggests Branch, both police and civilians were "enraged at the sight of the intermingled wet bodies"Branch 1998 354 and the audacity of it.Garrow 1986 333 Brock appears to have "lost his cool",Lindquist 2018 76 and, weeping, shouted "I can't stand it, I can't stand it".Chalmers 2003 44 King and his party approached the motel only to be surrounded by hecklers. Hosea Williams later recalled wanting to "get the hell out of there" and feared that, on account of his being unable to swim, they were going to throw him in the pool.Oates 1982 291 Arrest of protesters Brock's attempt to force the protesters out did not work,Garrow 1986 333 and, impatient at the slow progress the swimmers were making in leaving the pool,Branch 1998 354–355 Officer James Hewitt announced that they were all under arrest.Colburn 1985 99 An off-duty policeman,Garrow 1986 333 Officer Henry Billitz, jumped in—except for his shoes still fully clothed—in an attempt at dragging them out himself;Branch 1998 354–355 he beat them up as well.Cruz 2012 254 Then-state attorney Dan R. WarrenWarren was, at the time, one of those working on the Grand Jury's report that at this point was expected to appoint a biracial committee comprising five whites and five blacks.Warren 2008 118 note later wrote how, from his office in the courthouse, he heard a "near riot" taking place from the motel, which was "only a block away".Warren 2008 118 By now, there were over 100 people watching by the poolside. Colburn speculates that the SCLC's new integrationist tactics "had a greater impact than even they perhaps envisioned."Colburn 1985 99 It also alienated the St. Augustine business community further; James Brock, for example, says Colburn, who had previously supported compromise, "conceded his attitude had changed as had those of his colleagues in the motel business".Colburn 1985 148 Whites were told that this was an example of the future if blacks were given more rights.Bishop 1971 346 thumb|State Governor Farris Bryant, who ordained state rather than city law during the civil rights campaign|alt=black and white photograph of the state governor, Bryant Three days before the integration,Belknap 1987 133 the state Governor, Farris Bryant had ordained that state officers took custody of those arrested under riot conditions. However, local officers were intermingled with them outside the motel, and notes Branch, one "overwrought local deputy reached over and around a trooper to pummel one arrested swimmer most of the way from the pool to a State Police cruiser".Branch 1998 355 Still wet, they were arrested for trespassing.Garrow 1986 333 The arrest of Dresner and his fellow rabbis remains the record number of rabbis arrested on a single occasion.Lindquist 2018 76 While in prison overnight, the rabbis composed a document they titled "Common Testament", which Rabbi Eugene Borowitz wrote on the back of a KKK leaflet.Slate 2006 550 Following the rabbis' arrests, comments Bishop, "a wave of antisemitism swept through St. Augustine".Bishop 1971 344 Aftermath Brock's reaction Brock, according to Branch, was "enraged [and] feeling betrayed on both flanks for his moderation, drained and refilled his pool to purify it of integration".Branch 1998 355 He also hired armed guards for the swimming poolBruns 2006 102 and raised the Confederate flag above the motel.Branch 1998 355 It has been described as "one of the most significant events of the St. Augustine Civil Rights Movement".Lindquist 2018 76 Business leaders, meanwhile, reversed their earlier support for the biracial committee on the grounds that intensifying protests went against the spirit of the proposal. They were particularly concerned, argues Garrow, that King had intended to, in his words, "put the Monson out of business".Garrow 1986 333 After all, says Warren, Brock's entire business was focused around the Monson and repeated demonstrations threatened its profitability.Warren 2008 156 Official reactions Two days after the integration, Bryant banned public demonstrations, but the violence continued unabated.Belknap 1987 133 The all-whiteBishop 1971 346 grand jury summoned witnesses to the Monson integration and, instead of authorizing the biracial committee as had been expected, issued a new report. In this, they suggested that St. Augustine demonstrated "a solid background of harmonious race relations" with "a past history of non-discrimination in governmental affairs". Instead of granting the commission, the jury now attacked the motives of King and SCLC, asking whether they really wanted St. Augustine's issues solved; if they did, instructed the grand jury, King "and all others [were] to demonstrate their good faith by removing their influences from this community for a period of 30 days". If, after this period, King and the SCLC had done so, the jury said it would confirm the biracial commission.Garrow 1986 333 In the event, all its white members resigned,Bruns 2006 103 and the commission never met:Jackson 2007 19 Bryant, suggests Webb, had only ever intended the prospect of the commission to "expedite a resolution to the crisis".Webb 2010 170 This was very much down to the Monson motel integration, argues Warren which, while it may have been intended as an almost-comic episode in the protest, "its impact on the jury's decision was anything but comical".Warren 2008 118 Beach protest alt=Black and white photograph of segregationists fighting on a beach|thumb|Segregationists trying to prevent blacks from swimming at a "White only" beach in St. Augustine, June 25, 1964 alt=Black and white photograph of segregationists, highway patrol and black demonstrators at a "white only" beach|right|thumb|Segregationists, highway patrol and black demonstrators at a "white only" beach, June 25, 1964 The same strategy was repeated less than a week later when SCLC activists performed a "wade-in" at the whites-only St. Augustine beach. On this occasion, violence broke out when the protesters were attacked by segregationists and multiple arrests were made by Florida Highway Patrol officers.Lindquist 2018 76 Armed gangs of both blacks and whites drove around shooting up cars and windows at night.Belknap 1987 131 Civil Rights Act of 1964 However, on July 2 the same year, the Civil Rights Act was signed into United States Federal law,As 88 352 78 241 1964 07 02. note This effectively enforced desegregation:Branch 1998 387–378 The most immediate effect was to outlaw discrimination in hotels, restaurants, theaters, and other public accommodations. But the law had a far broader reach, barring employment discrimination on the basis of "race, color, religion, sex or national origin" and ending federal funding for discriminatory programs.Bruns 2006 103 The Civil Rights Act was passed by the Senate the day after the Monson Motel swim-in.Oates 1982 290 Jackson argues that, while the St. Augustine protest had probably been directly responsible for enabling the act to be passed, "locals had paid a heavy price". Unemployment went up as, not having security of employment, many were fired from their jobs.Jackson 2007 190–191 An SCLC official later reported that St. Augustine had been "the toughest nut to crack" that he had encountered in his career of direct action; King, too, called it the "most lawless" place he had campaigned in.Oates 1982 293 Desegregation of St. Augustine Brock chaired a meeting of 80 local businessmen to decide how the business community would respond to the new act.Garrow 1986 337 Brock told reporters that although his colleagues were, to a man, opposed on principleColburn 1985 110— and although with "considerable unease", suggests Garrow—by a majority of 75, they agreed to abide by it. The unease stemmed from fears as to how the KKK would react to their adhering to desegregation, and he wrote to Judge Simpson requesting the aid of US Marshals from "the mob action that will undoubtedly occur".Garrow 1986 337Simpson disagreed, replying that "developments over the last twenty four hours make me extremely hopeful that the trouble you anticipate will not materialize".Garrow 1986 337 note With the Johnson administration refusing the aid of federal marshals, says, Oates, "St. Augustine had become a nightmare" for King and the SCLC.Oates 1982 292 On July 4, Brock, as the spokesman for the St. Augustine Hotel, Motel, and Restaurant Owners Association, stated that they "want[ed] to do everything we can to get our community back to normal with harmonious relations between the races".Warren 2008 157 Segregationist protests of the Monson Motor Lodge On Thursday July 9, 1964, James Brock welcomed the first black guests to the Monson Motor Lodge restaurant. Visitors were greeted at the entrance by a picket line; the confederate flag flew and placards announced "Niggers Ate Here".Branch 1998 392Events such as these led to President Johnson's political advisor, Lee C. White, informing him within the week that, in St. Augustine, many businesses which had complied with the Act had now resegregated, "claiming that they were afraid".Branch 1998 392 note Brock, suggests Warren, "would pay a high price for advocating harmony among the races",Warren 2008 157 and the Monson was picketed daily from this point.Colburn 1985 111 Placards with slogans such as "gated establishments, carrying picket signs proclaiming "Delicious Food—Eat with Niggers Here", "Niggers Sleep Here—Would You?" and "Civil Rights Has To Go" were prominent. Brock asked Stoner, who was on the picket, why the Monson had been targeted; Stoner told him, "we're just trying to help you get some nigger business". Colburn 1985 111 Blacks who attempted to eat at Monson were beaten before being driven away.Slate 2006 567 The Monson Motor Lodge and its restaurant became the epicenter of a violent battle between civil rights supporters and white supremacists after blacks were banned from the facility in June 1964. The business bounced back and forth between segregation, integration, resegregation, and reintegration as the manager, James Brock, attempted to keep his business afloat in the escalating racial violence that followed the passage of the Civil Rights Act that summer. In a matter of weeks, the business experienced the picketing of thousands of civil rights supporters—including seventeen rabbis and Jewish activists who came at the request of Reverend Martin Luther King Jr—a Klan-sponsored fire-bombing of the restaurant, and Brock's dousing of black customers in the motel pool with muriatic acid.Ferris 2014 281 alignright Marcie Cohen Ferris, The Edible South 25em #FFFFF0 Re-segregation of the Monson Motor Lodge By July 16, Brock had de-integrated, partly in order, argues Branch, to avoid punishment from local klansmen. If this was the case, however, his attempt failed; Branch notes that, while he remained on good terms with the local KKK, the Monson was still firebombed by an out-of-state gang.Branch 1998 396 A few days later, the KKK held their biggest march yet, boasting that they had recruited significantly on the back of the pending Civil Rights Act.Warren 2008 167 The SCLC had brought a case against around 30 St. Augustine restaurants and eateries in an attempt to force them to integrate.There were officially two classes of defendants in the case: the eateries, for not segregating, and Manucy for not forcing them to do so.Warren 2008 167 note Warren recounts how Brock—"besieged operator of the now infamous Monson Motor Lodge"—personally testified to the court "his frustration in attempting to comply with the new law and demanded the court get Holstead Manucy and the picketers off his back".Warren 2008 167 Legal hearings As a result, following a two-day hearing, Federal District Judge John Milton Bryan Simpson ordered that blacks be allowed to eat at two restaurants in St. Augustine.Warren 2008 167 Holstead Manucy's testimony was punctuated by his pleading the fifth about 30 times on one day.Warren 2008 167 The SCLC attempted to show that a conspiracy existed to prevented enforcement of the new law. Brock testified that when he had first begun serving blacks and had been picketed, he had asked Manucy to "get the[m]...off his back". When Manucy denied having that kind of influence, Brock had disbelieved him, saying "you are the kingfish with these people". However, he told the court, it had not done any good, and the Monson continued to be picketed.Warren 2008 168 When Simpson pressed Brock to state who was with Manucy on these occasions, Brock requested that the judge not make him answer, telling Simpson, "you put me in an unpleasant position when you ask me this. I am a little bit afraid to be talking like this." Simpson ordered Brock to receive a bodyguard for the remainder of the hearings.Warren 2008 168 Simpson's judgment was as the first federal ruling under the new Act, a "landmark", argues Warren. All parties were ordered to refrain from further violation;Warren 2008 168 Brock and his colleagues were to desegregate again in accordance with the law and "regardless of threats".Branch 1998 396Simpson also rejected a case of contempt that had been brought against Bryant on the grounds that the State Governor could not be held responsible for the police's failure to uphold the law; he also transferred all the pending cases regarding civil rights protesters into Federal jurisdiction.Warren 2008 167 note Brock did so, despite threats from the KKK.Garrow 1986 344 On the evening of July 23, business leaders met at the Monson to discuss the legal options available to them. One strategy decided on was to allow themselves to be summonsed, as this might also persuade a judge to condemn the KKK picketing. The following morning, two white men threw a molotov cocktail into the lobby of the Monson,Colburn 1985 150 causing damage valued at $3,000 US 3000 1964 eq (adjusted for inflation).Colburn 1985 112 For the rest of the day, comments Colburn, "those businesses who had not started turning blacks away now did".Colburn 1985 150 Dr. King visits St. Augustine On August 5, King returned to St. Augustine for the first time since his release from jail.Garrow 1986 344 He was concerned because the struggle there had taken a disproportionate amount of time and manpower, and, notes Bishop, "he was a man with a carefully planned schedule and the calendar of coming events was becoming crowded".Bishop 1971 345King had, for example, notes Bishop:promised to devote himself to a summertime drive for Southern black voter registration; there was to be a big People-to-People March in the state of Mississippi to honor Medgar Evers; the Democratic National Convention was to be held in Atlantic City in August—and King wanted to be there to make his presence felt; the little town of Selma had been in the planning stage for more than a year, and the people there were waiting for Martin Luther King.Bishop 1971 345–346 note Segregationist backlash The following day the Monson Motel was firebombed.Garrow 1986 344 Judge Simpson ordered Brock and his colleagues to obey the law and reintegrate: this, argues Oates, "gave them the excuse of external coercion to take down the "WHITES ONLY" signs—"what else can we do?'", they could ask.Oates 1982 2926 Warren also describes Brock and colleagues as "pander[ing] to the Klan" by claiming "we're not capitulating to anybody...we had no other choice".Warren 2008 155 Simpson also passed a restraining order against both Davies and Manucy. This quotes Oates, "ended their reign of terror and moved Abernathy to quip that the movement changed Manucy "from a Hoss to a mule".Oates 1982 297 Not everyone was sympathetic to the St. Augustine business community. The State Attorney, James Kynes, watching from Tallahassee, had "little sympathy". He believed that businesses had encouraged white thugs to confront black picketers and demonstrators—if only through lack of protesting—so they could hardly now complain that the "monster" they had created "now ran amok in their city".Colburn 1985 150 Historian David Mark Chalmers agrees, believing that, had business leaders told the sheriff to intervene against the Klan, he probably would have had to. However, "community leaders who had been willing to countenance violence against black people and integrationists found that they were now unable to control it or turn it off", and they were publicly blamed for that failure.Chalmers 2003 43, 45 Webb, too, argues that silence implicitly equaled approval, particularly among restaurateurs, some of whom not only held KKK fundraisers but provided leading Klansmen and segregationists with free meals.Webb 2010 173 Brock put out another association statement qualifying their support for the act: "We deplore the action of the Congress and the Courts in enforcing integration...integration of places of accommodation is obnoxious to us".Colburn 1985 150 Some of Brock's colleagues put signs above their tills informing patrons that money earned from black customers would be donated to Barry Goldwater's current presidential campaign, as Goldwater was known to be anti-integrationist.Colburn 1985 150 Tourism downturn The civil rights protests of June–July 1964 nearly witnessed the destruction of the St. Augustine tourist trade,Baranowski Covert Gordon Jobs 2019 19 and a contemporary report declared that "the tourist trade is already off at least 50 per cent...and many a motel owner is threatened by bankruptcy and foreclosure".Scott 2018 16 Jackson estimates that St. Augustine lost approximately 122,000 tourists and $50,000,000 (adjusted for inflation, US 50,000,000.00 1964 eq) as a result of the protests,Jackson 2007 190–191 which the historian Michael Honey has compared in their ferocity to those of Birmingham, Alabama and Baton Rouge, Louisiana.Honey 2007 207 An investigative committee announced by the state legislature eventually—and, comments Warren, with a "remarkable lack of understanding"—variously blamed King, the KKK, newspapers, and television, for racial problems that could otherwise "have been solved amicably by Negro and White citizens last summer had they been free from outside agitation." The committee also declared that such was the ultimate cost of the events of 1964, that the taxpayers of St. Augustine had effectively paid for King's visit.Warren 2008 185 Likewise, the SCLC campaign, argues Webb, failed to address the fundamental issues "of poverty and deprivation that afflicted the local black community".Webb 2010 170 Racial tensions St. Augustine celebrated its quadricentennial the following year. Tourists flocked, but there was a seething racial tension beneath the surface.Warren 2008 184 Although the business community had changed its policies if not its attitude towards racial integration by 1965, Blacks were still unsure, generally, of where they stood and few dined out in white motels or restaurants. One later saidColburn 1985 151 You can be pretty sure that if you eat at a white restaurant and they know who you are, your boss will be told that you're trying to stir up trouble. If they don't know you, you might be arrested after you leave so they can find out about you.Colburn 1985 151 Brock's bankruptcy Tourism helped the desperately in-need city economy; hotels and motels, in particular, were fully booked. Brock, however, did not do as well as he might have hoped.Warren 2008 184 St. Augustine's main bank refused to provide financial cover,Chalmers 2003 90 and Brock had been consistently refused bank loans to cover costs incurred during the pickets and demonstrations the previous year. On May 2, 1965, he declared bankruptcy, statingWarren 2008 184 I'd hoped right along that something good would happen that would enable me to continue in St. Augustine, but since June 11, the day I put Martin Luther King in jail, there's been some kind of a stigma I haven't been able to shake...I'd always been a moderate on the racial issue, and we always said we'd integrate if the bill was passed. Months before the bill came up, I had reason to feel that it would pass and the public accommodations action would be included. I tried my best to arrange quiet talks in our community.Warren 2008 184–185 Official report Nearly two years after the original disturbances, in June 1965, the Florida investigative Committee published its report, titled Racial and Civil Disorders in St. Augustine. The committee was careful to share the blame equally between the Klan and the SCLC, in both cases emphasizing that it was "out of town", rather than resident, elements who had caused the trouble between them.Webb 2010 172 Wade-ins and swim-ins remained a central tactic for Floridian blacks even after the passing of the Civil Rights Act, and laid the path of integrating other areas of society that were proving less than susceptible to change, such as green open spaces and schools.Bush 2016 117 Legacy alt=Colour photograph of a plaque for Judge Simpson|thumb|John Milton Bryan Simpson plaque; following his death in 1987, he had a Jacksonville Courthouse named after him. Fate of the Monson Motor Lodge Brock sold the Monson in 1998.Guzman 1999 F1 The motel and pool were demolished in March 2003 following five years of protests,Lewis 2003 although not before its early modern foundations had been excavated.Because there was would be no time to excavate the site between its destruction and commencement of building the new hotel, archaeologists booked into separate rooms while it was still open, dug holes in the floor, gathered their findings and then backfilled and moved onto other rooms.Milanich 2002 53 note Those who disagreed with the proposed demolition argued that it would eliminate one of the nation's important landmarks of the civil rights movement.Lewis 2003 Author David Nolan told WJCT that "people would claim the motel had no historic significance, even though a large civil rights protest occurred there".Mcintyre Ross 2015 The owner, a local property developer, wanted to build a new corporate hotel, while opponents believed it would be a useful target for drawing more black tourists to Florida, something the state was attempting to do.Guzman 1999 F1They made comparisons with Harlem, in New York, which highlighted its civil rights heritage tours to both black and white tourists.Guzman 1999 F1 note A city planner, on the other hand, commented "the Monson is not the only historical site [in St. Augustine]...This one just happens to have Martin Luther King involved".Guzman 1999 F1 The Hilton Bayfront Hotel was built on the site in 2005,Net Hospitality 2005-02-08 Hilton Hotels Corporation Announces Opening of Hilton St. Augustine Historic Bayfront, a New Hotel with a Historic Twist https://www.hospitalitynet.org/news/4022105/hilton-hotels-corporation-announces-opening-of-hilton-st-augustine-historic-bayfront-a-new-hotel-with-a-historic-twist 2026-03-01 Hospitality Net en although the steps of the Monson—where Brock and King had their "quiet chat"—have been preserved with a plaque to commemorate King's activism in the city.Gordon 2015 168 Brock, interviewed in 1999, stated that "I don't feel sorry for any of that stuff. I have nothing to be ashamed of", as he was obeying the law of the time.Guzman 1999 F1 Jewish commemoration On June 18, 2015, the St. Augustine Jewish Historical Society commemorated the arrest of the rabbis 51 years earlier. The events, called "Why We Went to St. Augustine" included a public reading of the letter they jointly wrote in jail that night.Mcintyre 2015 In photographs and film A number of iconic photographs were taken during the integration. One, by an Associated Press photographer, caught Officer Billitz in mid-jump as he leapt into the pool. This appeared the next day on the front pages of the Miami Herald and New York Times.Branch 1998 355 Photographs of Brock pouring acid into the pool made international news headlines,Lindquist 2018 76 as well as proving ammunition for what has been termed King's "war of images".Bruns 2006 102According to the author and the former deputy director for the National Archives and Records Administration Roger Bruns, it "was even picked up by Izvestia, the influential Soviet newspaper".Bruns 2006 102 note This photograph has since been described as "infamous".Pellegrino 2013 359Slate 2006 550 Warren notes, too, that due to the distance film had to travel for processing and distribution, for an event to hit the ABC, CBS and NBC six o'clock news bulletins, it had to take place before noon; as the swim-in had taken place just before, it was guaranteed to be headline news that evening.Warren 2008 119Colburn 1985 100 See also List of incidents of civil unrest in the United States Notes note References 20em Bibliography 30em yes Baldwin L. 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Exploring The Territories of the United States 2014 Britannica Digital Learning 978-1-62513-185-0 New York 34 Warren D. R. If It Takes All Summer: Martin Luther King, the KKK, and States' Rights in St. Augustine, 1964 University of Alabama Press 2008 978-0-81731-599-3 Tuscaloosa Webb C. Rabble Rousers: The American Far Right in the Civil Rights Era University of Georgia Press 2010 978-0-82034-229-0 Athens, Georgia Category:1964 in Florida Category:1964 protests Category:Civil rights movement protests Category:St. Augustine, Florida Category:African-American history of Florida Category:Buildings and structures in St. Johns County, Florida Category:Riots and civil disorder in Florida Category:History of racial segregation in the United States Category:Anti-black racism in Florida Category:June 1964 in the United States