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If It Takes All Summer
Martin Luther King, the KKK, and States' Rights in St. Augustine, 1964
By Dan R. Warren The University of Alabama Press
Copyright © 2008 The University of Alabama Press
All rights reserved.
ISBN: 978-0-8173-5842-6
CHAPTER 1
Protest and Reaction
In 1964 St. Augustine became a battleground in America's unfinished Civil War. That war had been fought to preserve the Union and bring a measure of equality to millions who had been held in slavery. At the end of that great struggle, it was the fervent hope of the nation that passage of the Thirteenth, Fourteenth, and Fifteenth Amendments would end the nightmare of slavery. It was not to be. Instead, slavery was replaced with a degrading form of second-class citizenship: segregation.
St. Augustine is the oldest continuously occupied city in the nation, and 1965 would mark the four hundredth year of its founding. In March 1963 city fathers planned an elaborate dinner to dedicate the first phase of restoring the old section of St. Augustine, called the Avero restoration area. The vice president of the United States, Lyndon Johnson, had been invited to deliver the welcoming address. But no blacks were among the local luminaries and prominent citizens invited to attend the momentous occasion. This exclusion of a large portion of the community set off a series of events that ultimately brought Martin Luther King Jr. and the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) to St. Augustine.
Congress had passed a resolution in 1962 authorizing the establishment of a Quadricentennial Commission to celebrate the four hundredth anniversary of the founding of St. Augustine. The resolution called for the appointment of two members of the commission from the House, two from the Senate, and one from the Department of the Interior; the remaining members were to be appointed by the president. The House appointed Florida representatives D. R. Matthews and William C. Cramer; the Senate, Florida senators George Smathers and Spessard Holland. Conrad Wirth, director of the National Park Service, was the Interior appointee. In March 1963 President John F. Kennedy appointed the remaining members: Henry Ford II from Detroit; J. Peter Grace, from New York City; Joseph P. Hurley, from St. Augustine; Herbert E. Wolfe from St. Augustine; Edward Litchfield from Pittsburgh; and Charles Clark from Washington D.C. However, Congress failed to provide funds for the commission's work.
In May 1963 Senators Holland and Smathers introduced a bill authorizing a federal appropriation of $350,000 dollars to help finance the city's four hundredth anniversary celebration. Despite the use of state and federal funds, no one from the black community was invited to attend nor was any black appointed to the commission. Incensed over the promoters' insensitivity in ignoring one-quarter of the city's population, civil rights activists conducted a series of protests that ignited the final battle in the efforts to achieve passage of a meaningful Civil Rights Act.
At the time, the events taking place in St. Augustine had little significance for me. But for civil rights activists in St. Augustine, such as Fannie Fulwood and Elizabeth Hawthorne, president and secretary, respectively, of the local chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), the exclusion of blacks from this historical celebration was an "undemocratic" act unworthy of financial support from the federal government. During Vice President Lyndon Johnson's March 12 visit to St. Augustine, his chief of staff had agreed to intercede with local officials and to set up a meeting between members of the local chapter of the NAACP and the city commissioners of St. Augustine to air their complaints. That promise was not kept.
On May 7, 1963, they sent a heartfelt letter to President Kennedy. "Since St. Augustine is the nation's oldest city we feel democracy should work here," they wrote. Calling the president's atttention to the fact that "St. Augustine still maintains segregated public facilities, public schools" and that "Negroes are employed as laborers or in manual jobs by the city and county, let us prove to the Communists and the entire world that America's oldest city can truly be a showcase of democracy." They also reminded the president of promises made by George Reedy, the vice president's chief of staff, to intercede with local officials, complaining that "the city commission failed to keep its promise for a meeting with a Delegation of Negro Citizens the day after Mr. Johnson's visit." In closing they pleaded, "our organization will await your advice and assistance in correcting these conditions."
Their plea was in vain. The president did not respond. The city, however, was "shocked" that two local leaders of the NAACP would ask that federal funds be withheld from a national celebration to honor the nation's oldest city. The mayor, James E. Lindley, released their letter to the press as he and other members of the city commission left for Washington to attend the first working session of the all-white Quadricentennial Commission. He did not respond to the NAACP's request that two black members be added to the commission.
The NAACP had an active branch in St. Augustine. Two of its members, Robert B. Hayling, a local dentist, and Goldie Eubanks, a minister, were outspoken critics of the racist policies of the city. Hayling, an adviser to the Youth Council of the NAACP, had recruited members from the local black college and from the community to demonstrate against the failure of the county and city to fully desegregate its public facilities. Hayling and Eubanks strongly resented the city's segregation policies and deeply felt the snub to the black community of not being included in plans for the quadricentennial celebrations. Both were fearless, in Hayling's case, perhaps even to the point of recklessness.
They represented a more militant approach to the civil rights movement than the moderate stance usually taken by the NAACP, and not even a direct appeal from NAACP president Roy Wilkins not to "disrupt the proceedings" could deter Hayling from taking direct action. Along with other local NAACP members, he and Eubanks responded to the snub by threatening to organize a picket during the dinner. To emphasize their determination, they urged the president of the local chapter of the NAACP, Fannie Fulwood, to send a telegram to Vice President Johnson to alert him to the fact that the dinner was a segregated affair and members of the black community were not welcome. This had the desired effect, especially when the vice president learned that city officials were seeking federal funds for the celebration.
When the vice president announced he would not attend the dinner if blacks were not included, the committee reluctantly agreed to invite twelve, although those invited were required to sit at segregated tables. This public snub and the failure of city commissioners to meet with members of the NAACP increased the growing racial tensions in the city. City officials finally agreed to hear their grievances and set a meeting time in May. When members of the NAACP arrived, they found only the city manager on hand to meet them, with a tape recorder so they could air their complaints to the city commissioners. They did so, pouring out their recorded complaints as if the commissioners were personally present. Commissioners finally met with the committee on Sunday, June 16, 1963, but some members were abrasive and accused the demonstrators of being led by "Communists" or the "Kennedys" who, they said, were behind the civil rights drive.
This further fueled Hayling's outrage and he heatedly promised to fight the practice of segregation in St. Augustine until "my last dime is gone." It was not an idle threat. Ultimately segregation would be eliminated from the city's businesses, but the price Hayling paid was high. He gave up his practice in St. Augustine and in 1965 moved to Cocoa Beach. Hayling was one of a new breed of young black civil rights activists who were tired of waiting for long-overdue equality. Hayling had the courage and determination to commit all his financial resources to end segregation in the city, even at the expense of losing his practice.
In 1960, recently discharged from the air force as a lieutenant, Hayling had purchased the active and profitable practice of Rudolph Gordon, the only black dentist in St. Augustine. It was said that Gordon had as many white patients as blacks, and he was a well-respected member of the community. Hayling initially retained most of Gordon's white patients. But that changed when he took the lead in efforts to end segregation in the city. After the death of Medgar Evers, field secretary for the NAACP in Mississippi, Hayling issued a statement saying that "passive resistance is no good in the face of violence. I and others of the NAACP have armed ourselves and we will shoot first and ask questions later." His practice began to suffer as the white power structure turned its fury on him and others in the community who advocated any means necessary to end segregation in the city.
The threat to use force also fueled a white backlash, igniting the Klan, whose members soon surfaced and engulfed the city in nightly acts of violence. The John Birch Society was also active in the city, primarily through the influence of Hardgrave Norris, a physician and prominent member of the community. He was a close ally of Joseph Shelley, another physician, who in 1963 had been elected to the city commission and was soon to become mayor.
The militant stance taken by Hayling and his allies made them an immediate target of the radical elements in the white community. Some people claimed that the Communists were behind the movement and that Hayling had been sent into the community to cause trouble. Many argued that his presence had created the problem, arguing that he was responsible for upsetting the allegedly harmonious relations that existed before he arrived. They pointed to the community's acceptance of Gordon as proof that Hayling was the problem. Rumors that the Communists were involved in the movement were soon accepted by many in the community as the truth, and sufficient reason for those in power to ignore demands for change.
Though most whites in the community were hostile toward Hayling, his support from a number of young blacks in the community began to grow. As the united voice of the white community hardened against him, and the hostility intensified, so did the determination of his enthusiastic followers to bring an immediate end to segregation. Hayling's grit and determination attracted many students from the local high school and from Florida Memorial College.
Florida Memorial was a small Baptist college located on the outskirts of the city. Students from the college began to gravitate to Hayling and Eubanks, providing the nucleus of civil rights activists in St. Augustine. The college, however, was drowning in a sea of red ink. Its president, Royal W. Puryear, was desperately trying to keep the small school from going under and needed the financial support of the local white power structure to keep it afloat. In an effort to maintain his relationship with city leaders, he initially forbade students from participating in the growing demonstrations. But most students ignored the prohibition, and despite Puryear's efforts to stay clear of the growing racial unrest, local financial support for the college, meager as it was, virtually disappeared. The board of trustees, in a desperate attempt to save the school, voted to move the college to Miami. Bitter over this sequence of events, Puryear decided to join the protest movement. As it grew, he became more vocal, and expressed pride in his students for their courage and bravery. He, too, would eventually have to leave the city.
At this time, I was the state attorney for Florida's Seventh Judicial Circuit. Originally appointed to the post by Governor Farris Bryant in the summer of 1962, I had successfully run for election in September 1962 to serve out the unexpired term of the former state attorney, W. W. (Billy) Judge, who had resigned. I was up for reelection in 1964 and spent much of my time in St. Augustine either campaigning or trying felony cases. The circuit was vast, encompassing Volusia, Flagler, Putnam, and St. Johns counties. Daytona Beach, where I lived, was the largest city in Volusia County; St. Augustine was the largest in St. Johns County.
The circuit stretches for 150 miles along Florida's northeast coast, from just north of Cape Kennedy to just south of Jacksonville. The St. Johns River meanders along the western borders of the circuit, except for Putnam County located west of the river. At that time, Florida's population was spread along the coast, with a vast wilderness of pine and low-lying hammock land blanketing the interior. Small cities, such as Deland in Volusia, Bunnell in Flagler, Palatka in Putnam, and Hastings in St. Johns, were small dots of population in this vast track of wilderness. I traveled the circuit from my home in Daytona Beach, trying criminal cases, attending to grand juries, and investigating felony crimes in all four counties.
Demonstrations in St. Augustine began in earnest during late July 1963. On July 26, a group of young people were arrested for delivering copies of an editorial published in the Daytona Beach News-Journal to the homes of influential St. Augustine citizens. The editorial was critical of city officials in St. Augustine for the highhanded manner in which they had handled the growing unrest in the city, especially the acts of St. Johns County judge Charles Mathis Jr. Copies of the editorial hand-delivered during the evening meal did not aid in the digestion of indignant residents.
To combat growing demonstrations, local law enforcement officials began making arrests, primarily for criminal trespass. This broad criminal statute gave owners of business establishments the right to order "undesirables" from their premises. Failure to leave constituted the crime of "trespass after warning." Four young demonstrators, arrested for distributing the editorial critical of Judge Mathis, were convicted in city court for breach of the peace by "unlawfully" distributing handbills. Each was to pay a fine of one hundred dollars or serve thirty days in jail.
Mathis disqualified himself from hearing these charges because his name was mentioned in the editorial, but he did order two juveniles taken into custody on other charges and held for juvenile detention hearings. He also ordered that they be taken from their parents until they promised to obey "all regulations in the future, including those against picketing." On August 1, 1963, nine more demonstrators were convicted in Judge Marvin Greer's justice of the peace court for sit-ins at two local drugstores. They also had to pay one hundred dollars or serve thirty days in jail. This triple legal assault against demonstrations in the city was an unusual move by judicial officials and the convictions quickly filled the limited capacity of the small county jail.
The pattern in St. Augustine of ignoring the mounting racial crisis was in stark contrast with other cities in Florida, where biracial talks were taking place and the barriers of segregation were falling. On September 14, 1962, nine months before the demonstrations started in St. Augustine, the Florida Advisory Committee to the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights held its first public meeting in Daytona Beach. The committee's function was to collect the opinions of leading citizens on voting rights, employment, and the administration of justice. The first meeting of the committee was set to discuss job opportunities for blacks. Community leaders, including all elected county and city commissioners, were invited to attend. Though many failed to appear at the meeting, claiming conflicts in their schedules or previous commitments, Herbert Davidson, editor of the Daytona Beach paper, encouraged community leaders to sit down and discuss the many problems facing the community.
In an editorial supporting the goals of the committee, the Daytona Beach News-Journal deplored the "limited job opportunities for blacks" and asserted that the answer to the problem was better educational opportunities. "It is time that moderates of both races get together to tell the political power structure to begin honest reform, and time for the business communities to ignore the 'Bull' Connors who use political power to maintain the status quo. It can't be maintained any more than our own nation could have remained as colonies of a foreign power."
(Continues...)
Excerpted from If It Takes All Summer by Dan R. Warren. Copyright © 2008 The University of Alabama Press. Excerpted by permission of The University of Alabama Press.
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