Abstract
Proud of its history as the longest-lasting European settlement in North America, the City of St. Augustine began to plan its 1965 quadricentennial celebration in 1962. The planning resulted in a series of costly events and restoration projects. In order to accomplish all that the city had planned, the quadricentennial celebrations would require federal funding. In May 1963, Florida U.S. Senators Smathers and Holland introduced a bill that would authorize federal funding in the amount of$350,000 for the events. With funding secured, the events planned would still be missing one major component-- 25 percent of its population, the African American community. Often described as one of the most segregated cities in the South, St. Augustine showed the nation and the world that in 1962 nothing had changed in regard to segregation in the "Ancient City." Local members of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) realized that something needed to be done to get their voices heard. After failed attempts by the local NAACP to have President John F. Kennedy, Vice President Lyndon Johnson, and the national NAACP intervene, local African American residents turned to Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) for help. King and the SCLC headed to St. Augustine in May of 1964. As a result of the presence of both King and the SCLC, the Ku Klux Klan (KKK) orchestrated riots, protests movements, and other forms of violence throughout the city. While King and the SCLC left St. Augustine following the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, violence in the city continued. Why then did King leave St. Augustine while the city was still in a state of turmoil? Based on my research, it is my contention that King came to St. Augustine in need of national media coverage to gain momentum for the pending civil rights bill.