Free previewStop 4 of St. Augustine Walking Tour: Nights of Lights and the Old City
Four Children Who Wouldn't Promise
You're standing in the plaza at the heart of old St. Augustine, under the holiday lights. Look for the bronze monument here. It honors the foot soldiers, the ordinary people who marched for civil rights in this city. It was unveiled in May 2011, in this same downtown plaza where demonstrators had been attacked.
In the early 1960s, St. Augustine was a tourist town of about 15,000 people, and it was getting ready for a party. Its 400th anniversary was coming in 1965, and the world's press was expected. City officials planned a celebration of the Spanish past, and they left African Americans out of the planning. Black residents were nearly a quarter of the town. Almost a decade after the Supreme Court ordered schools desegregated, only six Black children here had been admitted to white schools. One of their families had its home burned.
That's the opening. The rest plays at stop 4 of St. Augustine Walking Tour: Nights of Lights and the Old City (3 min in all). Unlock the tour to hear it all, or try stop 1 free first.
