Sunday Favorites: The Acid Bath of 1964

From 1963 and 1964, a campaign began in Northern Florida that challenged segregation laws and influenced the passing of the Civil Rights Act on July 2, 1964. Dubbed the St. Augustine Movement, it was a series of protests led by the NAACP Youth Council and Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC), according to the article “The St. Augustine Movement (1963-1964)” by Samuel Momodu.

Originally organized by Dr. Robert Hayling, a dentist and civil rights activist, the movement gained notoriety on July 18, 1963, when a sit-in protest at Woolworth’s lunch counter resulted in the imprisonment of 16 young black protesters and seven juveniles. Among the juveniles were JoeAnn Anderson, Audrey Nell Edwards, Willie Carl Singleton, and Samual White. The teens refused to accept plea deals and were sent to a local reform school for six months. Their case gained national attention and they became known as the St. Augustine Four, according to Momodu.

With the attention of civil rights heavy hitters like Jackie Robinson, the four inspired other protests around the area and began gathering at the Monson Moter Lodge in St. Augustine to protest racial segregation and discrimination with a focus on the location’s segregated pool. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was in attendance, according to the broadcast “Remembering a Civil Rights Swim-in: It was a Milestone,” by staff at National Public Radio (NPR).

Dr. King was arrested on June 11, 1964, at the Monson Motor Lodge Hotel and Restaurant, a significant focal point for the demonstrators. During his incarceration, Dr. King penned the "Letter from the St. Augustine Jail" addressed to his friend Rabbi Israel Dresner in New Jersey, urging him to gather fellow rabbis and involve them in the movement. Subsequently, on June 18, 1964, a total of 17 rabbis were apprehended at the Monson Motor Lodge Hotel, marking the largest collective arrest of rabbis in American history. This group of rabbis formulated their own declaration titled "What We Want."

On June 18, 1964, protesters staged a peaceful swim-in at the pool, entering despite the “whites only,” pool. In a disturbing turn of events, the owner of the hotel responded to the protestors by pouring acid in the pool to force them out. Many of them feared for their lives and screamed in fear as they moved to the other end. The incident gained significant attention and highlight the violence and hostility civil rights activists faced during their struggle for equal rights.

In the 2-minute broadcast on NPR, J.T. Johson, who was present during the episode, claims the hotel manager James Brock “lost it” and caught the peaceful protesters when he decided to force them out which muriatic acid.

“I tried to calm the gang down. I knew that there was too much water for that acid to do anything," J.T. says. "When they drug us out in bathing suits and they carried us out to the jail, they wouldn't feed me because they said I didn't have on any clothes. I said, 'Well, that's the way you locked me up!'

While the specific incident might not be as widely remembered today as some other events of the civil rights movement, it was indeed a part of the broader context that led to the passing of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. This landmark legislation aimed to end racial segregation and discrimination in public spaces, employment, and education. The Civil Rights Act, signed into law by President Lyndon B. Johnson, played a crucial role in advancing the cause of civil rights and equality in the United States.