St. Augustine movement

Part of the wider Civil Rights Movement in St. Augustine, Florida

St. Augustine movement

Part of the Civil Rights Movement

Martin Luther King Jr. being denied entry to the "whites-only" Monson Motor Lodge restaurant by owner James "Jimmy" Brock

Date| 1963–1964 (2 years)
Location|

St. Augustine, Florida

Resulted in|

* Catalyst to passage of Civil Rights Act of 1964

Parties

* NAACP Youth Council (NYC)
* Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC)

* Governor of Florida
* St. Johns County Sheriff's Department
* Mayor of St. Augustine
* St. Augustine Police Department
* Monson Motor Lodge
* Ancient City Hunting Club (ACHC)
* National States Rights Party (NSRP)
* John Birch Society (JBS)
* United Florida KKK

|

Lead figures

NYC members

* Robert Hayling
* Clyde Jenkins
* James Hauser
* James Jackson

SCLC members

* Martin Luther King Jr.
* Ralph Abernathy
* Hosea Williams
* Andrew Young

State of Florida

* C. Farris Bryant, Governor

St. Johns County

* L.O. Davis, Sheriff

City of St. Augustine

* Joseph Shelley, Mayor
* Virgil Stuart, Police Chief

Business

* James "Jimmy" Brock, motel manager

ACHC member

* Halstead 'Hoss' Manucy

NSRP member

* Rev. Charles Conley 'Connie' Lynch

* v
* t
* e

Civil rights movement in Florida

Daytona

* Florida ex Rel. Hawkins v. Board of Control 1956
* Daytona Beach sit-ins 1960

Jacksonville

* Jacksonville sit-ins 1960
* Ax Handle Saturday 1960
* Jacksonville riot 1964
* Murder of Johnnie Mae Chappell 1964

Miami

* Miami sit-ins 1956
* Miami sit-ins 1960
* Gibson v. Florida Legislative Investigation Committee 1963
* Robinson v. Florida 1964
* Miami riot 1968

St. Augustine

* St. Augustine sit-ins 1960
* St. Augustine movement 1963
* Monson Motor Lodge protests 1964

St. Petersburg, Fl

* St. Petersburg sit-ins 1960
* St. Petersburg sanitation strike 1968

Tallahassee

* Tallahassee bus boycott 1956
* Tallahassee sit-ins 1960
* Interfaith Freedom Ride 1961
* Adderley v. Florida 1966

Other localities

* Murders of Harry and Harriette Moore 1951
* Murder trial of Ruby McCollum 1952
* Lido Beach wade-ins 1955
* Tampa sit-ins 1960
* Organized Labor–Professional Freedom Ride 1961
* McLaughlin v. Florida 1964

The St. Augustine movement was a part of the wider Civil Rights Movement, taking place in St. Augustine, Florida from 1963 to 1964. It was a major event in the city's long history and had a role in the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.[1][2]

## Background

[edit]

Despite the unanimous 1954 Supreme Court decision in Brown v. Board of Education that the "separate but equal" legal status of racially segregated public schools rendered them inherently unequal, St. Augustine still had only six black children admitted into white schools by 1964. The home of one of the families of these children was burned by local segregationists, while another family had their car burned during a PTA meeting at Fullerwood School.

### 400th anniversary

[edit]

St. Augustine was scheduled to celebrate its 400th anniversary in 1965.[3] Memorial ceremonies for the anniversary were expected to get the attention of international media,[4] and city officials excluded African Americans from planning of the festivities.[3] The preparations focused mainly on the "Spanish past that endorsed pluralism and Pan-American brotherhood" while ignoring the history of slavery in the US and the Jim Crow laws still in force in the Southern states at the time.[5]

### General characteristics

[edit]

St. Augustine was a city with a population of about 15,000 and was largely dependent on tourism. Black people accounted for 23% of the population but racial segregation and Jim Crow prevented them from playing any sort of role in the local political and economic affairs.[3]

## History

[edit]

### Robert Hayling

[edit]

Dr. Robert Hayling is generally considered the "father" of the St. Augustine movement. A Tallahassee native, Hayling served as an Air Force officer, and then became the first black dentist in Florida to be elected to the American Dental Association. He set up business in St. Augustine in 1960 and joined the local National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) that year.[6] Under his leadership the local chapter was growing and began to put pressure on the local government to desegregate the city.[3] An opportunity to protest came in 1963 as St. Augustine was preparing for its 400th anniversary. The local NAACP wrote a letter to Vice President Lyndon B. Johnson asking that he cancel his visit to St. Augustine in March 1963 where he was planning on dedicating a Spanish landmark.[3]

While the campaign was successful at convincing Vice President Lyndon B. Johnson to speak before an interracial audience in St. Augustine, it had no effect on the overall Jim Crow laws. The NAACP campaign lacked a direct action component and Hayling believed that this was a major failing. Hayling founded an NAACP Youth Council that engaged in nonviolent direct action, including wade-ins at the local segregated swimming pools.[7]

### Sit-in protest

[edit]

A sit-in protest on July 18, 1963, at the local Woolworth's lunch counter ended in the arrest and imprisonment of 16 young black protesters and seven juveniles.[8] These protesters were offered plea deals offering release in return for a pledge to abstain from any further protesting. Four of the arrested juveniles, two girls and two boys, refused the plea bargain.[9] These four children were JoeAnn Anderson, Audrey Nell Edwards, Willie Carl Singleton, and Samuel White, and they came to be known as "the St. Augustine Four". They were sent to "reform" school and retained for six months.[10] Their case was publicized as an egregious injustice by Jackie Robinson, the NAACP, the Pittsburgh Courier, and others.[11] Finally, a special action of the governor and cabinet of Florida freed them in January 1964.[12]

### Armed attacks and self-defense

[edit]

In addition to nonviolent direct action, the St. Augustine movement practiced armed self-defense. In spring of 1963, the NAACP aggressively lobbied for the city's federal funding to be suspended until it came into compliance with existing federal civil rights legislation and the Brown v. Board of Education decision. This led to the Ku Klux Klan (KKK) stepping up its death threats against activists. In June, Dr. Hayling publicly stated, "I and the others have armed. We will shoot first and answer questions later. We are not going to die like Medgar Evers." The comment made national headlines. When Klan nightriders terrorized black neighborhoods in St. Augustine, Hayling's NAACP members often drove them off with gunfire.[13]

In September 1963, the Klan staged a rally of several hundred Klansmen on the outskirts of town. They seized Robert Hayling and three other NAACP activists (Clyde Jenkins, James Jackson, and James Hauser), and beat them with fists, chains, and clubs.[14] The four men were rescued by Florida Highway Patrol officers. St. Johns County Sheriff L. O. Davis arrested four white men for the beating and also arrested the four unarmed blacks for "assaulting" the large crowd of armed Klansmen. Charges against the Klansmen were dismissed, but Hayling was convicted of "criminal assault" against the KKK mob.[11][15]

After the incident at the September Klan rally, tensions escalated further. In October, a carload of KKK night riders raced through the black neighborhood of Lincolnville shooting into homes. When blacks returned fire, one Klansman was killed. NAACP activist Rev. Goldie Eubanks and three others were indicted for murder (they were later acquitted). Disturbed by Hayling's militancy, the national NAACP removed him as head of the Youth Council. Hayling, Eubanks, Henry Twine, Kathrine Twine, and other activists left the NAACP and contacted the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC), led by Martin Luther King Jr., for assistance.[16]

### Spring Break protests

[edit]

In the spring of 1964, Hayling put out a call to northern college students to come to St. Augustine for spring break, not to go to the beach, but to take part in civil rights activities. Accompanying them were four prominent Boston women: the wife of the vice president of the John Hancock Insurance Company, and three wives of Episcopal bishops (including Hester Campbell, daughter of William Ernest Hocking and granddaughter of John Boyle O'Reilly). It was front-page news on April 1, 1964, when one of them, Mrs. Mary Parkman Peabody, the 72-year-old mother of the governor of Massachusetts, was arrested in an integrated group at the Ponce de Leon Motor Lodge, north of town.[17]

That event brought the movement in St. Augustine to international attention. Over the next few months, the city got more publicity than it had ever previously received in its four centuries of existence. The massive nonviolent direct action campaign was led by Hayling and by SCLC staff, including: Martin Luther King Jr., Ralph Abernathy, Andrew Young, Hosea Williams, C. T. Vivian, Fred Shuttlesworth, Willie Bolden, J. T. Johnson, Dorothy Cotton, and others. Civil rights activists made St. Augustine the stage for a moral drama enacted before a world audience.[18]

### Increasing violence

[edit]

From May until July 1964, protesters endured abuse and verbal assaults, usually without any retaliation, although this time police were often intervening to prevent violence between protesters and counter-protesters.[19] The movement engaged in nightly marches down King Street. The protesters were met by white segregationists who violently attacked them, and hundreds of the marchers were arrested and incarcerated. The jail was filled, so subsequent detainees were kept in an uncovered stockade in the hot sun.[14][20] When attempts were made to integrate the beaches of Anastasia Island, demonstrators were beaten and driven into the water by segregationists. Some of the protesters could not swim and had to be saved from possible drowning by other demonstrators.[21]

Death threats against the leadership were reaching a fever pitch, especially against Dr. King. In the first week of June, a cottage that was scheduled to house the SCLC president went up in flames. In response, Hayling and his team stepped up their armed patrols, a policy which King personally disapproved of. Nonetheless, King was under Hayling's armed protection every night he spent in St. Augustine.[22] On June 10, the filibuster against the Civil Rights Act (one of the longest filibusters in history) finally collapsed.[23]

### Monson Motor Lodge

[edit]

Main article: 1964 Monson Motor Lodge protests

St. Augustine was the only place in Florida where King was arrested; his arrest there occurred on June 11, 1964, on the steps of the Monson Motor Lodge restaurant. He wrote a "Letter from the St. Augustine Jail" to his old friend, Rabbi Israel Dresner, in New Jersey, urging him to recruit rabbis to come to St. Augustine and take part in the movement. The result was the arrest of 17 rabbis on June 18, 1964, at the Monson motel, the largest mass arrest of rabbis in American history.[11][24] Among the arrested were Eugene Borowitz, Michael Robinson, Murray Saltzman and Allen Secher.[25] While in jail, the rabbis authored a manifesto titled, "Why We Went".[24][26]

On June 18, a grand jury suggested that SCLC withdraw for a 30-day cooling-off period. In response, Hayling and King released a joint statement declaring "there will be neither peace nor tranquility in this community until the righteous demands of the Negro are fully met".[27]

The demonstrations came to a climax when a group of black and white protesters jumped into the swimming pool at the Monson Motor Lodge. In response to the protest, James Brock—who was the manager of the hotel, in addition to being the president of the Florida Hotel & Motel Association—poured what he claimed to be muriatic acid into the pool to burn the protesters.[11] Photographs of this, and of a policeman jumping into the pool to arrest them, were broadcast around the world.

## Aftermath

[edit]

### Official committee

[edit]

On June 30, Florida Governor Farris Bryant announced the formation of a biracial committee to restore interracial communication in St. Augustine. Although matters were far from resolved, national SCLC leaders left St. Augustine on 1 July, the day before President Lyndon Johnson signed the Civil Rights Act into law.

### Racial tensions

[edit]

Despite this national success, black residents in St. Augustine continued to face violence and intimidation. Consistent threats and picketing by the Klan led many of the town's businesses to remain segregated. Although SCLC continued to provide some financial support to activists in St. Augustine beyond July 1964, the organization never returned to the city.[28] With his dental practice financially destitute after the loss of his white patients, and the safety of his wife and children uncertain, Robert Hayling decided to move to Ft. Lauderdale, Florida, in 1966.[27]

The black Florida Normal Industrial and Memorial College, whose students had been involved in the protests, felt itself unwelcome in St. Augustine and in 1965 purchased a tract of land in Dade County, moving there in 1968.[29] The school is today Florida Memorial University.

## Legacy

[edit]

### Monson Motor Lodge

[edit]

The motel and pool were demolished in March 2003, despite five years of protests, thus eliminating one of the nation's important landmarks of the civil rights movement.[30] A Hilton Hotel was built on the site. In 2003, nearly four decades after Robert Hayling left St. Augustine, the city's mayor issued a Certificate of Recognition for Hayling's "contributions to the betterment of our society," and a street was named after him.[27]

### St. Augustine Foot Soldiers Monument

[edit]

St. Augustine Foot Soldiers Monument, dedicated May 14, 2011

The St. Augustine Foot Soldiers Monument is located near the corner of King St. and Charlotte St., in the Southeast corner of the Plaza De La Constitucion, which is a prominent, historic public park. The monument, commissioned by the St. Augustine Foot Soldiers Remembrance Project, Inc., was unveiled on May 14, 2011.[31][32]

### The Resilience: Black Heritage in St. Augustine Project

[edit]

Resilience: Black Heritage in St. Augustine is a yearlong community project celebrated in 2021 by local archives, libraries, and museums in recognition of the many contributions the Black community has made and continues to make in building St. Augustine's cultural heritage through more than 455 years of its history. Fourteen local institutions throughout St. Augustine, Florida, Jacksonville, Florida, and Gainesville, Florida have contributed to the project, including Accord Civil Rights Museum and Freedom Trail, Castillo de San Marcos National Monument, Flagler College Proctor Library, Flagler College Honors Program, Florida Museum of Natural History, Fort Mose Historical Society, Governor's House Cultural Center and Museum, Lincolnville Museum and Cultural Center, St. Augustine Historical Society, St Johns County Public Library System, Timucuan Ecological and Historic Preserve, University of North Florida Digital Humanities Institute, Ximenez-Fatio House Museum, and the St. Johns County Cultural Council.[33] Throughout 2021 collaborating institutions are hosting a variety of programs, lectures, tours, and special digital humanities projects, and the group has also created a website that contains many educational resources. The Resilience logo is a bell, symbolizing freedom and liberty, themes interwoven into the city's past and present.[34]

## See also

[edit]

* Excelsior Museum and Cultural Center
* Lincolnville Historic District

## References

[edit]

1. ^ Civil Rights Movement Archive. "St. Augustine FL, Movement – 1963".
2. ^ Civil Rights Movement Archive. "St. Augustine FL, Movement – 1964".
3. ^ a b c d e Slate, Claudia (Spring 2006). "Florida Room: Battle for St. Augustine 1964: Public Record and Personal Recollection". The Florida Historical Quarterly. 84: 541–543. Retrieved May 22, 2022.
4. ^ Gallagher, Charles (Fall 2004). "The Catholic Church, Martin Luther King Jr., and the March in St. Augustine". The Florida Historical Quarterly. 83 (2). Florida Historical Society: 149–172. JSTOR 30149556. Retrieved May 22, 2022 - via JSTOR.
5. ^ Hillyer, Reiko (February 2015). "Cold War Conquistadors: The St. Augustine Quadricentennial, Pan-Americanism, and the Civil Rights Movement in the Ancient City". The Journal of Southern History. 81 (1). Southern Historical Association: 119. JSTOR 43918321. Retrieved May 22, 2022 - via JSTOR.
6. ^ Augustine.com – "Black History: Dr. Robert B. Hayling"
7. ^ David J. Garrow, Bearing the Cross: Martin Luther King Jr. and the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (Harper Collins, 1987) p 316-318
8. ^ "Civil rights timeline". The St. Augustine Record. GateHouse Media. Archived from the original on August 2, 2018. Retrieved 2 August 2018.
9. ^ Brown, Stacy M (2021-02-07). "CELEBRATING BLACK HISTORY: The St. Augustine Four is a Vital Part of Black History | BlackPressUSA". blackpressusa.com. Retrieved 2021-02-10.
10. ^ "ACCORD Freedom Trail St. Augustine, Florida Historic Civil Rights Movement". www.accordfreedomtrail.org. ACCORD, Inc. 2012. Archived from the original on February 18, 2017.
11. ^ a b c d Branch, Taylor (1998). Pillar of Fire. Simon & Schuster. ISBN 0-684-80819-6.
12. ^ United States Commission on Civil Rights, 1965. Law Enforcement: A Report on Equal Protection in the South. Washington, DC: Government Printing Office, p. 47.
13. ^ Augustine.com – "Black History: Dr. Robert B. Hayling"; David J. Garrow, Bearing the Cross: Martin Luther King Jr. and the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (Harper Collins, 1987) p 316-318
14. ^ a b St. Augustine Movement – M.L. King Research & Education Institute, Stanford University
15. ^ Duncan, Gwendolyn (2004). "Dr. Robert B. Hayling". Civil Rights Movement Archive.
16. ^ Civil Rights Movement Archive website, "Timeline- 1963: The St. Augustine Movement"
17. ^ Lincolnville Historic District – National Park Service
18. ^ St. Augustine FL Movement – 1964 – Civil Rights Movement Archive
19. ^ David J. Garrow, Bearing the Cross: Martin Luther King Jr. and the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (Harper Collins, 1987), p325
20. ^ Garrow, David (1986). Bearing the Cross. Morrow. ISBN 0-688-04794-7.
21. ^ Bryce, Shirley (2004). "St. Augustine Movement 1963–1964". Civil Rights Movement Archive.
22. ^ David J. Garrow, Bearing the Cross: Martin Luther King Jr. and the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (Harper Collins, 1987), p329-330
23. ^ US Senate: Art and History "June 10, 1964-Civil Rights Fillibuster Ended"
24. ^ a b "Why They Went: The Forgotten Story of the St. Augustine 17". Tablet Magazine. 18 June 2019. Retrieved 22 June 2019.
25. ^ Herbers, John (June 19, 1964). "16 Rabbis Arrested as Pool Dive-In Sets Off St. Augustine Rights Clash". The New York Times.
26. ^ "Why We Went: A Joint Letter from the Rabbis Arrested in St. Augustine". Jewish Women's Archive. Retrieved 22 June 2019.
27. ^ a b c "Robert B. Hayling" The King Encyclopedia
28. ^ "St. Augustine, Florida" The King Encyclopedia
29. ^ "Our History", http://www.fmuniv.edu/about/our-history/, retrieved May 4, 2016.
30. ^ St. Augustine Record: March 18, 2003-Demolition begins on Monson Inn by Ken Lewis
31. ^ Griffin, Justine (2011). "City unveils Foot Soldiers monument". The St. Augustine Record.
32. ^ Welch, Casey (2011-05-10). "Walking Tall". Folio Weekly.
33. ^ Resilience: Black Heritage in St. Augustine. Online resource. Accessed October 24, 2021.
34. ^ Wooster, Casey and Laura Marion. "Resilience: Centering Black Heritage in St. Augustine," Source: The Magazine of the University of Florida George A. Smathers Libraries, Vol. 4, No. 1 (2021), 19-21. https://doi.org/10.32473/sourceuf.v4i1

## Further reading

[edit]

* Racial and civil disorders in St. Augustine: report of the Legislative Investigation Committee. February 1965.
* Abernathy, Ralph David R. (2010). And the Walls Came Tumbling Down. Chicago: Chicago Review Press. ISBN 9781569762790.
* Colburn, David R. (1985). Racial Change and Community Crisis: St. Augustine, Florida, 1877-1980. New York: Columbia University Press. ISBN 9780231060462.
* Eubanks, Gerald (2012). The Dark before Dawn: From Civil Wrongs to Civil Light. Bloomington, Indiana: iUniverse. ISBN 9781475955576.
* Garrow, David J., ed. (1989). St. Augustine, Florida, 1963-1964: Mass Protest and Racial Violence. Carlson Publishing. ISBN 9780926019065.
* Smith, James G. (2014). Before King Came: The Foundations of Civil Rights Movement Resistance and St. Augustine, Florida, 1900-1960. (MA Thesis) University of North Florida.
* Warren, Dan R. (2008). If It Takes All Summer: Martin Luther King, the KKK, and States' Rights in St. Augustine, 1964. Tuscaloosa, Alabama: University of Alabama Press. ISBN 9780817380663.
* Young, Andrew (1996). An Easy Burden: the Civil Rights Movement and the Transformation of America. New York: HarperCollins Publishers. ISBN 9780060173623.

## External links

[edit]

* Civil Rights Library of St. Augustine \- A digital archive composed solely of primary source materials related to the St. Augustine Civil Rights Movement
* St. Augustine's Civil Rights Movement \- A video with Professor Michael Butler, faculty member of the Humanities Department at Flagler College, as presenter. He discusses the history of the Civil Rights Movement in St. Augustine, Florida. Published March 25, 2015 on C-SPAN; about 26 minutes.
* ACCORD Freedom Trail \- St. Augustine Civil Rights Movement and Freedom Trail sites
* Speaking and Protesting in America- Mississippi Project; Andrew Young Interview / Ted Mascott
* [1] \- The Resilience: Black Heritage in St. Augustine website with educational resources
* [2] \- An article in Source: The Magazine of the University of Florida George A. Smathers Libraries about the Resilience project
* [3] \- The Resilience: Black Heritage in St. Augustine Digital Exhibit
* [4] \- Florida Humanities Council: Florida Stories Walking Tour, Walk St. Augustine: Lincolnville
* [5] \- DPLA: Digital Public Library of America - A digital archive composed of primary source materials related to the St. Augustine Civil Rights Movement

* v
* t
* e

Civil rights movement (1954–1968)

Events
(timeline)|

| Prior to 1954|

* Journey of Reconciliation
* Executive Order 9981
* Murders of Harry and Harriette Moore
* Sweatt v. Painter (1950)
* McLaurin v. Oklahoma State Regents (1950)
* Baton Rouge bus boycott

|

1954–1959|

* Brown v. Board of Education
* Bolling v. Sharpe
* Briggs v. Elliott
* Davis v. Prince Edward County
* Gebhart v. Belton
* Sarah Keys v. Carolina Coach Company
* Emmett Till
* Montgomery bus boycott
* Browder v. Gayle
* Tallahassee bus boycott
* Mansfield school desegregation
* 1957 Prayer Pilgrimage for Freedom
* "Give Us the Ballot"
* Royal Ice Cream sit-in
* Little Rock Nine
* Cooper v. Aaron
* Civil Rights Act of 1957
* Ministers' Manifesto
* Katz Drug Store sit-in
* Kissing Case
* Biloxi wade-ins

1960–1963|

* New Year's Day March
* Sit-in movement
* Greensboro sit-ins
* Nashville sit-ins
* Sibley Commission
* Atlanta sit-ins
* Savannah Protest Movement
* Greenville Eight
* Civil Rights Act of 1960
* Ax Handle Saturday
* Gomillion v. Lightfoot
* Boynton v. Virginia
* University of Georgia desegregation riot
* Rock Hill sit-ins
* Robert F. Kennedy's Law Day Address
* Freedom Rides
* Anniston bombing
* Birmingham attack
* Garner v. Louisiana
* Albany Movement
* Cambridge movement
* University of Chicago sit-ins
* "Second Emancipation Proclamation"
* Meredith enrollment, Ole Miss riot
* Atlanta's Berlin Wall
* "Segregation now, segregation forever"
* Stand in the Schoolhouse Door
* 1963 Birmingham campaign
* Letter from Birmingham Jail
* Children's Crusade
* Birmingham riot
* 16th Street Baptist Church bombing
* John F. Kennedy's speech to the nation on Civil Rights
* Detroit Walk to Freedom
* March on Washington
* "I Have a Dream"
* Big Six
* St. Augustine movement

1964–1968|

* Twenty-fourth Amendment
* Chester school protests
* Bloody Tuesday
* 1964 Monson Motor Lodge protests
* Freedom Summer
* workers' murders
* Civil Rights Act of 1964
* Heart of Atlanta Motel, Inc. v. United States
* Katzenbach v. McClung
* 1964–1965 Scripto strike
* 1965 Selma to Montgomery marches
* "How Long, Not Long"
* Voting Rights Act of 1965
* Harper v. Virginia Board of Elections
* March Against Fear
* White House Conference on Civil Rights
* Chicago Freedom Movement/Chicago open housing movement
* Loving v. Virginia
* Memphis sanitation strike
* King assassination
* funeral
* riots
* Civil Rights Act of 1968
* Poor People's Campaign
* Green v. County School Board of New Kent County
* Jones v. Alfred H. Mayer Co.

Activist
groups|

* Alabama Christian Movement for Human Rights
* Atlanta Negro Voters League
* Atlanta Student Movement
* Black Panther Party
* Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters
* Congress of Racial Equality (CORE)
* Committee for Freedom Now
* Committee on Appeal for Human Rights
* An Appeal for Human Rights
* Council for United Civil Rights Leadership
* Council of Federated Organizations
* Dallas County Voters League
* Deacons for Defense and Justice
* Georgia Council on Human Relations
* Highlander Folk School
* Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights
* Lowndes County Freedom Organization
* Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party
* Montgomery Improvement Association
* NAACP
* Youth Council
* Nashville Student Movement
* Nation of Islam
* Northern Student Movement
* National Council of Negro Women
* National Urban League
* Operation Breadbasket
* Regional Council of Negro Leadership
* Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC)
* Southern Regional Council
* Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC)
* The Freedom Singers
* United Auto Workers (UAW)
* Wednesdays in Mississippi
* Women's Political Council

Activists|

* Ralph Abernathy
* Victoria Gray Adams
* Zev Aelony
* Mathew Ahmann
* Muhammad Ali
* William G. Anderson
* Gwendolyn Armstrong
* Arnold Aronson
* Ella Baker
* James Baldwin
* Marion Barry
* Daisy Bates
* Harry Belafonte
* James Bevel
* Claude Black
* Gloria Blackwell
* Randolph Blackwell
* Unita Blackwell
* Ezell Blair Jr.
* Joanne Bland
* Julian Bond
* Joseph E. Boone
* William Holmes Borders
* Amelia Boynton
* Bruce Boynton
* Raylawni Branch
* Stanley Branche
* Ruby Bridges
* Aurelia Browder
* H. Rap Brown
* Ralph Bunche
* John H. Calhoun
* Guy Carawan
* Stokely Carmichael
* Johnnie Carr
* James Chaney
* J. L. Chestnut
* Shirley Chisholm
* Colia Lafayette Clark
* Ramsey Clark
* Septima Clark
* Xernona Clayton
* Eldridge Cleaver
* Kathleen Cleaver
* Josephine Dobbs Clement
* Charles E. Cobb Jr.
* Annie Lee Cooper
* Dorothy Cotton
* Claudette Colvin
* Vernon Dahmer
* Jonathan Daniels
* Abraham Lincoln Davis
* Angela Davis
* Joseph DeLaine
* Dave Dennis
* Annie Bell Robinson Devine
* John Wesley Dobbs
* Patricia Stephens Due
* Joseph Ellwanger
* Charles Evers
* Medgar Evers
* Myrlie Evers-Williams
* Chuck Fager
* James Farmer
* Walter Fauntroy
* James Forman
* Marie Foster
* Golden Frinks
* Andrew Goodman
* Robert Graetz
* Fred Gray
* Jack Greenberg
* Dick Gregory
* Lawrence Guyot
* Prathia Hall
* Fannie Lou Hamer
* Fred Hampton
* William E. Harbour
* Vincent Harding
* Dorothy Height
* Audrey Faye Hendricks
* Lola Hendricks
* Aaron Henry
* Oliver Hill
* Donald L. Hollowell
* James Hood
* Myles Horton
* Zilphia Horton
* T. R. M. Howard
* Ruby Hurley
* Cecil Ivory
* Jesse Jackson
* Jimmie Lee Jackson
* Richie Jean Jackson
* T. J. Jemison
* Esau Jenkins
* Barbara Rose Johns
* Vernon Johns
* Frank Minis Johnson
* Clarence Jones
* J. Charles Jones
* Matthew Jones
* Vernon Jordan
* Tom Kahn
* Clyde Kennard
* A. D. King
* C.B. King
* Coretta Scott King
* Martin Luther King Jr.
* Martin Luther King Sr.
* Bernard Lafayette
* James Lawson
* Bernard Lee
* Sanford R. Leigh
* Jim Letherer
* Stanley Levison
* John Lewis
* Viola Liuzzo
* Z. Alexander Looby
* Joseph Lowery
* Clara Luper
* Danny Lyon
* Malcolm X
* Mae Mallory
* Vivian Malone
* Bob Mants
* Thurgood Marshall
* Benjamin Mays
* Franklin McCain
* Charles McDew
* Ralph McGill
* Floyd McKissick
* Joseph McNeil
* James Meredith
* William Ming
* Jack Minnis
* Amzie Moore
* Cecil B. Moore
* Douglas E. Moore
* Harriette Moore
* Harry T. Moore
* Queen Mother Moore
* William Lewis Moore
* Irene Morgan
* Bob Moses
* William Moyer
* Elijah Muhammad
* Diane Nash
* Charles Neblett
* Huey P. Newton
* Edgar Nixon
* Jack O'Dell
* James Orange
* Rosa Parks
* James Peck
* Charles Person
* Homer Plessy
* Adam Clayton Powell Jr.
* Fay Bellamy Powell
* Rodney N. Powell
* Al Raby
* Lincoln Ragsdale
* A. Philip Randolph
* George Raymond
* George Raymond Jr.
* Bernice Johnson Reagon
* Cordell Reagon
* James Reeb
* Frederick D. Reese
* Walter Reuther
* Gloria Richardson
* David Richmond
* Bernice Robinson
* Jo Ann Robinson
* Angela Russell
* Bayard Rustin
* Bernie Sanders
* Michael Schwerner
* Bobby Seale
* Pete Seeger
* Cleveland Sellers
* Charles Sherrod
* Alexander D. Shimkin
* Fred Shuttlesworth
* Modjeska Monteith Simkins
* Glenn E. Smiley
* A. Maceo Smith
* Kelly Miller Smith
* Mary Louise Smith
* Maxine Smith
* Ruby Doris Smith-Robinson
* Charles Kenzie Steele
* Hank Thomas
* Dorothy Tillman
* A. P. Tureaud
* Hartman Turnbow
* Albert Turner
* C. T. Vivian
* A. T. Walden
* Wyatt Tee Walker
* Hollis Watkins
* Walter Francis White
* Roy Wilkins
* Hosea Williams
* Kale Williams
* Robert F. Williams
* Q. V. Williamson
* Andrew Young
* Whitney Young
* Sammy Younge Jr.
* Bob Zellner
* James Zwerg

By region|

* Omaha, Nebraska
* South Carolina

Movement
songs|

* "Ain't Gonna Let Nobody Turn Me 'Round"
* "If You Miss Me at the Back of the Bus"
* "Kumbaya"
* "Keep Your Eyes on the Prize"
* "Oh, Freedom"
* "This Little Light of Mine"
* "We Shall Not Be Moved"
* "We Shall Overcome"
* "Woke Up This Morning (With My Mind Stayed On Freedom)"

Influences|

* Nonviolence
* Padayatra
* Sermon on the Mount
* Mahatma Gandhi
* Ahimsa
* Satyagraha
* The Kingdom of God Is Within You
* Frederick Douglass
* W. E. B. Du Bois
* Mary McLeod Bethune

Related|

* Jim Crow laws
* Lynching in the United States
* Plessy v. Ferguson
* Separate but equal
* Buchanan v. Warley
* Hocutt v. Wilson
* Sweatt v. Painter
* Hernandez v. Texas
* Loving v. Virginia
* African-American women in the movement
* Jews in the civil rights movement
* Fifth Circuit Four
* 16th Street Baptist Church
* Kelly Ingram Park
* A.G. Gaston Motel
* Bethel Baptist Church
* Brown Chapel
* Dexter Avenue Baptist Church
* Holt Street Baptist Church
* Edmund Pettus Bridge
* March on Washington Movement
* African-American churches attacked
* List of lynching victims in the United States
* Freedom Schools
* Freedom songs
* Spring Mobilization Committee to End the War in Vietnam
* "Beyond Vietnam: A Time to Break Silence"
* Voter Education Project
* 1960s counterculture
* African American founding fathers of the United States
* Eyes on the Prize

Legacy|

* In popular culture
* Birmingham Civil Rights Institute
* Birmingham Civil Rights National Monument
* Civil Rights Memorial
* Civil Rights Movement Archive
* Emmett Till and Mamie Till-Mobley National Monument
* Medgar and Myrlie Evers Home National Monument
* Freedom Rides Museum
* Freedom Riders National Monument
* King Center for Nonviolent Social Change
* Martin Luther King Jr. Day
* Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial
* other King memorials
* Mississippi Civil Rights Museum
* National Civil Rights Museum
* National Voting Rights Museum
* St. Augustine Foot Soldiers Monument

Noted
historians|

* Taylor Branch
* Clayborne Carson
* John Dittmer
* Michael Eric Dyson
* Chuck Fager
* Adam Fairclough
* David Garrow
* David Halberstam
* Vincent Harding
* Steven F. Lawson
* Doug McAdam
* Diane McWhorter
* Charles M. Payne
* Thomas E. Ricks
* Timothy Tyson
* Akinyele Umoja
* Movement photographers

Civil rights movement portal
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