The man known as the father of St. Augustine’s civil rights movement returned to the nation’s oldest city Wednesday to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the signing of the 1964 Civil Rights Act. Dr. Robert B. Hayling spent the day in St. Augustine, a city he called home from 1960 to 1965. Among the day’s events was the grand opening of the St. Augustine Civil Rights Museum at 79 Bridge Street, the location of Hayling’s former dental office.
The day, organized by local historic preservation group The 40th ACCORD began with a trolley tour of locations significant to the St. Augustine Movement led by historian David Nolan. The locations, identified with markers placed and maintained by ACCORD, included several homes in the city's historic Lincolnville neighborhood.
"When (Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.) came here, the tension and violence was so great that it wasn't safe for him to stay in the same place night after night," Nolan explained. "Dr. Hayling has told me of leading Dr. King ostentatiously in the front door of a house and then secretly out the back door and through the yard.
Following the tour, Audrey Nell Edwards and JoeAnn Anderson Ulmer, the two surviving members of the group of demonstrators who became known as "The St. Augustine Four," members of the families of the deceased members, and Hayling were honored at a the 8th Annual ACCORD Freedom Trail Luncheon in Flagler College’s Ponce de León Hall.
The hall was previously the location of the city's Ponce de León Hotel, where Hayling convinced then Vice President Lyndon B Johnson not to attend a quadricentennial event unless city leaders agreed to allow representatives from the city’s black community to attend, which they did at Johnson’s request.
In his remarks, Hayling asked those in attendance to help promote the ideals that he and other activists stood for with future generations.
“All of you who have relatives and young people looking up to you for leadership and all, let them know that many of us still believe in the American dream,” he said.
Hayling and The St. Augustine Four were also honored by Sandra Parks, widow of activist and journalist Stetson Kennedy, on behalf of the Stetson Kennedy Foundation.
Parks told Hayling it was among Kennedy's final wishes that he be recognized and remembered for his contributions to the civil rights movement.
"He said, 'Sandra, don't let them forget Harry T. Moore and don't let them forget Robert Hayling,'" Parks recalled being asked of Kennedy shortly before he died.
Hayling was also honored at a wreath laying ceremony at St. Augustine's Foot Soldiers Monument, which honors the men and women who marched for civil rights in the city.
At the ceremony in the city's Plaza De La Constitucion a student from the Florida School for the Deaf and Blind read a braille transcription of information about Dr. Hayling and the statue placed in the park as part of the city's 450th anniversary commemoration.
Dr. Robert B. Hayling was inducted into the Florida Civil Rights Hall of Fame Earlier this year.
You can follow Patrick Donges on Twitter @patrickhdonges.
