Visitors and residents of St. Augustine will be able to take a free, self-guided walking tour through significant locations of the civil rights movement in St. Augustine’s Lincolnville neighborhood starting Monday, January 15.
The free tour will be available on smartphones via the Florida Stories app (iOS, Android). The tour will include music, narration, photos, and an interactive map.
It was created by the Florida Humanities Council to honor St. Augustine’s rich history and its importance in the civil rights movement.
The tour was developed through collaboration between the council and the Lincolnville Museum and Cultural Center. The tour stops include schools, churches, and significant homes in the Lincolnville area.
The launch of the app on Martin Luther King Day is no accident, event coordinator Lisa Lennox said. “We saw it only fitting to honor not only the Lincolnville heroes, but Dr. Martin Luther King, for all their work in the civil rights movement.”
The tour begins at the Lincolnville Museum and Cultural Center, which was formerly Excelsior High School. Excelsior was the first public high school for African American students in St. Augustine. From there the tour continues to nine other stops.
To kick off the launch of the app the Florida Humanities Council will be hosting an event at the Lincolnville Museum and Cultural Center.
The event will be held Monday from 2 p.m. to 4 p.m. and is free and open to the public. The keynote speaker of the event will be award-winning author and civil rights activist Rodney L. Hurst Sr. No stranger to St. Augustine, Hurst was a protestor and leader of the lunch counter sit-ins of the 1960s and served two terms on the Jacksonville City Council.
Gabrielle Garay can be reached at newsteam@wjct.org, 904-358-6317.
