In June 1964, sixteen rabbis were arrested in a group of civil rights organizers protesting segregation at the Monson Motor Lodge and Restaurant in St. Augustine. It was the largest mass arrest of rabbis in U.S. history and, on June 17, 2014, six of the original group returned to the city to celebrate the fiftieth anniversary of the Civil Rights Act for a multi-day historical convening, “Justice, Justice 1964,” organized by Carol Rovinsky in St. Augustine.
Rabbis Israel Dresner, Daniel Fogel, Jerrold Goldstein, Richard Levy, Allen Secher and Hanan Clyde T. Sills returned to St. Augustine for “Justice, Justice 1964” with J.T. Johnson, a demonstrator and protest organizer during the civil rights movement in St. Augustine. The rabbis shared their experiences in oral histories with the Samuel Proctor Oral History Program and at an evening public panel, held at Flagler College.
“The audience was sitting on the edge of their seats and the testimony of the rabbis was incredibly inspiring,” said Ortiz. “Tears, anger, joy, every human emotion was felt that evening as these men re-lived one of the pivotal events of American history.”
After Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., was arrested and jailed in St. Augustine on June 11, 1964, he contacted his his friend Rabbi Israel Dresner (Central Conference of American Rabbis) to recruit support from rabbis across the country who would come to St. Augustine in support and solidarity. Sixteen rabbis arrived and attempted to integrate the whites-only pool and restaurant with a group of civil rights organizers at the Monson Motor Lodge on June 18, 1964.
During the demonstration, an integrated group of protesters swam in the whites-only pool and a held pray-in was held outside. The event, which received national media attention, escalated when the hotel owner poured acid into his pool to scare swimming demonstrators. The protesters were later arrested, and the rabbis among them. While in jail, the rabbis wrote a group letter, “Why We Went” (PDF) (opens in new tab) that circulated across the country in a call to action for readers.
The letter, written by the group through the night by the light of a singular light bulb, decried the hypocrisy of Jim Crow segregation in St. Augustine, and its citizens, who remained “unable to bring themselves to act, yet knowing in their hearts that this cause is just.” The rabbis’ memory of the Holocaust, and the “millions of faceless people” who remained similarly passive to systematic persecution against Jews, spurred their decision to take a vocal stand in support of civil rights in the United States.
Congress passed the Civil Rights Act the following day, June 19, 1964, after an 83-day filibuster. SPOHP will bring the evening public program online later this year. Stay tuned!
Read the letter: “Why We Went: A Joint Letter from the Rabbis Arrested in St. Augustine, Florida June 19, 1964” (PDF) (opens in new tab) available online from the Religious Action Center for Reform Judaism.
St. Augustine “Justice, Justice 1964” Event In the News
- Read “Why We Remember ‘The Return'” (opens in new tab) by Keith Schlegel in the Gainesville Sun, June 15, 2014.
- See coverage of the event from The St. Augustine Record, “Civil rights: Crowd hears rabbis’ riveting story” (opens in new tab) and “Civil rights: Rabbis reunite 50 years after arrest for protest” (opens in new tab) from June 2014 and “St. Augustine: home to mass arrest of rabbis” from St. Augustine’s First Coast News.
- Listen to StoryCorps interviews with J.T. Johnson and Al Lingo, who protested in June 1964 to end segregation, “Remembering a Civil Rights Swim-In: It was A Milestone” (opens in new tab) from NPR.
- Check out pictures from the “Justice, Justice 1964” reunion event and watch video of the rabbis reading their letter from prison at “50 Years Later: Largest Mass Arrest of Rabbis in the U.S.” from St. Augustine-450.com, the city’s 450th commemoration team.
- Visit the ACCORD Freedom Trail site on A1-A for the St. Augustine beach wade-ins at the city pier.
- Read “Anarchy in St. Augustine” (opens in new tab) by Dr. Larry Goodwyn, historian of populism, who visited St. Augustine and wrote about the Southern memory and civil rights organizing taking place there in 1965.
We shall not forget the people with whom we drove, prayed, marched, slept, ate, demonstrated and were arrested…We are grateful for the rare experience of sharing with this courageous community their life, their suffering, their effort. We pray that we remain more sensitive and more alive as a result.
-Original “Why We Went” Letter, 1964
Photos by Deborah Hendrix.