Freedom Trail marker dedicated at beach

ACCORD president Gwendolyn Duncan updated local Historic City News reporters on the recently acquired historic marker at St. Augustine Beach; courtesy of ACCORD and the Northrop Grumman Corporation.

This is the first historic marker placed in the small community on Anastasia Island to commemorate the international attention attracted during the historic beach “wade-ins” of the 1964 civil rights movement.

Initially planned as a 50th birthday gift to the city in 2009, the project was delayed by the economic downturn, and then awaited an appropriate historic visitor to take part in an unveiling ceremony.

That came this summer when Dr. Dorothy Cotton, one of the closest living associates of Dr. Martin Luther King, agreed to return to St. Augustine for the first time in many years. The notable octogenarian worked with Dr. King in the Southern Christian Leadership Conference. When she retired from Cornell University, Dr. Cotton settled in Ithaca, New York.

During the annual Freedom Trail banquet, sponsored by ACCORD, Dr. Cotton said that she will write about her experiences at the beach “wade-ins” in her forthcoming memoirs.

She remembered being hit in the head when she tried to go to the beach in 1964 and said she still has a ringing in her ears from that beating. Dr. Cotton took a group of young people with her and one of them got their nose broken. That young woman grew up to be Dr. Cynthia Mitchell Clark who is the Assistant Superintendent of Schools in Miami.

While in St. Augustine, Dr. Cotton was delighted to meet Clark’s mother — Queen E. Mitchell-McCall; who was also a participant in the 1964 Civil Rights Movement.

Retired New York policeman Purcell Conway, who was a teenager in St. Augustine in the 1960’s and took part in the beach wade-ins, shared his memories of “Bloody Sunday”.

A special police force was created by the governor to clear a path to the beach for a group of black and white civil rights supporters who had previously been harassed and attacked by segregationists.

With the path opened, the group was finally able to enter the Atlantic Ocean; an ocean that also washes up on the shores of Africa.

Historian David Nolan, as master of ceremonies, recalled how civil rights leader Bayard Rustin was fond of saying that “American democracy was made on the streets” — then added “but in 1964 it was also made on the beaches, here in St. Augustine.”

The demonstrations in the St. Augustine area led directly to the passage of the landmark Civil Rights Act of 1964; one of the most important pieces of legislation in modern history and one of the two great legislative accomplishments of the civil rights movement.

The marker remained covered by the Florida state flag, until it was removed by a distinguished group that included Cotton, Conway, ACCORD president Gwendolyn Duncan, Cecil Bateman from Northrop Grumman Corporation and Dr. Robert B. Hayling, leader of the St. Augustine movement.

Located next to the old St. Augustine Beach City Hall, a historic coquina building that now houses the St. Johns Cultural Council, the new marker joins 30 others to form a Freedom Trail of historic sites of the civil rights movement.

A brochure and map of the Freedom Trail is available at the Visitor Information Center.

Photo credits: © 2011 Historic City News contributed photograph by Shirley Williams-Galvin