Editorial: The Andrew Young memorial

Historic City News will be watching tonight when agenda item 6-B(3) comes before the St. Augustine City Commission; a presentation by Jeremy Marquis, principal, Halback Design Group, Inc., relevant to the Andrew Young Crossing Monument design.

As editor, I have taken time to educate myself on the very recent attention being paid to Andrew Young; by the mayor, by city staff, and some commissioners.

Informally I asked a number of pedestrians in the Plaza this weekend what, if anything, they knew about Andrew Young. I was there for about 30 or 45 minutes, just after lunch. Respondents ranged in age from about 22 to 60. Responses were all over the board. I can tell you what happened; even though I don’t consider the results to be “scientific proof” of anything.

Much more than half of the people I asked, either said they “didn’t know”, or, they could not correctly identify him as either a Civil Rights leader, supporter of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., former Mayor, former Congressman, former Ambassador, pastor — I would have accepted a lot of answers.

Just for fun, I asked a few of them if they knew founded the city in 1565 — of the one’s that guessed, “Ponce de Leon” was the popular answer, so, there you go.

I am telling our readers this because in the 56 years of knowledge that I have of my home town, I have witnessed a lot of “revisionist history”. If you say something long enough to enough people who either are not affected, have their own personal or political agenda to advance, or simply don’t care one way or the other, it becomes something resembling truth. Save and except, of course, that it is not truth at all.

I believe that there is more to celebrate in St. Augustine than just our Spanish heritage. We also have a colorful French and British heritage as well as other nations across Europe. There is an unmistakable Cuban and Caribbean culture originating from Haiti, Puerto Rico, Jamaica and the barrier islands. We are truly a multi-cultural destination and should be promoting ourselves as such.

The Civil Rights movement also has a hook in the timeline of our history — a very minor one compared to the locations recognized by the National Park Service and many people’s memory. Can anyone knowledgeable of the movement argue that St. Augustine’s Plaza played a more significant role in the advancement of Civil Rights than either Selma, or Montgomery, or Birmingham?

Of course, these locations, although better known than St. Augustine, do not represent all of the sites important in the Civil Rights movement.

And, what are we making of this man, Andrew Young, who has recently produced a commercial documentary for sale on the Internet for $19.95? A documentary, in my opinion, that plays up being attacked, forty-seven years ago, when he disobeyed orders from Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., to shut down local demonstrators who, King feared could jeopardize passage of the Civil Rights Act. Instead, Young chose to cross into the path of an obviously hostile group of St. Augustine residents who resented out-of-town agitators. Andrew Young had no standing in St. Augustine, no family here; he has never lived in our city. While he was in the limelight, he pushed the envelope. As expected, the “envelope” pushed back. When he lost the limelight, he left.

Does that one incident make Andrew Young’s participation in the modern day Civil Rights movement more significant than the contribution of Ralph Abernathy, who was reportedly Dr. King’s closest associate, or Medgar Evers, or even Dr. King himself? If the City is paying to create a monument recognizing the significance of Andrew Young, who is still alive, why are they stepping over the graves of Evers, Abernathy or Dr. King to do it?

The Civil Rights Act of 1964, which required equal access to public places and outlawed discrimination in employment, admittedly was a major victory of the black freedom struggle — but it was the Voting Rights Act of 1965 that was truly its crowning achievement.

The Selma-to-Montgomery March route is a National Historic Trail and is not listed in the National Register of Historic Places. The Lincolnville community, once known as “Little Africa”, is, and as such, receives recognition by the National Park Service as a significant location in the Civil Rights movement — not the Plaza de la Constitución.

I applaud the citizen’s who raised over $70,000 of private funds to donate the “Foot Soldiers” monument in the Plaza. The busts are nameless — representative of both black and white participants, old and young, who participated in furthering the cause of Civil Rights, including Mr. Young. What an appropriate recognition from a community who obviously made the effort for this recognition to occur.