ST. AUGUSTINE, Fla. — On this day 62 years ago, the Civil Rights Movement in St. Augustine climbed to another level.
On June 18, 1964, a photo was taken of young black people swimming in a motel swimming pool that was reserved for whites. The motel manager was so outraged at the civil rights demonstration, he poured acid into the pool while the swimmers were still in it.
Off to the side of the pool, there was a group of rabbis praying and supporting the demonstrators. They, along with the swimmers, were arrested for disturbing the peace.
This week, 62 years later, Rabbi Allen Secher returned to St. Augustine.
“Sixteen rabbis and a layman came here in June of 1964. I am the last survivor of the 17,” Secher told First Coast News. “I’m it.”
He and the rest had gathered there from around the country that day at the request of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., who sought support from the Jewish community. The Civil Rights Movement in St. Augustine was picking up speed in the summer of 1964, and reactions to it from segregationists and the KKK were turning violent.
“Clergy are supposed to be not just saying things,” Secher said, “they’re supposed to be walking the walk.”
Secher and the other rabbis literally walked the walk when they peacefully marched through town with Black demonstrators in 1964.
‘It was the scariest two hours of my life. I thought we’d be shot,” he said.
The 1964 visit climaxed on June 18, when he and the other rabbis stood to the side of that whites-only downtown St. Augustine pool.
It was the largest mass arrest of rabbis in the United States. The 16 rabbis and a layman were put into the same cell at the St. Johns County jail.
‘If you’re a good Jew, Christian, or Muslim, you’ve got to stand up for what is right,” Secher told First Coast News.
At 91-years-old, he returned to St. Augustine Thursday to see a play about his life performed on stage, to visit the building that had been the jail where he was booked six decades ago.
He and his wife want to do one more thing.
“We want to see if there are changes,” Secher said, “What’s changed in 60-some years?”
He is disappointed that the country is still divided politically and socially. However, he sees a ray of hope: St. Augustine will have its first black woman mayor this year.
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