{"id":12904,"date":"2025-10-30T16:10:19","date_gmt":"2025-10-30T23:10:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/petersontravels.com\/?p=12904"},"modified":"2025-11-26T16:12:53","modified_gmt":"2025-11-26T23:12:53","slug":"st-augustine-florida-walking-tour-civil-rights-history","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/petersontravels.com\/index.php\/2025\/10\/30\/st-augustine-florida-walking-tour-civil-rights-history\/","title":{"rendered":"St. Augustine, Florida; Walking Tour, Civil Rights History"},"content":{"rendered":"

We made our longest drive of the trip from Apalachicola to the east coast city of St. Augustine with barely any stops.\u00a0 It was over a 5 hour drive, but by staying off the freeways it was quite scenic.<\/p>\n

We wanted to visit St. Augustine as this is the oldest city in the United States, established in 1565 by Spanish settlers.\u00a0 It is absolutely chock full of history!\u00a0 On our first day we took a walking tour booked via Trip Advisor<\/a><\/strong>, which we highly recommend as it gives you a good perspective and points out places to go back to later.\u00a0 We met on Aviles Street, the oldest street in the United States, dating back to the 1570’s.\u00a0 The building in the background is the Treasury on the Plaza.\u00a0 In the foreground is a restaurant called Forgotten Tonic<\/a><\/strong>, which had the best Shrimp and Grits I had on the entire trip!!\u00a0 Eat here!\u00a0 Make sure you request Tatum, she was awesome!<\/p>\n

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This is looking the other direction along Aviles Street.\u00a0 Yes, this street is one-way!\u00a0 The woman in black in front of the salmon colored building might have been a ghost….she was walking down the street and literally disappeared seconds later??<\/p>\n

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St. Augustine was built in a Spanish style, and therefore has a central square that takes up a whole city block, called Plaza de la Constitucion.\u00a0 On the corner of this block is this open air market space, that once held a Spanish guard house and watch tower.\u00a0 When St. Augustine was part of Britain, this became the place of public auction and has since been called the Slave Market, where slaves were bought and sold.<\/p>\n

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This is where our guide discussed the Civil Rights movement of the early 60’s, and how St. Augustine became a hot bed of protests, sit-in’s, wade-in’s, and other actions of the time.\u00a0 Here is a photo of protesters walking by the exact same site in 1964.<\/p>\n

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Our guide took us into what he called the “smallest Hilton Hotel in the world”, as they were not allowed to build upwards so they simply took over a city block and turned individual houses into the hotel rooms.<\/p>\n

The hotel sits on the site of the infamous Monson Motel, where the Civil Rights Movement came to a boil in 1964.\u00a0 The photo below shows the actual steps to the former Monson Restaurant, where MLK told the owner he was going to walk inside and get a cup of coffee.\u00a0 Side note: yes, it’s not even Halloween and they are already decorating for Christmas!<\/p>\n

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Here is the hotel owner, James Brock, confronting MLK on the steps of the restaurant.\u00a0 MLK was arrested shortly after trying to enter the restaurant, which was “whites only”.<\/p>\n

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Here is a photo of a sit-in outside the Monson Restaurant.\u00a0 The famous steps can be seen middle right.<\/p>\n

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Demonstrators pray during a civil rights protest in the parking lot of the Monson Motor Lodge in Saint Augustine, Florida<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

One more tidbit from this hotel.\u00a0 A group of\u00a0 black protesters jumped in the hotel pool a week after the MLK arrest, and the previously mentioned owner, James Brock, is seen dumping muriatic acid into the pool in an effort to get them out.\u00a0 Numerous reporters got photos of this act and it was broadcast all over the world the next day.\u00a0 Two weeks later, Lyndon Johnson signed the Civil Rights Act into law.<\/p>\n

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I liked the heavy Spanish Moss on this tree framing the American Flag.\u00a0 This stuff is everywhere!\u00a0 We have been warned multiple times not to grab it as it’s filled with insects called Chiggers, a nasty biting mite!\u00a0 There is an urban myth that the very first auto recall was the Model T from Ford, as the claim is they used Spanish Moss to stuff the seats, and they were filled with Chiggers.\u00a0 We heard this myth twice, but my blog research says Ford never used the stuff.\u00a0 Makes a good story though!<\/p>\n

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We then heard the history of Henry Flagler, one of the worlds wealthiest men, who first visited St. Augustine in 1883-84, as it was a spot frequented by northeastern high society, and was recommended by doctors to alleviate pulmonary disorders due to the climate.\u00a0 St. Augustine was not built up at that point, but Flagler saw an opportunity here.\u00a0 He built a new railroad connection from Jacksonville, and in 1888, his ultra luxurious Hotel Ponce de Leon opened.<\/p>\n

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In 1968 the gorgeous hotel became Flagler College, and now houses college students.\u00a0 More on this coming up, as we toured the college a couple of days later.<\/p>\n

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Our walking tour ended back at the city’s Plaza, at a street corner called Andrew Young Crossing, another historic Civil Rights spot.\u00a0 On June 9, 1964, Civil Rights leader Andrew Young led a delegation of protesters from their church to the Plaza where they met a group of KKK members.<\/p>\n

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This set of steps represents Andrew’s walk into the Plaza where he was attacked by the KKK, all caught by the media, bringing further attention to the passage of the Civil Rights Act.<\/p>\n

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In the center of Plaza de la Constitucion is this monument to the Spanish Constitution of 1812, built when St. Augustine was under Spanish rule.<\/p>\n

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Directly across the street from the Plaza is the Cathedral Basilica of St. Augustine, the oldest Catholic Church in St. Augustine, built in 1797.\u00a0 I found the red ceiling quite unique.<\/p>\n

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We also found a first (for us at least) in the pews, the fact you can use Venmo or Paypal to donate to the church.<\/p>\n

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Coming up, we visit the cities famous fort and the Ponce de Leon Fountain of Youth!!<\/p>\n

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 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

We made our longest drive of the trip from Apalachicola to the east coast city of St. Augustine with barely any stops.\u00a0 It was over a 5 hour drive, but by staying off the freeways it was quite scenic. We wanted to visit St. Augustine as this is the oldest city in the United States, … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “St. Augustine, Florida; Walking Tour, Civil Rights History”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-12904","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t