Welcome: this welcome sign greeted about 300 white segregationists as they entered the black residential section of St. Augustine, Florida last night on a march. They are being escorted by police to keep down trouble.

The St. Augustine Movement was a part of the wider Civil Rights Movement in St. Augustine, Florida in 1963–1964. It was a major event in the city's long history, and it played a role in the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. From May until July 1964, protesters endured abuse and verbal assaults, usually without any retaliation. The movement engaged in nightly marches down King Street. The protesters were met by white segregationists who violently attacked them. Hundreds of the marchers were arrested and incarcerated. The jail was filled, so subsequent detainees were kept in an uncovered stockade in the hot sun. When attempts were made to integrate the beaches of Anastasia Island, segregationists beat demonstrators and drove them into the water. Some of the protesters could not swim and had to be saved from possible drowning by other demonstrators. Death threats against the leadership were reaching a fever pitch, especially against SCLC President Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. In the first week of June, a cottage that was scheduled to house King went up in flames. In response, Dr. Robert Hayling, generally considered the "father" of the St. Augustine Movement, and his team stepped up their armed patrols, a policy which King personally disapproved of. Nonetheless, King was under Hayling's armed protection every night that he spent in St. Augustine. On June 10, the filibuster against the Civil Rights Act (one of the longest filibusters in history) finally collapsed. On June 30, Florida Governor Farris Bryant announced the formation of a biracial committee to restore interracial communication in St. Augustine. Although matters were far from resolved, national SCLC leaders left St. Augustine on 1 July, the day before President Lyndon Johnson signed the Civil Rights Act into law. Despite this national success, black residents in St. Augustine continued to face violence and intimidation. Consistent threats and picketing by the Klan led many of the town’s businesses to remain segregated. Although SCLC continued to provide some financial support to activists in St. Augustine beyond July 1964, the organization never returned to the city.

On recto: typewritten title and date.
On verso: manuscript title and Associated Press stamp.

Wire photographs were originally transmitted over phonelines, then later, by satellite. They were first used in the early 1920s. Associated Press became a leader with this. After pigment touch-ups, etc., the print is put into a drum (like a drum scanner). The image gets converted into audio tones that are transmitted. The tones are received and beamed onto photo-sensitive paper. Wire photographs are copies without originals---they are hybrid, transmitted objects. (Britt Salvesen, Curator and Department Head, Photography Department, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, March 30-31, 2022)

This object has the following keywords:

• Civil Rights Movements
• Desegregation
• Injustice
• Marches
• Provocation
• Racial Discrimination
• Saint Augustine
• St. Augustine Movement
• Street Scenes

• Image Dimensions: 6 1/2 x 9 in. (16.51 x 22.86 cm) Measured by Hudson, Karen
• Sheet Dimensions: 8 1/16 x 10 in. (20.48 x 25.4 cm) Measured by Hudson, Karen