If It Takes All Summer: Martin Luther King, the KKK, and States' Rights in St. Augustine, 1964

by Dan R. Warren, Morris Dees (Foreword)

This memoir recounts the struggle against segregation in St. Augustine, Florida, in the early and mid-1960s. In the summer of 1964 the nation’s oldest city became the center of the civil rights movement as Martin Luther King Jr., encouraged by President Johnson, a southerner, who made the civil rights bill the center piece of his domestic policy, chose this tourism-driven community as an ideal location to demonstrate the injustice of discrimination and the complicity of southern leaders in its enforcement.

 

St. Augustine was planning an elaborate celebration of its founding, and expected generous federal and state support. But when the kick-off dinner was announced only whites were invited, and local black leaders protested. The affair alerted the national civil rights leadership to the St. Augustine situation as well as fueling local black resentment.

 

Ferment in the city grew, convincing King to bring his influence to the leadership of the local struggle. As King and his allies fought for the right to demonstrate, a locally powerful Ku Klux Klan counter-demonstrated. Conflict ensued between civil rights activists, local and from out-of-town, and segregationists, also home-grown and imported. The escalating violence of the Klan led Florida’s Governor to appoint State Attorney Dan Warren as his personal representative in St. Augustine. Warren’s crack down on the Klan and his innovative use of the Grand Jury to appoint a bi-racial committee against the intransigence of the Mayor and other officials, is a fascinating story of moral courage. This is an insider view of a sympathetic middleman in the difficult position of attempting to bring reason and dialog into a volatile situation.

Genres: History, Nonfiction

224 pages, Hardcover

First published March 1, 2008

Reviews

[Scott Benyacko · Rating 5 out of 5]

When it comes to the history of St. Augustine, FL, you think "Nation's Oldest City" and Ponce de Leon. What you don't think about is the crucial role it played in the passage of the Civil Rights Act. While it seems everyone knows about Birmingham and Selma, St. Augustine flies under the radar.

Dan Warren, the state attorney at the time, vividly recounts the events of that long summer of protests and Klan initiated violence against black residents of St. Augustine. Warren discusses his role in empaneling a grand jury to facilitate dialogue between those demanding change and those of the power structure still stuck in 1863. The best book I've read on the Civil Rights Movement in St. Augustine. He calls Dr. King a hero, and this book shows why.

[Dewin Anguas Barnette · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book offers a great deal of detailed information about a little known time and place of great historical importance. Many know of King's work in Montgomery and Selma, but St. Augustine, while he was only here a short while, was also an important focus of his work. The only issue I had with this book is that some incidents were presented out of chronological order, making it confusing at times.