St. Augustine Record USA TODAY NETWORK
Editor’s Note: The following article was first published on February 16, 2015 as part of The Record’s Where History Lives series, where we give readers a glimpse into the history of St. Augustine every Monday.
It was a hot summer night in 1964 when former UN Ambassador Andrew Young and his group of 300 protesters made history in downtown St. Augustine.
According to the online civil rights library, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Young went to St. Augustine to suspend local protests while the civil rights law was still debated in Congress.
More:Then and Now: A Look at Protests in St. Augustine
More:A Year of Black History: Groups in St. Augustine will start the legacy in 2021
Cross St. Augustine
During a rally led by Hosea Williams at First Baptist Church, Young was invited to lead a march that evening.
Although it deviated from Young’s original purpose for his visit, he agreed.
“King was afraid that violence would break out,” said Young.
His plan was to keep the protesters waiting while he crossed the street and tried to argue with the angry crowd that had gathered in the square.
It seemed to work until someone hit and knocked him down.
“That was all I knew,” said Young, noting that he didn’t remember the attack after that.
With the first blow, Young was down, but not out. He continued to the next corner and tried to cross the street to get back to the square.
“This time the guy tried to hit me, I knew it, so I stepped on the side,” said Young.
With determination in their hearts, the demonstrators walked unharmed from the sidewalk to the square.
“We never backed up and never returned the favor,” said Young. “It was a big win for the movement. I was just here. “
Young may have been pretty hurt, but nothing collapsed and he said he would do it again because of the change that followed.
“It cost everyone”
Since that day, Young has left his legacy and mark on St. Augustine.
The junction of St. George Street and King Street is named after Young. As of 2011, his steps have been engraved into a 25-foot sidewalk with four Coquina panels.
Each panel is named for a different civil rights goal and includes a quote from Young, King, and even former President Lyndon B. Johnson.
For 20 years, Bernadette Reeves, of St. Augustine Black Heritage and Civil Rights Tours, has been educating visitors about her community. For the past three and a half years, she has made it her business to educate visitors about the history of black people in her community, including the Andrew Young Crossing.
Reeves is from the north, but she says that as a black woman, she knows racism and the impact Young and other leaders have had on history.
“Not one group of people has made the city what it is,” she said. “It cost everyone.”
Reeves said residents and visitors alike take part in their tours and there are always a variety of emotions and attitudes.
Even when her visitors are pressed for time, Reeves still makes an effort to stop by Young’s footprints.
“There’s never a time I’ll follow in Andrew Young’s footsteps and not tell the story,” she said.
The life of Andrew Young
Andrew Jackson Young Jr. was born in 1932 to a dentist and teacher in Louisiana and has accomplished so much in his 83 years.
In 1961, Young moved to Atlanta and attended the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC).
A few years later, when he was only 31, Young organized the anti-segregation march in Birmingham, during which the CNN library reported that demonstrators were hosed down and attacked by dogs on the orders of the Police Commissioner.
In 1964 he became Executive Director of SCLC, and after King’s death Young became Executive Vice President of the organization.
It was only in 1970 that Young resigned from the SCLC to apply for a seat in the US House of Representatives. He won two years later.
Young was nominated as Ambassador to the United Nations by former President Jimmy Carter in 1976. He was sworn in as the first African American and 14th US Ambassador to the United Nations by Thurgood Marshall, Supreme Court Justice.
After resigning from his embassy, Young was mayor of Atlanta from 1982 to 1990.
In 1990 he chaired the Atlanta Organizing Committee to bring the 1996 Summer Olympics to the city.
“Andrew Young Presents” was written and produced as a documentary for a television series in 2008 and three years later received a special Emmy Award for Lifetime Achievement.
During part of his career, Young worked with CB Hackworth on the production of films and documentaries.
Hackworth is a writer and director best known for “Rwanda Rising” and “Andrew Young Presents”.
Hackworth said Young’s time in St. Augustine had been with him over the years, and in 2009 the pair made a documentary about it called “Crossing in St. Augustine.”
“This happened when Ambassador Young was frequently telling the story of what had happened to him,” Hackworth said.
During the filming, Hackworth noticed that a lot of people hadn’t told their stories.
“We learned a lot more than we already knew,” he said.
The following year the documentary premiered at Flagler College, and what many were initially afraid to talk about became the start of the dialogue in St. Augustine, Hackworth said.
Young’s legacy
Young has been back in St. Augustine since that summer night in 1964.
He gave an opening address at Flagler College, attended the travel exhibit at the Visitor Information Center, and visited the same venue where he was honored for Andrew Young Crossing in 2011.
Though honored, Young says St. Augustine still has a long way to go.
“We hope that more people, who learn more about it, find that the job is still ongoing,” he said.
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