(Jewish Group) Why They Went: The Forgotten Story of the St. Augustine 17
“Did you know the rabbis?” I asked Rena Ayers, then 106 years young. “Oh sure,” she said, in her distinctly Southern drawl. We were sitting at her small kitchen table in Lincolnville, the historically black neighborhood of St. Augustine, Florida. Alongside us was Cora Tyson, who, at the age of 88, was as agile and alert as ever. Both women had been “house mothers” during the civil rights movement, hosting activists in their modest homes as they came through the city. Tyson had housed King; Ayers, I had been told, had hosted some of the rabbis.
Today, St. Augustine is known as a picturesque Florida vacation spot. Famed as the nation’s oldest city, it’s a quaint locale that was recently lauded by the New York Times for its “magic waters,” “moss-draped live oak trees,” and “butter pecan milkshakes.” But just decades ago, the city was the site of some of the civil rights movement’s most perilous protests.
It was here that a delegation of 16 Reform rabbis and one lay leader arrived, at the invitation of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., to stage a public protest—with the goal of submitting to arrest. Here, the rabbis were imprisoned overnight on June 18, 1964, in what was thought to be the largest mass arrest of rabbis in American history. From their cell, they wrote a joint manifesto, Why We Went, a profound document that expresses the rabbis’ political and religious aspirations.
Yet the story of the St. Augustine protests—and the role of its rabbinic participants—is often overlooked by civil rights histories, which focus on the renowned demonstrations in Montgomery and Birmingham. Similarly, Jewish accounts prioritize the movement’s iconic images—King and Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel marching arm-in-arm in Selma—rather than the work of lesser-known activists.
I’d never learned about the St. Augustine protests and its rabbinic participants during my college courses in civil rights. But once I found out about them, my curiosity led me to the St. Johns County Jail—where the rabbis were held—and to the homes of veteran local activists.
more...
