Site #3 – Downtown St. Augustine (Douglas Marker, Monson Motor Lodge, Woolworths)
Downtown Saint Augustine: Douglas Marker, Monson Motor Lodge, and Woolworths- Saint Augustine, FL
Site Visit #3 - February 4th, 2021- Lavinia Lenssen
The
Overview of Site:
For our third site, our class visited three different sites in Downtown Saint Augustine, the Fredrick Douglas Marker on Saint George Street, the former Monsoon Motor Lodge which is now a Hilton Hotel, and the former Woolworths self-service department store which is now a Wells Fargo Bank. These three markers, though all across downtown, offer individual stories in the history of the Civil Rights Movement here in Saint Augustine. Though Fredrick Douglas was in Saint Augustine about a hundred years before the movement in the 1900s, he played a "vital role in persuading Abraham Lincoln to issue the Emancipation Proclamation in 1863."
Source Link: For more information on Woolworths, click here!
To visit the former Woolworths, which is now a Wells Fargo bank you can get more information here!
For more information on the Monson Motor Lodge click here!
To visit the former Monson Motor Lodge, which is now a four-star Hilton Historic Bayfront Hotel you can get more information click here!
Artifact #1:
Caption: The historical marker on the left is located in St. George Street, in honor of Frederick Douglass, who spoke on this site on April 7th, 1889. Douglass was born into slavery. Still, he taught himself and other enslaved people how to read. After escaping, he became an active and vocal leader in the abolitionist cause. Douglass spoke about the struggle of African Americans in the post-Emancipation era.
Artifact #2:
Caption: This second artifact that I wanted to highlight is a monument to the protest at the Monson Motor Lodge. It shows silhouettes of people reaching out through blue streaks of color. This monument serves as a dedication to the "swim-in" the Martin Luther King Jr. planned during the Civil Rights Movement in Saint Augustine in 1964. It now stands outside of Hilton Bayfront.
Exterior Photo #1:
Caption: This exterior photo shows the entrance of the Hilton Historic Bayfront Hotel, a Spanish Colonial building as a 4-star place to stay in a 5-star downtown area. On this same planet is where the Monsoon Motor Lodge once stood.
Exterior Photo #2:
Caption: This exterior image shows the front of the present-day Wells Fargo in the middle of downtown Saint Augustine. But I thought it was important to point out that the original door from when it was Woolworths still remains.
In-Conversation Image #1:
Image Source Link: For more information on this image click here!
Brief Statement:
Though the "swim-in" was a good idea for a non-violent act of protest at first, it ended up with blatant and violent racism. The act of protest was for black activists to simply have a swim in the segregated "whites-only" pool. Some white activists participated as well to support the movement as allies. But what happened thereafter, never would have been predicted as the outcome in a million years. The infuriated manager of the Monson Motor Lodge dumped acid in the pool in response to the protests. Those who participated were arrested for defying the rules of segregation. Crazy enough, some were denied food in jail because they weren't wearing enough clothing. Well, of course, they were just wearing swimsuits, what can you expect?!
Brief Statement: The second in-conversation image that I chose was of the sit-ins that occurred at Woolworth's. In July 1963, the Saint Augustine Four, Audrey Nell Edwards, Willie Carl Singleton, JoeAnn Anderson Ulmer, and Samuel White also demonstrated against segregation with a "sit-in" inside of a "swim-in". They peacefully sat at a "white's only" countertop. They too were arrested. They were actually young, they were minors. The judge who was in charge of their trial offered the protestors a deal. The deal was that if they never demonstrated again they were free men. Upon their refusal, they were all sent off to reform school as if that would influence them to simply continue to tolerate segregation.
Passage/Concept ENG202:
In Octavia Butler's kindred one of the symbols in the novel is the whip, this weapon served sort of as a reminder of status. Being beaten by the whip meant that you were lesser and a slave. In the same way that being beaten by a whip is inhumane, having acid poured upon you is an inhumane act as well. Though the activists in the Monson Motor Lodge were not slaves, they're being punished in such a cruel manner has parallels to the unjust violence that Dana faced.
"I had seen people beaten on television and in the movies. I had seen the too-red blood substitute streaked across their backs and heard their well-rehearsed screams. But I hadn't lain nearby and smelled their sweat or heard them pleading and praying, shamed before their families and themselves. I was probably less prepared for the reality than the child crying not far from me. In fact, she and I were reacting very much alike." -Dana
Creative Component:
While it's difficult to create a written creative component highlighting all three locations we visited on our site tour, I wanted to make an effort to write a sonnet about how I felt researching and reading about the way Douglas spoke about emancipation, the way these young men sat at the segregated whites-only Woolworths and the way the activists swam in the segregated whites-only Monson Motor Lodge pool. As a caucasian female, I understand that my race has brought me privileges that not all have. It makes me sad, and it makes me feel sorry that some people still don't stand against this stigma. These three sites we visited are scattered and not well-known. I never noticed the Frederick Douglass historic marker on St George Street until our professors brought us here. This marker exists amidst dozens of shops and restaurants, forgotten in the masses of seemingly oblivious tourists. The sign by the Monson Motor Lodge pool only indirectly explains what happened, it never directly mentions the acid dumped on the activists' heads in the pool. The portrayal of the sit-ins at Woolworths never accurately displays in-depth what occurred. I was hoping to emphasize this matter in my creative component as a sonnet.
I'm Sorry
Lavinia Lenssen
Scattered throughout this grand famous city
Are forgotten narratives passed upon
Sit down and listen, don't just show pity
Written and spoken accounts aren't yet gone
To the walk-ins, the sit-ins, the swim-ins
I'm sorry that your voices weren't yet heard.
The way you peacefully lifted your chins
God made us equally, set this caged bird
Free, why hit when no harms done to you?
The pain struck from half a millennium
Ago, it stings like the acid that flew
Down their throats and through their hearts feeling numb
To this city's chaos and disorder
I'm sorry your peace wasn't brought to order.
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