This Time, Things Changed

At week's end St. Augustine was once more a sleepy seashore city. But its peace was uneasy, and behind lay a pattern of racial violence that could erupt again at any time.

Since mid-June, Negro and white demonstrators under the guidance of Martin Luther King Jr. had staged daily wade-ins at the predominantly white beach, paraded nightly through historic Slave Market park. One night two weeks ago, some 400 whites were whipped to a frenzy by a California rabble-rouser named Connie Lynch, who cried: "I favor violence to preserve the white race any time, any place, anywhere. Now I grant you, some niggers are gonna get killed in the process, but when war's on, that's what happens." The mob surged forth, threw itself at 250 civil rights demonstrators. For 15 minutes, a pitched battle was waged. Police tried to stop it but were overwhelmed by the mob. Finally the Negroes retreated, taking along 40 wounded.

Stalking at Night. In the nights that followed, shotgun-toting whites and Negroes stalked each other. White youths in a pickup truck fired into a Negro home; a Negro blasted a carload of whites with a shotgun, hitting one man in both legs; rifle shots from the darkness wounded a Negro riding in a car.

At the same time, another victim of St. Augustine's racial hatred, the Rev. Charles M. Seymour Jr., was fighting a different battle--to stay in his pulpit. Father Seymour, for 15 years rector of St. Augustine's Trinity Episcopal Church, had admitted Negroes to services a week before, now was under attack by the church's vestry, who were pressuring him to resign. Last week Florida's Episcopal bishop, the Right Rev. Edward Hamilton West, gave Father Seymour his "absolute support." Said Seymour: "The doors of the Episcopal Church are open to anyone, any time."

Whites at Bay. As last week began, Negroes staged their usual march to the beach. This time things were different. State troopers, part of a 230-man contingent ordered into the city by Florida's Governor Farris Bryant, waded into the water with the demonstrators, formed a ring around them and kept angry whites at bay with police dogs. That night, the Negroes marched on the Slave Market. Whites were waiting, but again the troopers kept the peace.

Next day Governor Bryant announced that a biracial committee had been formed to try to talk out St. Augustine's conflict. King called off further demonstrations, told his followers: "Every 1,000-mile journey begins with a first step. This is the first step on our journey here in St. Augustine."

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