Despite the passage of the Thirteenth Amendment in 1865, which abolished slavery, the passage of the Fourteenth Amendment in 1868, which granted citizenship to those born or naturalized in the United States, and the Fifteenth Amendment, which gave former enslaved persons and people of color the right to vote, as well as the end of Reconstruction in 1877, Black Americans in former Confederate states would soon see things take a turn for the worst. Much of the South (including Florida) began to create and implement state and local laws that defied both the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments, restricting the ability of Blacks to vote, hold jobs, own property, and earn an education. These so-called Jim Crow laws served to enforce racial segregation across the American South, and they remained in place from the 1880s largely up until the 1960s and 1970s. Florida was no outlier at this time, with strong segregation legislation in place.
Four men and two children posing in front of a log cabin in St. Augustine (1893).
One of the most notable types of segregation law passed in the South (including in Florida) between 1895 and 1910 were grandfather clauses. These statutes served to inhibit Black Americans from voting by only allowing individuals who could vote before 1866/1867, or were descendants of those voters, to vote without the need for poll taxes and literacy tests. As most Black Americans were enslaved until between 1863 and 1865, such legislation utilized prior status of enslavement to effectively disenfranchise the majority of Black Americans. It was not until 1915 that the grandfather clause was deemed unconstitutional by the U.S. Supreme Court through its interpretation of the 15th Amendment.
Segregation within public spaces, particularly in regards to public transportation, also became a hot-button issue for both Whites and Blacks across the state. Up until the late nineteenth century, it was normal for public transit to be integrated, but by the 1880s, there was virulently strong opposition to any sort of integrated space, including trains and streetcars. Disputes regarded integrated means of transportation ultimately served to further strengthen Jim Crow laws after the U.S. Supreme Court ruling in the case Plessy v. Fergusson in 1896, which established that state-mandated segregation laws concerning means of transportation did not violate the equal protection clauses of the Fourteenth Amendment. In effect, this established the concept of “Separate but Equal” as the law of the land.
Andrew Young, Martin Luther King, Jr., and Robert B. Hayling
Fast-forward to the 1960s, and racial tension, segregation, and violence remained the norm in Florida. Poll taxes, literacy tests, and segregation remained in full swing. St. Augustine in particular was considered such a hot bed for racial discrimination and violence that it would be coined “the Birmingham of Florida.” Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. ultimately chose St. Augustine as the site for protests and demonstrations, visiting the city himself. He would be arrested and held in jail for a period of time after trying to stage a sit-in at the Monson Motor Lodge’s restaurant here in St. Augustine. St. Augustine thus became a central piece in the story of the civil rights struggle of Black Americans, and in some cases, a pivotal stop on the way to the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965. With these two acts in place that prohibited discrimination based off of race and sex in employment and voting, that ended segregation in private and public spaces, Black Americans finally were granted the civil, political, and employment rights through enforcement of the Thirteenth, Fourteenth, and Fifteenth Amendments of the U.S. Constitution.
The road to equality under law has been and continues to be a long and tasking journey. It is important to note that the Civil Rights Act and Voting Rights Act were passed only roughly 60 years ago, and there are many members of the Black Community that remember life before then. The struggle for the right to equal representation and suffrage remains an integral part of not only this nation’s history, but of the history of the varied and immensely resilient communities of Black Americans.
Written by Shelby Fox, Research Library Assistant
Edited by Robert Covert, Collections Manager & Editor-in-Chief
Works Cited:
Civil Rights Library of St. Augustine
“The Right to Vote?” Pegasus Magazine, March 10, 2022. https://www.ucf.edu/pegasus/the-right-to-vote/.
Winsboro, Irvin D. S. Florida’s Freedom Struggle: The black experience from colonial time to the New Millennium. Cocoa, Fla: Florida Historical Society Press, 2010.
“Plessy v. Ferguson (1896).” Milestone Documents. National Archives. Revised February 8, 2022. Accessed November 6, 2024. https://www.archives.gov/milestone-documents/plessy-v-ferguson
“Thirteenth Amendment.” Constitution Annotated. United States Congress. Accessed November 6, 2024. https://constitution.congress.gov/constitution/amendment-13/
“Fourteenth Amendment.” Constitution Annotated. United States Congress. Accessed November 6, 2024. https://constitution.congress.gov/constitution/amendment-14/
“Fifteenth Amendment.” Constitution Annotated. United States Congress. Accessed November 6, 2024. https://constitution.congress.gov/constitution/amendment-15/