Civil rights activists highlighted in publication had significant ties to St. Augustine

Many of us found the special supplement in The Sunday Record (Nov. 14) about the heroes of the civil rights movement 60 years ago quite moving. Those people, many of them youngsters, taught us lessons in democracy that still resonate, not just here, but around the world. Now that some have passed away, and the rest qualify for Social Security and Medicare, let us not fail to give appropriate thanks.

Two of those highlighted in the supplement have important St. Augustine connections.

Henry “Hank” Thomas, one of the original 13 Freedom Riders, grew up here and attended Excelsior School (now the Lincolnville Museum) and Richard J. Murray High School (now Murray Middle School). He famously conducted a one-man sit-in at the lunch counter of the old McCrory’s store (now a shopping mall) at 158 St. George St., and was bailed out of jail with money provided by Sammy Davis Jr. According to the National Park Service, Thomas “was once sentenced to six months in the Mississippi State Penitentiary for Treason against the state for using a "Whites Only" men’s room in Jackson, Mississippi.”

Now 80, and a prominent Atlanta businessman, he has family still here. Indeed, his mother, Mrs. Tiny R. Heggs, one of the revered elders of the Lincolnville community, passed away here just a few months ago at the age of 99.

One of the iconic photographs of American history shows Thomas standing outside a firebombed bus that had carried the Freedom Riders to Anniston, Alabama, in 1961. The site is now recognized as a national monument, and there is even talk of erecting a statue of Hank Thomas there.

Thomas was the keynote speaker at the dedication of the monument in our plaza to the Foot Soldiers of the civil rights movement in 2011 — just a few days after he appeared on the Oprah Winfrey Show.

Many people remember Hank Thomas from growing up here, and from his more recent visits.

Not so many may be familiar with the local connection of the world-renowned journalist Charlayne Hunter-Gault.

Sixty years ago, she became famous as the first Black woman to attend the University of Georgia — which resulted in a riot by whites who opposed her presence.

Her grandparents lived in St. Augustine, and she would come to stay with them in the summers. Her grandfather, Rev. Shepherd Hunter, was pastor of St. Paul A.M.E. Church in the 1940s, and she remembered in her memoirs about the narrow passage from the church to the old parsonage behind it at 84 St. Benedict St. (a story told on the ACCORD Freedom Trail marker in front of the parsonage).

She also remembered trying to hide from her grandmother, who was always trying to teach her Bible verses. Then, years later, after the riot at the University of Georgia, she took comfort in those same Bible verses, and “many times since then, even in war zones.”

Carrie Johnson, the beloved “Voice of Lincolnville” always remembered that she had been baptized by Charlayne Hunter-Gault’s grandfather in the famous marble baptismal font in the church sanctuary at 85 Martin Luther King Ave.

Charlayne Hunter-Gault went on from the University of Georgia (where a building now bears her name) to work for The New York Times, CNN, National Public Radio, and Public Broadcasting’s popular MacNeil/Lehrer NewsHour.

Many prominent journalists have lectured here over the years. I don’t believe Charlayne Hunter-Gault has ever been invited — even though she is now a resident of Florida.

What a shame!

David Nolan is a St. Augustine historian.

This article originally appeared on St. Augustine Record: Civil rights activists had significant ties to St. Augustine