Book contents
- Original City, Original Sin
- Reviews
- Original City, Original Sin
- Copyright page
- Frontispiece
- Dedication
- Contents
- Cast of Characters, 1963–64
- Introduction: The Story behind the Story
- Part IThe Ever-Present Past
- Part IIFrom Back to School to Burning Crosses
- 6School Bells Ringing
- 7Black Church, White Church
- 8Happy Anniversary
- 9Mighty Sweet
- 10A Little Spy Work
- Part IIITragedy in American History
- Part IVThe Hard Goodbye that Proves Impossible
- Part VThe First Wave Crashes into St. Augustine
- Part VIExtraordinarily Harrowed
- Part VIIThe Pen vS. the Sword
- Epilogue: What Must Be Remembered
- Figures
- Acknowledgments
- Newspaper Abbreviations
- Notes
- Index
9 - Mighty Sweet
September 18, 1963 (St. Augustine)
from Part II - From Back to School to Burning Crosses
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 15 October 2026
Book contents
- Original City, Original Sin
- Reviews
- Original City, Original Sin
- Copyright page
- Frontispiece
- Dedication
- Contents
- Cast of Characters, 1963–64
- Introduction: The Story behind the Story
- Part IThe Ever-Present Past
- Part IIFrom Back to School to Burning Crosses
- 6School Bells Ringing
- 7Black Church, White Church
- 8Happy Anniversary
- 9Mighty Sweet
- 10A Little Spy Work
- Part IIITragedy in American History
- Part IVThe Hard Goodbye that Proves Impossible
- Part VThe First Wave Crashes into St. Augustine
- Part VIExtraordinarily Harrowed
- Part VIIThe Pen vS. the Sword
- Epilogue: What Must Be Remembered
- Figures
- Acknowledgments
- Newspaper Abbreviations
- Notes
- Index
Summary
This chapter explores the horrors of a Ku Klux Klan rally just south of St. Augustine on the evening of September 18, 1963—just three days after the bombing of the Birmingham church. On that same day, Martin Luther King Jr. eulogizes the girls who had been killed in Alabama.
Flyers about the rally had started to appear around the city. Robert Hayling and three other Black men believe they can observe the proceedings safely from a vantage point on the periphery of the rally.
Leading the rally is the “traveling minister” of the Klan, Connie Lynch. His vicious rhetoric whips up a frenzy of hate among the crowd of some 300-400 Klansmen and onlookers. Suddenly, a commotion takes place when the four Black men are captured and marched into the center of the rally. They are beaten savagely and threatened with the possibility of being burned alive.
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- Original City, Original SinKing, the Klan, and the Fight for Civil Rights in St. Augustine, Florida, pp. 84 - 95Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2026
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