The deepening civil rights tension in St. Augustine is ratcheted up still further by the unresolved legal showdown between one of Martin Luther King Jr.’s top lieutenants, Andrew Young, and St. Johns County Sheriff L.O. Davis. Young has gone to federal court in Jacksonville to make his case that the night marches need to continue because of First Amendment rights regarding free speech and freedom of assembly. Davis and Mayor Joseph Shelley maintain that the marches present a clear and present danger and must be prevented to protect the public. Finally on June 9, Judge Bryan Simpson issues his ruling, a decisive victory for Young, saying that law enforcement has a duty to protect the marchers, and further, that Davis’s tactics (including the stockade behind the jail) represent “more than cruel and unusual punishment.”

That night, Young is tricked into leading the night march by Hosea Williams. Throngs of local whites are massed in the Plaza in anticipation. Young is attacked multiple times on the sidewalk, but ultimately leads the marchers back to safety at a Lincolnville church.