Civil Rights Memorial To Be Unveiled In St. Augustine

A special ceremony to be held Saturday, November 14 in St. Augustine’s Collier-Blocker-Puryear Park will be the first step in an effort to create a renaissance of local interest in area history and Florida Memorial College – now Florida Memorial University. Celebrating 130 years of history, the school was located in St. Augustine from 1918 until 1968 when it moved to Miami.

The 1 p.m. ceremony will feature the unveiling of a historical marker devoted to the contribution of Florida Memorial students to the local civil rights struggles that took place beginning in the 1960s. The marker is part of a series erected by the Civil Rights Committee of St. Augustine (also known as the Civil Rights Memorial Projects Committee) to identify and commemorate pivotal sites related to the civil rights movement. This latest marker also honors Reverend John Lee Tilley, a president of Florida Memorial College (1944-49) and the first executive director of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference under the direction of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

The Florida Memorial University choir will perform. The original choir attained lasting fame in 1900 when it presented the first public performance of Lift Ev’ry Voice and Sing – selected in 1919 as the Negro National Anthem by the NAACP. The famous song was created by the brothers James and Rosamond Johnson.

The ceremony will take place at the newly re-located Abraham Lincoln Lewis Archway – the most lasting physical reminder of Florida Memorial College’s time in St. Augustine. The archway is named for the first African-American millionaire in the region and the man who provided the funding for the arch’s construction. It is in Collier-Blocker-Puryear Park, named for former Florida Memorial College founders and presidents. The park is located at the intersection of Holmes Boulevard and West King Street in West St. Augustine.