Flagler set to unveil Civil Rights Library of St. Augustine

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Digital copies of the FBI's files on the St. Augustine movement are part of the Civil Rights Library of St. Augustine.

ST. AUGUSTINE, FL (09/11/2013)(readMedia)-- It was March 31, 1964 that a group of more than 100 students from the all-black Richard J. Murray High School marched to downtown St. Augustine and sat-in at the dining hall of the Hotel Ponce de Leon. After being greeted by police, the group was arrested marking the first sit-in of the civil rights movement in the Nation's Oldest City

Now, nearly a half century later, Flagler College will introduce the Civil Rights Library of St. Augustine, an Internet-based multimedia archive documenting the St. Augustine Civil Rights Movement, in the very same room.

The student-led project will be unveiled in a special ceremony from 4-7 p.m. on Sept. 18 in the Hotel Ponce de Leon Dining Hall, 74 King St. Guests can interact with the online database, ask questions of the students, faculty and staff who worked on the project, listen to speakers both from the College and the community beginning at 5:30 p.m., as well as enjoy light refreshments.

Highlights of the database include the FBI files detailing Martin Luther King Jr.'s time in St. Augustine as well as the surveillance the city was under both before and after MLK arrived. Other items include details on the arrest of the St. Augustine Four, audio of Jackie Robinson's visit to St. Augustine as well as the archives of civil rights leader Andrew Young.

For more information on the event, please contact Assistant Director of College Relations Holly Hill at 904-819-6282 or HHill@flagler.edu.

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Flagler College is an independent, four-year, comprehensive baccalaureate college located in St. Augustine, Fla. The college offers 29 majors, 34 minors and two pre-professional programs, the largest majors being business, education and communication. Small by intent, Flagler College has an enrollment of about 2,500 students, as well as a satellite campus at Tallahassee Community College in Tallahassee, Fla. U.S. News & World Report and The Princeton Review regularly feature Flagler as a college that offers quality education at a relatively low cost. A Flagler education is less than half the cost of similar private colleges, and competitive with many state universities. A relatively young institution (founded in 1968), Flagler College is also noted for its historic beauty. The centerpiece of the campus is the former Hotel Ponce de Leon, a grand resort built in 1888 by Henry M. Flagler, industrialist, railroad pioneer and co-founder of Standard Oil. The Ponce has been designated as a National Historic Landmark. For more on Flagler College, visit www.flagler.edu.