According to Young's 1996 memoir, An Easy Burden (which will be quoted throughout this section), there was a large meeting at Shiloh when he arrived. SCLC representative Hosea Williams called upon him to lead the night's march, and Young agreed. That night, the group was made up of "only a few [people]... mostly women and children and a handful of men." Their destination was the Plaza de la Constitución (the "Plaza"), in the heart of downtown.
They knew a mob of White supremacists would be waiting for them and that violence against the protestors was very likely. "We prayed. A woman started singing 'Be Not Dismayed, What E'er Be the Tide, God Will Take Care of You,' a song that we sang so often in those days. ... Now, I love that song, but it's quite different believing in it in church on Sunday morning than it is when facing an angry mob outside on a Friday night."
The group walked from the West King Neighborhood to the Plaza. They encountered Holstead "Hoss" Manucy and his fellow White supremacists at the intersection of King Street and St. George Street:(To hear a rendition of "God Will Take Care of You" by Aretha Franklin and The Southern California Community Choir, scroll up to this profile's Media Gallery.)
"I decided to do what I always do in confrontations; I walked over to Manucy and his people and was intending to talk to them, to at least try to diffuse the situation. ... as I was talking to one man, looking to my left, another guy slipped up behind me and slugged me in the jaw. Then someone hit me in the head from the rear with a blackjack ... when I fell to the ground, I instinctively tried to curl up as we had been taught to do, and then someone kicked and stomped me while I was on the ground. ... Willie Bolden rushed over and dragged me away from my attackers, back into the middle of our group."
After this attack, the activists re-grouped and finished their march around the Plaza, with Young taking the front of the line. During another attempt to make peace, Young was attacked again, getting kicked in the leg and hit in the back of the head. A few reporters for news stations like CBS were also injured that night. The violence stopped when "the long-absent Sheriff L.O. Davis appeared and pushed the white onlookers back on to the sidewalk."
The group made it back to Shiloh Baptist Church safely that night, but Andrew Young's mind had been changed:"That night, I became Hosea's strongest advocate for a major campaign in St. Augustine. ... I saw firsthand the courage of St. Augustine's Black citizens ... it wouldn't be right to abandon those people to the Klan and the Sheriff. It dawned on me ... that the country should be reminded why we needed the rapid passage of the civil rights bill. Birmingham was a year in the past, and Americans have short memories."
To learn more about Andrew Young , visit his profile in the "Related People" section, below.
Marquis defines the three main themes of Andrew Young Crossing as "1) the evolution and struggle for civil rights, 2) the active nature of the movement, and 3) the ongoing work and steps still needing to be taken." Indeed, after the final word — JUSTICE — there are three more bronze footsteps "for visitors to consider steps they can take as well."
The materials used to make the Andrew Young Crossing monument were also specifically chosen to portray a message of resilience. Marquis says, "The permanence of [granite and bronze] reflect the strength of the movement and the timeless elements in the cause."
In granite: ANDREW JACKSON YOUNG JR. - UN Ambassador - Senior Aide to Martin Luther King, Jr., Southern Christian Leadership Conference - Pastor - United States Congressman, Georgia - American Andrew Young Crossing / Commemorating the June 9, 1964, march for Civil Rights to the Plaza and the courageous leadership of Andrew Young and the people of St. Augustine.
In granite: "This is your story, as much, if not more, than it is my story." - Andrew Jackson Young, Jr.
In bronze: FREEDOM
In granite: "St. Augustine was probably the most rigorous test that non-violence had. And we passed it. If we had not passed it, we could have lost the Civil Rights Act." -Andrew Jackson Young, Jr.
In bronze: NON-VIOLENCE
In granite: "This Civil Rights Act is a challenge to all of us ... to eliminate the last vestiges of injustice in our beloved country." -President Lyndon B. Johnson
In bronze: EQUALITY
In granite: "We have allowed the idea of nonviolence to work through us ... and transform dark yesterdays into bright tomorrows." -Martin Luther King, Jr.
In bronze: JUSTICE
That day, Young told the St. Augustine Record that the purpose of the 1960s Civil Rights Movement was "to seek human dignity and respect that allows us to live together as brothers and sisters and not perish together as fools."
Let us all seek that peaceful life together.Garrow, David. St. Augustine, Florida, 1963-1964: Mass Protest and Racial Violence. New York, USA: Carlson Publishing, Inc., 1989.
Marquis, Jeremy. "Making a Monument: Andrew Young Crossing," Marquis Latimer + Halback, accessed February 2024, .Young, Andrew. An Easy Burden. New York, USA: HarperCollins Publishers, 1989.
Guinta, Peter. "St. Augustine honors civil rights figure Andrew Young," The Florida Times-Union, June 12, 2011, .
Guinta, Peter. "Andrew Young to dedicate Crossing Monument, Constitución Monument as part of Viva Florida 500," St. Augustine Record, September 30, 2012,