64 Washington Street
ACCORD Freedom Trail
64 Washington Street was the Florida State Headquarters of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) during and after the civil rights demonstrations of 1964. SCLC was founded in 1957 by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. after the successful Montgomery Bus Boycott of 1955-56. The first executive director of SCLC was a former St. Augustinian, Dr. John Tilley (1898-1971). He had lived here while serving as president of Florida Normal (later Florida Memorial) College in the 1940s. In charge of the SCLC office here was Mrs. Loucille Plummer (pictured), a nurse who had lost her job because of her civil rights activities.
The building at 64 Washington Street also housed the Roayl Palm Barber Shop of Ernest Wells, one of the civil rights pioneers of St. Augustine, as well as a grocery store operated by Chris Lightburn, the celebrated alligator wrestler who was a co-founder, with jazz musician Doug Carn, of the annual Lincolnville Festival in 1979.
This Historical Marker Presented this 2nd Day of July, 2007 by Northrop Grumman
Marker is on Washington Street.
Courtesy hmdb.org
