In 1963 and 1964, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and the Southern Christian Leadership Conference selected St. Augustine, Florida, as a target city for a new round of civil rights protests. It marked the first major SCLC campaign since the Freedom Rides and Birmingham demonstrations of 1961. In St. Augustine, local chapters of the National Association of Colored People and the Southern Christian Leadership Conference labored to enlist local Roman Catholics in the cause for civil rights, hoping that a cooperative relationship might help desegregate local businesses, civil service agencies, and restaurants. As demonstrations in St. Augustine developed, however, King\u27s brand of social protest began to test the ethics of both local church and civic leaders
