About The

Program 

           Long before there was a Black Lives Matter Movement in places like Cleveland, Ferguson, St. Paul Baton Rouge and Baltimore, there were black student activists in the tourist town of St. Augustine, Florida.
       The award-winning documentary film Passage at St. Augustine: The 1964 Black Lives Matter Movement That Transformed America tells their story, and establishes their hometown as the most violent Civil Rights campaign of the entire Movement. 

       Viewers enter a time machine and are transported to the 'Nation's Oldest City' to hear first-hand from those who fought the 15-month battle that led directly to the passage of the landmark Civil Rights Act of 1964.
        They include civil rights field lieutenants, foot soldiers, law enforcement, segregationists,  journalists, clergy, Klansmen, White House insiders, business leaders, civilians and politicians. 

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​​​​St. Augustine Foot Soldiers Monument, by Brian R. Owens​

​St. Augustine Civil Rights Veteran Mimi Jones 

​     And despite MLK and LBJ headlining the film's real-life cast, audiences invariably come away from this film, asking why a campaign so pivotal appears to have been wiped from the hard drive of History.
        In the racially-charged climate America currently finds itself, Passage at St. Augustine: The 1964 Black Lives Matter Movement That Transformed America has roundly been regarded as a thoughtful point of departure for a constructive and candid conversation about race, history and change. 
         With brief introductory remarks, documentary filmmaker Clennon L. King segues into a larger conversation on race, rounding out the program with a spirited question and answer session. 
         Institutions, both large and small, have found King’s two-hour presentation timely, eye-opening and engaging ... allowing audiences to mark history, assess its relevance to the here-and-now and decide whether they want to repeat it.