Along a Tightrope (St. Augustine Movement)

Reading about the St. Augustine movement made me disgusted by MLK because he did not have the best intentions for the black people of St. Augustine in mind nor did he have a strategy. He was just exploiting them for their situation. His primary and only goal was to get the Civil Rights Act passed. And while the Act did get pass, I do not think that this movement had anything to do with it. I like many of the critics of this movement I believe that the Civil Rights Act would have been passed even without this movement. Instead I think that this movement was a political (and a publicity) stunt. Because as soon as the Civil Rights Act becomes passed, MLK wants out of St. Augustine; basically saying that he would accept anything the local government was willing to give as long as it did not make him look like a loser.

While we can give MLK credit in the short-term for bringing the race issue back to the forefront of the public’s mind and bringing to the surface the racial tensions in St. Augustine, I think we can say confidently that this movement was a failure overall. The bi-racial committee that was supposed to be established never met; left local race relations in shambles; and did not create infrastructure for the development of grass root movements to replace the popular movements that King was organizing. I feel that this is the complete opposite of what a leader of social reform should be doing. While yes, you should be thinking about the bigger picture: your vision of why you do what you do; I don’t think that it is acceptable behavior to exploit and sacrifice a small percentage of your followers all for the sake of the vision.