May 22nd Stop 27 of 30 on the ACCORD Tour- 31 Kings Street downtown St Augustine, the Old Woolworth Store- where it all started...

This is the old Woolworth Store, located at the square in downtown St Augustine, and is pretty much where the Civil Rights movement began here in town. Several Florida Memorial College Students did a "sit-in" at the lunch counter in the store, inspired in part by students from Greensboro who had done a similar act of civil disobedience there.  Today, the building houses a Wells Fargo Branch Bank.  

31 King Street

Inscription. The Ponce de Leon Shopping Center opened in 1955 as the first downtown shopping center in St. Augustine. It was designated by Morris Lapidus (1902-2001), Florida's most famous mid-twentieth century architect, and is the only example of his work in the Ancient City. It was anchored by a Woolworth's store on the west side (the door handles still say Woolworth's). On February 1, 1960, black college students in Greensboro, N.C. began a sit-in at their Woolworth's lunch counter to protest racial discrimination. Their example electrified the south, and just a few weeks later, students from Florida Memorial College in St. Augustine began sitting-in at this Woolworth's lunch counter. In the summer of 1963, local black high school students sat-in here and were arrested. They refused when the judge wanted them to end their participation in the civil rights effort, and as a result spent the next six months in jail and reform school. The case of the St. Augustine Four--Audrey Nell Edwards, Joe Ann Anderson, Samuel White and Willie Carl Singleton--received national publicity as an example of injustice, and finally the governor and cabinet of Florida ordered them released in January 1964. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and Jackie Robinson hailed the St. Augustine Four as heroes of the civil rights movement. This Historical Marker  Presented this 2nd Day of July, 2007 by: Northrop Grumman   Erected 2007 by The 40th Anniversary to Commemorate the Civil Rights Demonstrations, Inc. (ACCORD).  Marker series. This marker is included in the Florida, St. Augustine Freedom Trail marker series. Location. 29° 53.53′ N, 81° 18.721′ W. Marker is in St. Augustine, Florida, in Saint Johns County. Marker is on King Street (County Route 214) 0.1 miles west of A1A Scenic and Historic Costal Byway. You can still see the Woolworth Door Handles  Mural in the window.