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Two actors portraying servants from the past in the kitchen of the Ximenez-Fatio House Museum

Black History

St. Augustine has seen the African American experience from a very unique angle-from the first free black town to the final thrust for the Civil Rights Act. Racial struggles of the past have become dramatic victories of the present. In fact, some eyewitnesses of these events still live in St. Augustine today. Browse our stories and pictures. You're sure to find some interesting surprises.

St. Joseph Neighborhood Center Conceived

The Sisters of St. Joseph were called back to St. Benedict the Moor Schoolhouse. They saw beyond the rubble and envisioned the possibilities of returning St. Benedi...

The interior of St. Paul AME Church, with the altar in the background and pews in the foreground.

St. Paul A.M.E. Church

Founded in 1873.

Supreme Court overturns Civil Rights Act of 1875

The Adams-Onís Treaty is signed

This treaty between the United States of America and Spain transferred ownership of East and West Florida to the U.S...

Historic re-enactors demonstrate life at Fort Mose in the mid-1700s

The Battle of Bloody Mose

After evacuating the residents of the Fort Mose to the Castillo de San Marcos, Captain Francisco Menendez and his militia fight the army of General James Oglethorpe...

A colored print of a series of symbols that are related to Florida. In front of a blue background, a sky full of clouds over ships sailing on the ocean. In front of the ocean in the center of the drawing are the three flags that flew over St. Augustine -- British, American, and Spanish. On the right side of the image is foliage and palm trees.

The British Period begins

The Treaty of Paris trades Havana for St. Augustine, marking the start of the British Period of St. Augustine's history."Great Britain claim Florida through the trea...

The Civil War begins

Secessionists in Charleston, South Carolina attack federal troops who still occupy Fort Sumter, which is an island fort in the Charleston Harbor. This was the first...

The Civil War ends

The Confederate States of America founded

A month before Abraham Lincoln would be sworn in as President, eleven southern states band together to form a new country. These rebel states were (in order of seces...

The Jim Crow Era begins

According to Florida Atlantic University, Florida enacted 19 segregation laws between the years of 1865 and 1967. Florida was also known for enforcing especially har...

The Second Spanish Period (1783-1821) begins

In return for Spain's military support during the American Revolutionary War, the newly formed United States of America returned the peninsula of Florida to Spanish...

The St. Augustine Four are arrested

During an 'as usual' day of picketing for youth demonstrators in St. Augustine, sixteen teenagers were arrested at four different lunch counters in the city. Among t...

The Stono Rebellion at a Glance

What was the Stono Rebellion? Discover a South Carolina Freedom Struggle

Trinity Parish Episcopal Church is integrated

B&W portrait of Richard Twine, edited to add drop shadow.

Richard Aloysius Twine

St. Augustine’s first professional Black photographer.

Two B&W portraits collaged onto a red patterned background. Katherine Twine (left) and Henry Twine (right) are older Black people in formal clothes.

Henry & Kat Twine

Prominent local activists and public figures.

The shaded green space of Twine neighborhood Park in St. Augustine, FL on a sunny day. Twine Park historical marker is visible at the bottom of the image.

Twine Park

Greenspace honoring local heroes.

U.S. Colored Troops come to St. Augustine

Recruiting office for the U.S. Colored Troops opens in Fort Marion, which had been reclaimed by the Union Army...

A long shot of the Charleston Museum on a sunny day.

Unearthing Gullah Geechee History

Inspired by the wealth of knowledge in material culture, Charleston archaeologists explore African American history.

Union Forces reclaim St. Augustine

Union forces take St. Augustine and many of Florida's coastal cities and free many Black people who were enslaved there. Federal troops reclaim the Saint Francis Bar...

United States Civil Rights Act of 1964

Barbara Vickers (an older Black woman wearing glasses) stands in front of the bronze monument to the St. Augustine Foot Soldiers.

Barbara Henry Vickers

Local WWII patriot and Civil Rights activist.

The St. Augustine Beach Hotel, facing the Atlantic Ocean. A coquina brick building, two stories, with a series of coquina pillars north.

Waves of Change Exhibit

Outdoor exhibit commemorating Civil Rights.

Coquina sign with red details, blurred background of trees. The sign bears the City of St. Augustine emblem, West Augustine CRA emblem, and the words "Historic West Augustine."

West Augustine Community

A significant historic community.

Collage with red patterned background. B&W cut out of men sitting at a Woolworth's Lunch Counter, seats extend to foreground.

Woolworths Lunch Counter

Site of student-led sit-in protests.

Sepia-toned lined portrait of Black Seminole leader Abraham. He holds the muzzle of a gun, a headwrap, and furs on his shoulders.

Abraham

Counsel to Seminole Chief Micanopy.

Illustration of a Black man in Seminole garb. dark cloudy BG.

Nero

Leader during the First Seminole War.

A Black woman in 1800s garb holding out laundry in front of her.

Rosa

Enslaved woman who lived during the Second Spanish Period.

A large coquina house with a white fence extending into the foreground, the house sits on Aviles Street in St. Augustine, Florida

Ximenez-Fatio House

Built in 1798, revived in 1939.

Ximenez-Fatio House Museum built

This two story mansion is made out of coquina, a stone native to Florida, and is one of a short list of buildings constructed by the Spanish that is still standing...