ST. AUGUSTINE, Fla. — It may look like a quaint, unassuming little white building on Bridge Street, but to those who spent years in St. Augustine fighting for equality, the ACCORD (Anniversary to Commemorate the Civil Rights Demonstrations, Inc.) Civil Rights Museum is so much more.
“This museum is important so you can keep things alive so that our youth, mainly, when they see stuff like this, they don’t believe it,” retired Colonel G. Henry Williams said.
Museum administrators say someone lit newspaper on fire and set it under the air conditioning unit on Thursday. Remnants of what the culprit left behind are still visible on the porch.
This isn’t the first fire on this property. Someone set the fence behind the building on fire a few years ago.
St. Augustine Police Department is calling the latest fire suspicious. They told administrators they’ve had problems in the area and suggested putting up a surveillance camera.
According to the department, homelessness is on the rise, and will be discussed at a commission meeting later this month.
“A lot of the homeless sleep in the back and go across and get something to eat,” Williams said.
Keeping the contents of the museum intact are a top priority for those who lived through a segregated nation and fought to end it. A copy of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s arrest record is inside, along with other important, donated items.
The hope is that if the fire here was set intentionally, the person responsible is caught.
“That’s very bad. That’s beyond cowardly,” Williams said while shaking his head.
“No trespassing” signs have been put up since the fire, in effort to deter people hanging around the building.
Anyone with information about the fire is urged to call the St. Augustine Police Department at 904-825-1070.
Cox Media Group
