Heritage Luncheon

95 Cordova Street,St. Augustine FL 32084

18 June, 2022

Description

Join The Lincolnville Museum and Cultural Center (LMCC) in commemoration of the pursuit of freedom and celebration of Juneteenth 2022 as a new national holiday. The Heritage Luncheon is part of a series of Juneteenth events including the screening of Passage at Saint Augustine on June 11th. A formal dedication of a section of a Woolworth’s lunch counter display in our civil rights room will take place at 10 am at the LMCC on June 18. These events serve as a remembrance of the challenges faced by activists and their drive to create a more harmonious and inclusive community that is equitable for all. The Heritage Luncheon will take place on Saturday, June 18th at 11:30 a.m. at the Casa Monica Resort and Spa (95 Cordova St, St. Augustine, FL 32084). We are proud to announce that civil rights activist Mr. J.T. Johnson will be the featured speaker. The program will included a plated lunch. Tables seating eight are available along with individual tickets. Parking at the Casa Monica is reduced to $5 for luncheon guests. In addition to celebrating the activism of the civil rights era, the luncheon will also support the preservation of the museum’s physical location. The LMCC preserves over 450 years of African American heritage in the nation’s oldest city, through heritage exhibits, interactive displays, educational programs, oral histories and historical archives. The museum is housed in the historic Excelsior School building, the nearly-100 year old site of St. Johns County’s first Black high school. Museum staff and the board of directors have been engaged in the preservation of the historic structure through a series of grants and fundraising efforts. About the Speaker: J.T. Johnson, a native of Albany, Georgia, joined the civil rights movement in 1963 when he began working in southwest Georgia with Martin Luther King, Jr. and the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC). A gifted local and regional athlete who, in the segregated South, had not been allowed to compete for athletic scholarships at white universities, J.T. attended Albany State College but soon left Georgia for New York and later Northern New Jersey. Returning to his hometown at the height of the Albany movement, he witnessed first hand the power of nonviolent direct action and understood the great potential of the civil rights movement and its strategies for social change. After Albany, J.T. continued his work with SCLC in St. Augustine, Florida where he integrated the pool at Monson’s Motor Lodge into which acid was poured as soon as he dived into it. The film footage of the acid pouring after J.T.’s pool jump generated both national and international media attention so that within weeks of the St. Augustine movement, the 1964 Civil Rights Bill was passed. As project director for SCLC, J.T. continued to work with Hosea Williams, Andrew Young, C.T. Vivian and Martin Luther King, Jr. in all of the major movements throughout the south and continued his work with the SCLC well into the 1970s.