St. Augustine’s history is America’s history — and that includes the history of Black Americans, whose presence in this city stretches back to its earliest days and whose courage in the 20th century helped change the course of the nation. It’s a story that is too often overlooked in standard tours and guidebooks, and it deserves far more attention than it typically receives.
Fort Mose: America’s First Free Black Settlement
In 1738, Spanish colonial authorities established Gracia Real de Santa Teresa de Mose — known as Fort Mose — just north of St. Augustine. It was the first legally sanctioned free Black settlement in what would become the United States, more than a century before the Civil War.
Fort Mose was founded for freedom seekers — enslaved people who had escaped from the English colonies of Carolina and Georgia, making dangerous journeys south to Spanish Florida where they had been promised freedom in exchange for converting to Catholicism and swearing loyalty to the Spanish crown. The settlement’s residents formed a militia that fought alongside Spanish soldiers to defend St. Augustine against British attacks.
The story of Fort Mose is one of the most important and least-known chapters in American history. The site is now a Florida State Park, with an excellent interpretive center that brings this extraordinary story to life.
The Civil Rights Movement in St. Augustine
In 1963 and 1964, St. Augustine became one of the most important battlegrounds of the Civil Rights movement. Local activists, led by Dr. Robert Hayling, organized demonstrations against the city’s deeply entrenched segregation. Their efforts attracted national attention — and eventually, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and the Southern Christian Leadership Conference.
The demonstrations in St. Augustine were deliberately dramatic and deeply dangerous. Wade-ins at segregated beaches — where Black activists and their white supporters waded into the water while hostile crowds and law enforcement confronted them — produced some of the most powerful images of the Civil Rights era. Night marches through the historic district drew violent responses from segregationists.
The St. Augustine movement contributed directly to the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 — one of the most significant pieces of legislation in American history. Dr. King was arrested in St. Augustine and wrote from the local jail about the necessity of nonviolent direct action.
Lincolnville: The Historic Black Neighborhood
The Lincolnville neighborhood, established by freed slaves after the Civil War, is one of the most historically significant African American communities in Florida. Its streets and buildings tell the story of Black life in St. Augustine through Reconstruction, the Jim Crow era, and into the 20th century. The Lincolnville Museum and Cultural Center is an excellent resource for understanding this history.
Exploring St. Augustine’s Black History
The Black History Quest is a self-guided walking tour that traces the Black history of St. Augustine from colonial times through the Civil Rights movement. The tour visits landmark sites connected to Fort Mose, the Lincolnville neighborhood, Civil Rights demonstrations, and the individuals whose courage shaped not just St. Augustine but American history.
This tour is designed for anyone who wants to understand the full story of St. Augustine — not just the Spanish colonial and Gilded Age chapters that dominate most mainstream tours, but the equally important and deeply moving story of Black Americans in this city. It’s one of the most meaningful tours in the City Quest Adventures lineup, and one that we encourage every visitor to St. Augustine to experience.
St. Augustine’s history is complicated, layered, and full of both darkness and extraordinary courage. To know the city fully is to know all of its stories — including, especially, this one.
