The Acid in the Pool: A Civil Rights Moment at the Monson Motor Lodge, 1964
In the summer of 1964, amidst the swell of the Civil Rights Movement across the United States, a pivotal and shocking event took place in St. Augustine, Florida, that captured the nation’s attention and helped propel changes in racial equality laws. On June 18, 1964, James Brock, the manager and owner of the Monson Motor Lodge, poured muriatic acid into the swimming pool in a desperate attempt to disperse black and white civil rights protesters who defiantly entered the whites-only pool in protest.
The Monson Motor Lodge had been a focal point in the St. Augustine Movement, a civil rights campaign aimed at dismantling the entrenched segregation policies in the city’s public accommodations. St. Augustine was both virulently racist and economically reliant on northern tourists, making it a strategic battleground for civil rights leaders like Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., Robert Hayling, and others. Earlier that month, King himself had been arrested for attempting to be served at the Monsons’ segregated restaurant.
The protest on June 18 involved a group of black and white activists who staged a peaceful “swim-in” by entering the segregated hotel pool. In response, James Brock, who was also president of the local hotel and restaurant owners association, took the alarming step of pouring muriatic acid—a powerful hydrochloric acid used to clean pools—into the water. The intention was to intimidate and drive the protesters out.
Although the acid was heavily diluted by the pool water and posed little actual chemical danger, the image of Brock’s act was a visceral symbol of the violent resistance to desegregation. Protesters in the pool remained calm, with one activist famously drinking some pool water to demonstrate that the acid level was not lethal. Photographs of the moment, including one showing a police officer jumping into the pool to arrest the demonstrators, were widely published, shocking the nation.
The event drew vigorous national media attention and added pressure on lawmakers. It was part of a broader series of demonstrations in St. Augustine that featured mass arrests—including the largest mass arrest of rabbis in U.S. history, who had come to support the civil rights cause—and violent backlash, including Klan-sponsored bombings. The Monson Motor Lodge became a symbol of both the tenacity of segregationists and the courage of civil rights activists.
Less than a month after the St. Augustine protests, on July 2, 1964, the Civil Rights Act was signed into law, outlawing racial segregation in public places, including hotels and swimming pools. The incident at the Monson Motor Lodge remains a vivid and harrowing reminder of the fierce opposition civil rights activists faced, and the lengths to which segregationists went to preserve racial divisions.
James Brock’s act of dumping acid into a public pool was not only a desperate attempt to maintain segregation but also an iconic moment that helped galvanize support for civil rights legislation and is remembered as a milestone in the struggle for racial equality.