Southern Christian Leadership Conference

===St. Augustine protests===
{{Main|St. Augustine movement}}
When civil rights activists protesting segregation in St. Augustine, Florida were met with arrests and Ku Klux Klan violence, the local SCLC affiliate appealed to King for assistance in the spring of 1964. SCLC sent staff to help organize and lead demonstrations and mobilized support for St. Augustine in the North. Hundreds were arrested on sit-ins and marches opposing segregation, so many that the jails were filled, and the overflow prisoners had to be held in outdoor stockades. Among the northern supporters who endured arrest and incarceration were Mrs. Malcolm Peabody, the mother of the governor of Massachusetts and Mrs. John Burgess, wife of the Episcopal Bishop of Massachusetts.<ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20060311100813/http://www.stanford.edu/group/King/about_king/encyclopedia/saint_augustine.htm St. Augustine Movement] King Research and Education Institute (Stanford Univ)</ref>

Nightly marches to the Old Slave Market were attacked by white mobs, and when blacks attempted to integrate "white-only" beaches they were assaulted by police who beat them with clubs. On June 11, King and other SCLC leaders were arrested for trying to lunch at the Monson Motel restaurant, and when an integrated group of young protesters tried to use the motel swimming pool the owner poured acid into the water. TV and newspaper stories of the struggle for justice in St. Augustine helped build public support for the [[Civil Rights Act of 1964]]<ref name="cra64">{{Cite web|url=https://finduslaw.com/civil-rights-act-1964-cra-title-vii-equal-employment-opportunities-42-us-code-chapter-21|title=Civil Rights Act of 1964 - CRA - Title VII - Equal Employment Opportunities - 42 US Code Chapter 21 {{!}} findUSlaw|website=finduslaw.com|access-date=2019-05-31}}</ref> that was then being debated in [[United States Congress|Congress]].<ref>[http://www.crmvet.org/info/staug.htm St. Augustine Movement 1963–1964] ~ Civil Rights Movement Archive</ref>