The Incarceration

Explicit content warning

10/14/24 • 18 min

16 rabbis and one Jewish layperson are arraigned in the county jail by the local KKK leader and then squeezed together in a cell big enough for only two. During an uncomfortable night of imprisonment, the rabbis find an important mission.They write a joint manifesto, “Why We Went,” articulating their philosophical and religious reasons for coming to St. Augustine. Meanwhile, the African-Americans arrested with them are treated by law enforcement in the harshest, cruelest manner. ---------- CREDITS: The Rabbis Go South was made possible through grants from Combined Jewish Philanthropies, the Southern Jewish Historical Society, and generous private donors including Louis Black (founder of South by Southwest) and Joyce Saltman. This podcast is a presentation of Hub & Spoke, a prestigious collective of creator-owned shows.

Previous Episode

Showdown at the Monson Lodge

The rabbis gather at a St. Augustine motor lodge notorious for its segregationist policies. When the rabbis participate in a pray-in with Black clergy, local police move in for an arrest. Simultaneously, a group of Black activists head to the motor lodge swimming pool to attempt to desegregate it. Nationally assigned television crews are on the scene to film these dramatic, chaotic events. Their images of St. Augustine law enforcement brutally manhandling Black and White protestors reverberate across the nation. ---------- CREDITS: The Rabbis Go South was made possible through grants from Combined Jewish Philanthropies, the Southern Jewish Historical Society, and generous private donors including Louis Black (founder of South by Southwest) and Joyce Saltman. This podcast is a presentation of Hub & Spoke, a prestigious collective of creator-owned shows.

Next Episode

Among the Jews of St. Augustine

Those with deep familial roots in St. Augustine’s Jewish community recount their experiences growing up in a city marked by racial tension, anti-Semitism, and KKK activity. They recall Jewish relations with the Black community, and what they were doing when outsider rabbis arrived to protest their city’s segregation laws. For a small, vulnerable religious minority, was the civil rights movement coming to St. Augustine a positive or a divisive development? ---------- CREDITS: The Rabbis Go South was made possible through grants from Combined Jewish Philanthropies, the Southern Jewish Historical Society, and generous private donors including Louis Black (founder of South by Southwest) and Joyce Saltman. This podcast is a presentation of Hub & Spoke, a prestigious collective of creator-owned shows.