Saluting a civil rights hero: Dr. Robert Hayling
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I spoke with Dr. Robert Hayling only once, but I will never forget it.
A former dentist, Dr. Hayling became the de facto leader of the civil rights movement in the nation’s oldest city, St. Augustine, Florida, from 1963-65. It was an incredibly dramatic and violent time that is a fundamentally important part of the American story. We would be wise to incorporate it into our observance of the nation’s 250th birthday this week.
Hayling was a native Floridian, but he didn’t arrive in St. Augustine until December 1960. He didn’t come to be a civil rights leader; he came to open a dental practice. But history came calling—in the form of some earnest teenagers who pleaded with him to become the adviser of the NAACP Youth Council. And Hayling answered history’s call.
He paid a steep price for it. That included being captured, beaten severely, and almost burned alive at a Ku Klux Klan rally. It included having his house shot into by night riders who killed his beloved dog, Madonna, and forced Hayling to move his pregnant wife and two daughters out of town. Hayling was demonized by people in power in St. Augustine, led by the sheriff, L.O. Davis. He was ravaged in the local newspaper, and treated cruelly by the courts. He was essentially run out of St. Augustine in 1965, ultimately settling 300 miles south in Lauderhill, just north of Miami.
But the movement that he led was, in my estimation, absolutely essential to the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the most important legislation of the 20th century. It was an amazing victory for democracy, for the fundamental American principle of equality. It would not have passed without the heroism of Hayling and many others in St. Augustine.
When I fully committed to doing a book on this time period in 2013, I began my quest to interview Dr. Hayling. I wrote him letters. I sent him copies of stories I had written. I tried contacting him through trusted intermediaries he had spoken with in the past. I left numerous phone messages on his answering machine in Lauderhill, the one with the voice of his late wife, Athea, still on it.
None of it worked. Dr. Hayling was slow to trust outsiders. Journalists from out of town who happened to be white were not high on his list of exceptions. He had been mistreated so severely. He was wary of being, as he was wont to say, “outfoxed.”
In July 2015, I flew down from New England on one of the many research trips I would make to St. Augustine. I was there for four days, and I had a ton of archival work to do, but I was still considering taking the long drive down to Lauderhill to knock on Dr. Hayling’s door. I had just sent him by overnight mail a copy of a piece I had recently written about civil rights and St. Augustine in The Atlantic. I called to follow up and left yet another message. No reply.
I was in the lobby of a loud hotel the next morning getting breakfast and about to head over to the St. Augustine Historical Society when my cell phone buzzed. I saw the words “RB Hayling” on the screen.
Fearing that the call—maybe the one and only—would disconnect if I entered the elevator to seek the comfort of my air-conditioned room, I made the fateful decision to step out into the parking lot where it was quiet. The Florida summer sun was blazing.
He was 85 years old at the time, and his voice was incredibly soft. I pressed the phone basically into my brain.
We talked for two hours. Afterward, my shirt was absolutely drenched with sweat.
Among the many memorable things he said that day was this, in response to a question of how long he would continue to be involved in the fight for civil rights:
“Until the last day of my life.”
That day came five months later.
In February 2016, there was a huge memorial service in St. Augustine at the St. Paul AME Church in Lincolnville. I flew down because I felt that I had to be there. It was one of the most inspirational moments of my life. After the service, right outside the church, bagpipes played and the local police and firemen lifted this huge American flag between two trucks, and I snapped this picture.
Dr. Hayling is the central figure of an ensemble cast in my new book, Original City, Original Sin: King, the Klan, and the Fight for Civil Rights in St. Augustine, Florida. Among the generous blurbs the book has received, I’m partial to this one by the legendary Ken Burns:
“Woven with journalistic rigor and lyrical wonder, this is a timely and beautiful book.”
Today, July 2, 2026, is the 62nd anniversary of the signing of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. It was a shining moment in American history that was made possible, in significant part, by Dr. Robert B. Hayling.