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9 Recrimination and Recovery In January 1965 I received a letter from Harold DeWolf, dean of the School of Theology at Boston University. He had been Martin Luther King’s faculty adviser when King received his doctorate in theology. He issued an invitation for me to speak in February to the students and the combined faculties of the College of Law and the School of Theology. He suggested a theme: the moral dilemma of a southern prosecutor during times of racial crisis. St. Augustine had been an emotionally draining experience for me and members of my family, one that I was not keen on reliving so soon after it had occurred. However, I was deeply troubled as to why so many of the civic and church leaders of the city had failed to respond to the moral issue segregation posed for the city, especially in planning a birthday party to celebrate the four hundredth year of its founding, while excluding a quarter of its population from the party. I felt this issue ought to be addressed . Mary and I talked over the invitation and quickly concluded I had to accept.Though raised as a Methodist, she was from a Quaker family and devoutly believed in human rights for all mankind. Most in her family were pacifists. Her mother, aunt, and brother had all attended Guilford College, where I had done my undergraduate work. Mary was a leader in the integration of public schools in Volusia County and one of the first to volunteer to teach at formerly all-black schools integrated after Brown Recrimination and Recovery / 177 v. Board of Education. Mary, with her usual exuberance for causes she espoused , was excited about the prospect of my speaking at Boston University , regardless of the political consequences. She encouraged me to accept , which I did. DeWolf had suggested that I might wish to speak “off the record.” How he expected to accomplish this, I don’t know. As it turned out, the speech was covered by the local news media, both television and newspaper . In any case, I rejected his offer, believing it would be dishonest to distance myself from the implications of the speech I intended to deliver. My assessment of the disaster that occurred in St. Augustine should not be hidden from the people I represented. What happened in St. Augustine need not have happened, and I knew the breakdown in leadership was a warning to all individuals in our society that failure to address social ills has consequences for everyone, especially in a representative democracy .The peace and stability of society are entrusted to civic and political leaders, whether elected or not. Holding public office is a public trust, and fidelity is due to each member of the community.The raw facts of the failure to fulfill this trust, as I perceived them, should be on the record. In deciding how to develop the moral issues involved, Mary and I decided the principal issue was why the civic and religious leaders of a distinguished city had failed to recognize the role blacks had played in the founding and building of St. Augustine. Ignoring the request of a quarter of the population to be part of such a historic event as the four hundredth. year of its founding was nearly incomprehensible. I decided to outline, fact by ugly fact, all I had observed during the racial crisis in St. Augustine , including the absence of leadership by elected officials, by the business community, and particularly by many of the local churches. I was willing to accept my share of the responsibility for the failure, since I was the elected state attorney. I had to reveal exactly what happened during the eight weeks I was in the city attempting to deal with a situation whether it tarnished my reputation or not. I gathered newspaper clippings and my own papers and notes made during the crisis, and relying on my still-fresh memory, I began to write the story of St. Augustine as I remembered it. I did not tell anyone I was writing the history of my 178 / Dan R.Warren experiences, but just before we departed for Boston, I delivered a copy to Mabel Chesley, one of the editors for the Daytona Beach News-Journal. I asked if the newspaper would consider publishing the speech. The last thing I wanted was for the citizens of St. Augustine to be caught by surprise ; they had a right to know exactly what...

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