Awful Time When A Manager Poured Acid Into The Pool of Black Activists

1964 Throwback — the most evil racial act of “cleaning” the pool.

Things were getting tense in Saint Augustine, FL, in the summers of 1964. The city became the epicentre of the Civil Rights Movement.

With Martin Luther King Jr. looking into it himself, he managed and organized several demonstrations and protests, and this includes the one which forced the president to intervene.

This was an incident in which the hotel manager poured hydrochloric acid into the swimming pool, and after this, things started to change rapidly owing to the media attention.

Let’s know more about the incident that ensured the Civil Rights bill was approved.

Things Got Out Of Hands After The Unwarranted Arrest Of Martin Luther King Jr.

There were numerous demonstrations and protests that took place in the city of St. Augustine.

These protests and demonstrations often responded with violence, and after every response, things got more and more complicated.

Things were in control until Martin Luther King Jr got arrested for trespassing at the Monson Motor Lodge after he was asked to leave the segregated restaurant.

This event and many other things led to a group of protestors, consisting of both white and black people, to organize a revolt.

In the planned protest the group would strategically jump into the pool together to end the segregation at the motel pools.

The Infamous Photograph Where The Hotel Manager Is Pouring Acid Into The Swimming Pool

Things were at their peak after the arrest of Martin Luther King Jr, and finally, on the 18th of June 1964, a group of Civil Rights protestors gathered at the main centre of attraction of the time Monson Motor Lodge.

The gathering was to take a stand against the injustice against the coloured people of the nation and the discriminatory imprisonment of Martin Luther King Jr.

A group amongst the protestors decided to swim in the whites-only pool, to which the management’s response was an immediate one.

It was Jimmy Brock, the hotel’s manager, who grabbed a bottle of hydrochloric acid and started pouring it into the pool while the protestors were in it.

Brock couldn’t come up with a better line while doing such a horrendous thing, so he did that while shouting “I’m cleaning the pool.”

Brock’s plan was to get rid of the protestors, and because of his racial intolerance, he couldn’t come up with a better idea than to pour hydrochloric acid into the pool full of people.

However, at the time, the acid in the pool was the least of their concerns.

The main problem were the law enforcement agencies which were willing to go to any limit to arrest these protesters — even if it meant jumping into the pool, which had acid in it.

These swimmers were taken to the jail along with 40 other protestors; among them were 16 rabbis who tried to dine at the white-only restaurant.

Mimi Jones And The Acidic Pool Water

Mimi Jones is the woman captured in this iconic picture, where acid is being poured into the pool.

Mimi was not an ordinary protestor; along with being the youngest among the protestors, she was a veteran too, who had been working with the Civil Rights activist for a couple of years at the time.

This 17-year-old brave lady didn’t worry about her own body when it came to achieving greater goals she penned.

Mimi was used to educate the elderlies of her society and was involved in countless other activities.

She and her elder sister were sent to jail countless times because of their participation in the civil rights movement.

Her fame skyrocketed after the photo of her in the pool was published, and because being closest to where the acid was being poured, she describes how she couldn’t breathe as the acid started reacting.

The people at the incident described how the acid poured into the pool was not as harmful because of the dilution. Even a thought of acid is enough — who think about the dilution ratios anyway during the course of reaction. Anyway, the acid did leave people with burning eyes and rash.

Jimmy Brock The Infamous Man Who Poured The Acid Into The Pool

James Brock, commonly known as Jimmy, was not a bad person, and he was more of a victim in the incident.

One of Jimmy’s friends says that the guy wasn’t the kind of person who would do such a horrendous thing.

Furthermore, he stated how Jimmy was pressured by the whites who were present at his motel to take a serious action — an action that would make some kind of difference.

In the heat of the moment, it was hard to keep his temper, so he did what we all know.

Jimmy died at the age of 85 in St Augustine, and as for his motel well, the motel along with the pool was demolished in March of 2003, and now you will find Hilton Hotel in its place.

An important landmark related to the Civil Rights Movement is no more.

Final Words

The Civil Rights Movement, which lasted five years, ended up with desired result.

However, even in this modern era, we still see and hear about the incidents that are more or less the same where racial discrimination is at its peak; Imagine the world where we all lived in peace. Euphoria.

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