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Bob Collins

StoryCorps: Remembering a civil rights swim-in

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Brock
Motel and restaurant owner James Brock and his daughter, Robin, 13, raise a confederate flag in front of the Monson Motor Lodge in St. Augustine, Fla., June 19, 1964. The motel has been a target of integrationists for several weeks. (AP Photo)

Today's StoryCorps from NPR offers a vivid reminder that it took more -- much more -- than freedom riders and and bus protests to advance civil rights in this country.

Fifty years ago next week, for example, several African-Americans jumped into a whites-only swimming pool at a Florida hotel. In response, the owner poured acid into the water.

J.T. Johnson, now 76, and Al Lingo, 78, were two of the swimmers.

Whatever happened to the owner of the hotel? Jimmy Brock died in 2007.

"Jimmy kind of caught the brunt of it. He was a nice guy," said Eddy Mussallem, a fellow hotelier and longtime friend told the local paper. "They had to pick a motel, so they picked Jimmy's motel. I always told him he did a foolish thing."

Meanwhile, back in 2014: "Tea Party Candidate Says It's OK To Stone Gays To Death."