Guide carves niche out of telling 400 years of black history
By Cal Colgan | jcolgan@flagler.edu
Howard Lewis is frustrated that while the city of St. Augustine has started to recognize the importance of the civil rights movement in shaping the town’s history of race relations, most tour guides have left out 400 years of black influence in the nation’s “Oldest City.” He said they do not even acknowledge that Augustine of Hippo, the famous philosopher and theologian who is the town’s namesake, was an African.
“If you look up St. Augustine, you’ll see that he was born in Médéa, and the Internet will tell you that that is now Thagaste, Algeria,” Lewis said.