1074 West King Street was the home of Mrs. Georgie Mae Reed (1926-1995), who took part in a pivotal civil rights movement event that changed America and inspired the world. On March 31, 1964, Reed was one of five St. Augustine women who accompanied Mrs. Mary Peabody, the 72 year old mother of the governor of Massachusetts, to the Ponce de Leon Motor Lodge on U.S. 1 North. The group sat down in the restaurant and asked to be served, but they were arrested instead. The incident appeared on the front page of newspapers across the country, drawing international attention to the activities in St. Augustine that led directly to the passage of the landmark Civil Rights Act of 1964. Reed, who suffered from polio, did not let it stop her that day as she put on her Sunday best and walked into American history. She later told her story to Pulitzer Prize-winning author Taylor Branch when he was in St. Augustine in 1991, but she did not live long enough to see his 1998 book Pillar of Fire, in which her heroism was celebrated.
