ST. AUGUSTINE, Fla. — You may not know her name, but a woman in a very famous photograph has died at age 73.
Mimi Jones is the woman seen in the 1964 photograph, in which a St. Augustine hotel manager poured acid into the pool.
Jones died over the weekend.
Historian David Nolan had met Jones.
"She was one of the great foot soldiers of the Civil Rights Movement, not just for what she did in St. Augustine," he said. "She came out of Albany, Ga., which was one of the great campaigns Dr. King took part in. She was part of what he called his 'non-violent army.'"
Nolan said when the idea emerged for a civil rights demonstration at the whites-only pool at the Monson Motor Lodge in St. Augustine in 1964, the organizers needed people who could swim.
"And so a group of people – including Mimi Jones and her sister – came down from Albany, Ga.," Nolan said. "They were the people who went and jumped in the pool. And from that point history was made. The manager of the hotel redefined southern hospitality by grabbing that acid and pouring it into the pool. Mimi said it was terrifying to her."
He continued, "But the photograph of that, was the most famous photograph ever taken in St. Augustine. And that picture ran on the front page of the Washington D.C. newspaper the day the senate went to vote on passing the Civil Rights Act of 1964, so if there were any wavering votes at all, they just had to look at that horrible picture in the paper and say, 'This is not the America we want. We must pass that law!'”
Indeed, the Civil Rights Act of 1964 was passed, outlawing discrimination in public places.
"So Mimi Jones, as still a teenager, had this incredible encounter with American history," Nolan said. "Long after she had left Albany and St. Augustine and left the south, she was a well-known community leader, who shared her story, teaching younger generations that there are things you can do that will change the situation for the better. I think that’s her great gift to us."
Mimi Jones died at her home in Massachusetts.