October 15th, 2021

A brief excerpt from my book...
Chapter 10—Dr. Arnett E. Girardeau--"Unless WE Tell It...It Never Gets Told!"
"In 1964, St. Augustine Civil Rights Activist Dr. Robert Hayling, a leader of the St. Augustine Civil Rights Movement and a fellow dentist and friend of Dr. Girardeau, was viciously beaten by the Ku Klux Klan. Fearful of the treatment or lack thereof that he might receive in St. Augustine’s hospitals because of his civil rights activities, friends saw to it that Hayling was taken to Brewster Hospital—a segregated but not segregating Black hospital in Jacksonville—in a funeral hearse provided by Leo Chase, a Black funeral director in St. Augustine. Hayling received emergency medical treatment by Black doctors at the hospital, which saved his life. Those Black doctors also maintained their professional medical care of Dr. Hayling until he was healthy enough to return home, and Dr. Girardeau provided extensive oral surgery, which Dr. Hayling also said saved his life. All medical and dental care was provided to Dr. Hayling at no cost."
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Dr. Hayling was inducted in the Florida Civil Rights Hall of Fame in 2014; Dr. Girardeau was inducted in the Florida Civil Rights Hall of Fame in 2017.
Picture-Dr. Arnett E. Girardeau and Dr. Robert Hayling. TWO CIVIL RIGHTS LEGENDS.

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