Hoss Unhorsed

CIVIL RIGHTS

In St. Augustine, Fla., most of the previously white-only motels and restaurants began serving Negroes as soon as the Civil Rights Act became law. The owners wanted peace; racial violence already had cut the tourist trade by 50% . Yet a few days later, most places were resegregated. An army of white racists, the owners said, had forced them to lock out Negroes once more on pain of assault or worse.

In a precedent-setting case under the new law, St. Augustine Negroes asked U.S. District Judge Bryan Simpson in Jacksonville to order compliance by 15 motels and restaurants in their city. Going to the key issue of enforce ment, the plaintiffs sought an injunction against the owners' alleged coercers -- a troop of white toughs headed by Holsted ("Hoss") Manucy, a convicted moonshiner of Majorcan descent. Manucy, who runs something called the Ancient City Hunting Club, denies membership in the Ku Klux Klan but calls it "a wonderful organization."

At the trial last week, Judge Simpson let the motel and restaurant owners convict Manucy & Co. The owners told of being picketed by whites carrying such intimidating signs as "Niggers Eat Here. Would You?" Many reported anonymous phone calls: "You're not gonna make it home if you keep serving them." Eddy Mussallem of the Caravan Motel said he called everybody from the sheriff to the state police, only to be told that the pickets were doing nothing illegal. With unwitting irony, Tom Xynidis of the Sea Fair Restaurant told Judge Simpson that he was afraid of obeying the law on his own: "If I'm the only one, how can I face my fellow citizens with pride?"

Ordered to take the stand, Hoss Manucy parried one question after another with the same evasive words: "I'm not gonna answer that at this time." Manucy refused to admit not only that he had ever threatened anyone, but also that he even knew his own sons, five of them being his codefendants. "You don't mean you don't know the people at this time," snapped Judge Simpson, "just that you don't want to answer at this time." Said Manucy meekly: "Yes, Your Honor."

That was enough for Judge Simpson, a Florida aristocrat whose grandfathers fought on both sides in the Civil War. Ordering the restaurant doors opened to Negroes, Simpson enjoined the Manucys and "each member" (about 1,500) of the Ancient City Hunting Club from molesting the owners or Negro customers in any way. James Brock, whose Monson Motor Lodge was set afire, still had a point. For the Civil Rights Act to work in St. Augustine, he testified, "we will need very strong law enforcement for a long time."

* County couurts with a variety of names, such as superior court, supreme court, circuit court and court of common pleas.

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