In a significant boost to the preservation of civil rights history, the St. Augustine Beach Hotel in St. Augustine, Florida, has been awarded a $750,000 grant from the African American Civil Rights grant program. The hotel, which played a pivotal role in the civil rights movement as the site of wade-in protests against segregated beaches in the 1960s, was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 2022. The grant will be utilized to restore the beachfront building and create additional classroom space and artist studios on the second floor. The National Parks Service recognized the hotel's demonstrations as instrumental in the passage of the national Civil Rights Act. This grant is part of a larger initiative by the National Parks Service, which awarded a total of $23.4 million to various historic restorations and projects related to the Civil Rights Movement [19879510][211a7b06].