Esther Julia Burgess (1911 – 2004; née Taylor) [1] was a nonviolent campaigner in the Civil Rights movement.
[3] They were joined by Dr. Robert B. Hayling, a Black dentist who had studied nonviolent protest methods and was a local leader in the Southern Christian Leadership Conference.
After sitting in the restaurant at the Ponce de Léon Motor Lodge, Esther Burgess was arrested and went to jail along with Dr.
The mounting demonstrations in St. Augustine were part of the long build-up to the eventual passage three months later of the Civil Rights Act.
She graduated with honors from Fredericton High School and worked as a stenographer before leaving Canada in 1943 to attend St. Augustine College in Raleigh, North Carolina.