The title of the song written by James Weldon Johnson and his brother, J. Rosamond Johnson, stand tall on one end of the park honoring the men at their birthplace in Jacksonville's historic LaVilla community. | Dan Scanlan, Jacksonville Today
Published on June 27, 2024 at 3:08 pm
The two-story home where James Weldon Johnson and his brother, J. Rosamond Johnson, were born in Jacksonville’s historic LaVilla community is long gone.
But 11 years after the site was designated in the Johnsons’ honor, community leaders on Thursday unveiled a park remembering the men who wrote and composed Lift Ev’ry Voice and Sing, first performed in 1900 at the Stanton School in Jacksonville.
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The title of that song — known popularly as the Black national anthem — rises high to border one corner of the park. A bronze statue of the brothers, named Calling It Done, stands nearby, not far from a restored shotgun home similar to those on many LaVilla streets in the early 1900s.
Melanie’ Edwards, the great-niece of J. Rosamund Johnson, joined hundreds of people to celebrate the park’s opening. Edwards said she understands the effect the two men and her family have had.
“The fact that many people still remember the Johnsons, or remember their music, is humbling,” Edwards said. “As with many African American neighborhoods, the physicality was not honored and maintained. But the fact that the other families besides the Johnsons that achieved because they had grown up in LaVilla, Jacksonville, is as good a legacy. And I hope that people come as much to learn about those families as they do to make use of the facilities that Jacksonville has built for them.”
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The park’s opening also marks the next part of the city’s planned 30-mile Emerald Trail, which eventually will connect 14 historic urban neighborhoods to Downtown, the St. Johns River, McCoys Creek and Hogans Creek. The first part of the trail opened almost two month’s ago on what is designated the LaVilla Link.
The park thrills Kay Ehas, CEO of Groundwork Jacksonville, which is creating the Emerald Trail.
“The LaVilla Link has its crowning piece, absolutely. It is an incredible park design” Ehas said. “I love the fact, No. 1, that it is honoring the history of this neighborhood and of the Johnson brothers. And I love how many people are showing up. It’s truly an awesome celebration.”
LaVilla was once its own community that grew to be nicknamed the Harlem of the South, with homes, restaurants and jazz clubs. But in recent decades, much of the community was cleared out, leaving empty lots between the Prime Osborn Convention Center to the south and medical offices and the LaVilla School of the Arts to the north.
City officials and historians knew the Johnsons’ birth site at Lee and Houston streets was in the middle of that area, and the city designated it to honor the brothers, who composed more than 200 popular musical pieces.
James Weldon Johnson, a writer and civil rights activist, wrote the song to commemorate President Abraham Lincoln’s birthday. His brother, a composer, set the lyrics to music.
Jessie Ball duPont Fund President Mari Kuraishi praised the park and the Johnsons as new offices and apartment buildings are being erected on once-empty lots,.
“Their artistic brilliance gave voice, empowerment and pride to the future generations, and they were born right here in LaVilla,” Kuraishi said. “This park ensures that the Johnson brothers’ incredible legacy will be elevated beyond today. This park honors the past, but it is a vessel for the future and for the neighborhood that is coming into being.”
Architect Walter Hood thanked those who helped bring the park to fruition. He lobbied people to visit what he helped design.
“If you don’t use it, it will go away. So to the community, let’s start something here, a revival, of bringing our past back,” Hood said. “The ghosts of our past are here. And so that is what we need to reshape our future, to bring our past along with us and stop tearing it up, and cherish whether it is meager or big.”
The Rev. Rudolph W. McKissick Jr., the 97-year-old senior pastor of the Bethel Church, gave the opening prayer at the ribbon-cutting. He said the park is “so meaningful” to him.
“I did walk these streets as a boy, never knowing that that house was the house,” McKissick said. “And as I stand at this age, having a connection from my mother, who was a student of John Rosamond Johnson. He taught her to play the piano, and God has spared me to stand here and help in this celebration.”
A concert is planned at the park Sept. 14, but no details were revealed Thursday. Mayor Donna Deegan said it will be a “beautiful cultural celebration” to welcome LaVilla residents and the city with live music and activities.
