Lift Ev’ry Voice and Sing Park open in LaVilla

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 place was named in honor of the Johnsons, community leaders on Thursday unveiled a park to commemorate the men who wrote and composed Raise every voice and singpremiered in 1900 at the Stanton School in Jacksonville.

The title of this song – popularly known as the Black National Anthem – stands tall, marking one corner of the park. A bronze statue of the brothers, called It’s donestands nearby, not far from a restored shotgun house similar to those on many streets in LaVilla from the early 1900s.

Melanie Edwards, J. Rosamund Johnson’s great-niece, joined hundreds of people in celebrating the park’s opening. Edwards said she understands the impact the two men and their family have had on the park.

“The fact that many people still remember the Johnsons or their music is humbling,” Edwards said. “Like many African-American neighborhoods, the physical presence has not been honored and preserved. But the fact that the other families besides the Johnsons have accomplished something because they grew up in LaVilla, Jacksonville, is just as good a legacy. And I hope that people come here as much to learn about those families as to use the facilities that Jacksonville built for them.”

The park’s opening also marks the next segment of the city’s planned 30-mile Emerald Trail, which will eventually connect 14 historic neighborhoods to downtown, the St. Johns River, McCoys Creek and Hogans Creek. The first segment of the trail opened nearly two months ago on what is known as the LaVilla Link.

The park excites Kay Ehas, CEO of Groundwork Jacksonville, which is creating the Emerald Trail.

“The LaVilla Link definitely has its crowning glory. It’s an incredible park design,” Ehas said. “I love the fact that it honors the history of this neighborhood and the Johnson brothers. And I love how many people come. It’s really a great celebration.”

LaVilla was once its own community, nicknamed the “Harlem of the South,” with homes, restaurants and jazz clubs. But in recent decades, much of the community has been cleared, leaving empty lots between the Prime Osborn Convention Center to the south and doctor’s offices and the LaVilla School of the Arts to the north.

City officials and historians knew that the Johnsons’ birthplace, at the corner of Lee and Houston Streets, was in the heart of this area, and the city designated it as a place to honor the brothers, who composed more than 200 popular pieces of music.

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.

Mari Kuraishi, president of the Jessie Ball duPont Fund, praised the park and the Johnsons as new offices and homes are being built on once-vacant lots.

“Their artistic brilliance gave voice, strength and pride to future generations, and they were born right here in LaVilla,” Kuraishi said. “This park ensures that the Johnson brothers’ incredible legacy will continue beyond the present. This park honors the past, but it is a vessel for the future and for the emerging neighborhood.”

Architect Walter Hood thanked everyone who had contributed to the park’s realization. He was committed to ensuring that people could visit the park that he had helped design.

“If you don’t use it, it will disappear. So, to the community: Let’s start something here, a revival that will bring back our past,” Hood said. “The ghosts of our past are here. And that’s what we need to reshape our future: We need to take our past with us and stop destroying it and value it, no matter how big or small it is.”

Bethel Church pastor Reverend Rudolph W. McKissick Jr., 97, delivered the opening prayer at the opening. He said the park meant “so much” to him.

“I walked through these streets as a boy and did not know that this house The “House,” McKissick said. “And being this age, I have a connection to my mother, who was a student of John Rosamond Johnson. He taught her to play the piano, and God spared me to stand here and help with this celebration.”

A concert is planned for Sept. 14 at the park, but details were not announced Thursday. Mayor Donna Deegan said it will be a “beautiful cultural celebration” to welcome LaVilla residents and the city with live music and activities.