After months of watching civil rights demonstrations through the country and on the streets of Jacksonville at times even participating themselves the students were surprised when in February the school district didn t seize the opportunity to use Black History Month as an education tool to drive lessons about local racial justice movements and Black history.
Instead, the school district launched its own inaugural month-long campaign for mental health and suicide awareness called You Matter Month. While that campaign had its own issues because it encouraged students to #TakeOffYourMask during a global pandemic, some students worried the language minimized Black Lives Matter campaigns and hijacked the attention from the sole month annually centered around Black lives.
On Thursday night, the Beck Cultural Exchange Center hosted âA Movement of Black Arts & Culture,â highlighting Black artists and creatives in Knoxville.
Held over Zoom, the event began with Renee Kesler, the President of the Beck Cultural Exchange, introducing the panelists and speaking about the intentions of the event.
âWe want to help you understand the importance of black art and culture⦠we want this to be a platform for sharing ideas,â Kelser said.
Then, Kesler shared a video of the Stanford Talismanâs performance of âLift Evâry Voice and Sing,â what she called the Black national anthem.
âBlack history always has to start with the black national anthem,â Kesler said.
Jacksonville Icemen
• The Jacksonville Icemen and the Orlando Solar Bears hockey teams square off Saturday and Sunday at VyStar Veterans Memorial Arena. For Friday s game, which starts at 7 p.m., the home team will wear Rugrats -themed jerseys, which will be auctioned to fans during the game. Faceoff for Sunday s game is 3 p.m. $11-$49.
Whale of a Sale
• The Junior League of Jacksonville is having its 30th annual Whale of a Sale Saturday at the Jacksonville Fairgrounds. The sale features used furniture, clothing, toys and just about anything else you can think of, and benefits the Junior League s efforts to promote nutrition education. 8 a.m. to 1 p.m. $2 admission, $5 parking.
James Weldon Johnson (1876–1938), who wrote “Lift Ev’ry Voice” with his brother, composer J. Rosamond Johnson, was a poet, novelist, Broadway lyricist, civil rights activist, and diplomat. Johnson expressed a diverse range of views about different subjects, including the affinities between African-Americans and Jews.
As Leonard Dinnerstein’s “Antisemitism in America” notes, in a 1918 essay published in The New York Age, an African American newspaper, Johnson wrote of “the two million Jews [who] have a controlling interest in the finances of the nation.” Yet he nevertheless urged fellow blacks to “draw encouragement and hope from the experiences of modern Jews.”
City breaks ground on Lift Ev’ry Voice and Sing Park
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JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – Community leaders broke ground Wednesday on a new city park in the historic LaVilla neighborhood. It’s located on property that was the birthplace of brothers James Weldon Johnson and John Rosamond Johnson, authors of “Lift Ev’ry Voice and Sing,” which is considered the Black national anthem.
Park renderings show the park (see below), on Lee Street two blocks north of the Prime Osborn Convention Center, will eventually have gardens, statues and markers. Construction is expected to begin this spring.
“There is a rich, really rich, African-American history from out of Jacksonville that, frankly, just hasn’t been honored and recognized,” Jacksonville Mayor Lenny Curry said. “So, this is honoring and recognizing it. But it’s also teaching all of the children of our city about our past and, also, as we learn from our past, I think we can be better people.�