JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – The process for the Jacksonville City Council to consider changing the names of two city parks continued Tuesday.
The council met virtually and listened to public comments on the two bills. One would change the name of Confederate Park to Springfield Park.
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The other bill would change the name of Hemming Park, which is in front of City Hall, to James Weldon Johnson Park. Councilman Garrett Dennis announced he wants to rename the park after Johnson, a Jacksonville black civil rights activist, educator and composer who wrote “Lift Ev’ry Voice and Sing,” often called “The Black National Anthem.”
The proposal came a week after a Confederate monument was removed from Hemming Park, the downtown city plaza framed on two sides by City Hall and the federal courthouse. The park is currently named after Civil War veteran Charles Hemming, who donated the Confederate memorial to the state of Florida in 1898.
There was no vote on either ordinance Tuesday night. The next scheduled meeting is in two weeks.