City turns James Weldon Johnson's birthsite to a park

[Metro Jacksonville]

City turns James Weldon Johnson's birthsite to a park



LaVilla has a new park within a stone's throw of the Prime Osborn Convention Center.  “Lift Ev’ry Voice and Sing” Park is located at the intersection of Houston and Lee Streets. This is the birthsite of James Weldon Johnson.  Here's a look at downtown's latest park.


Read More: http://www.metrojacksonville.com/article/2015-jun-city-turns-james-weldon-johnsons-birthsite-to-a-park

[mbwright]

better than a parking lot.  when will the original house be rebuilt?

[thelakelander]

I don't believe that will be happening.

[jaxlore]

Good to hear. Anyone know what the actual park plans will be? Square rectangle of sod and palm trees?

[Tacachale]

Glad to hear. It's well past time that we start commemorating the single most impressive person ever to come from our city. Hopefully whatever the park will look like can really be expanded in the future. It's too bad we unceremoniously destroyed the house itself (and most of the neighborhood), but this is a good start.

[menace1069]

I never understood why the birthplace of someone famous was so special. Let's just take a look at this story for an example: "On this spot stood a house that a guy was born in..." Big deal...there are many houses that people were born in. Why focus on the house he was born in? It's not like the manger that Jesus was born in...it was a simple house that a lady had her baby in.
I am not taking anything away from the guy...he was an accomplished man and that should be lauded. But why celebrate the piece of land that the house he was born in was on?

[Tacachale]

We mark these things as physical remembrances of someone who left an important legacy. In this case, Johnson's legacy is of immense importance to the city, state and country. It's often easier to forget ourselves when we don't recognize this.

Jesus' birthplace was also a simple place (a stable) that a lady had her baby in. That's kind of the point. FWIW you can visit what is said to be the location, the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem.

[UNFurbanist]

Ya I really hope they do more with this new park than just leave it a vacant lot.

[thelakelander]

The plan is to plant grass but that's about it for now.

[Bill Hoff]

It's a small part of a much larger piece of land. Not much activity directly around it, except the homeless shelter across the street. Even if it was nicely manicured and landscaped, if the area around it stays as it is now, no one would use it, except visitors to the shelter across the street.

Kind of odd.

[menace1069]

We mark these things as physical remembrances of someone who left an important legacy. In this case, Johnson's legacy is of immense importance to the city, state and country. It's often easier to forget ourselves when we don't recognize this.

Jesus' birthplace was also a simple place (a stable) that a lady had her baby in. That's kind of the point. FWIW you can visit what is said to be the location, the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem.

I hear ya, but the house he was born in is nothing...just a place where he was birthed. And even that building is gone. Why not find the place where he lived during his life and actually wrote his music in? Why not make that place a landmark? I just think it's odd that we want to remember a house, or in this case a empty lot where a house stood. And it's not just this landmark...we do it all over the country.
I'd much rather see the home that he composed the song in as I would feel that I was in the spot he was in and could try to relate looking at the surroundings...I guess to me that would be more tangible.

[Tacachale]

^Ha, Johnson wrote his most famous work, "Lift Ev'ry Voice And Sing", in the same spot. There are a few locations associated with him that survive (most notably Old Stanton High School, where he was principal), but nothing that really commemorates him except an exhibit at the LaVilla Museum.

I'm not sure where else he lived in Jax but it's likely any other home he had in LaVilla has been destroyed. His later important work, the novel "Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man", the poetry collection "God's Trombones", and his actual autobiography, "Along This Way", were written elsewhere.

[menace1069]

^Ha, Johnson wrote his most famous work, "Lift Ev'ry Voice And Sing", in the same spot. There are a few locations associated with him that survive (most notably Old Stanton High School, where he was principal), but nothing that really commemorates him except an exhibit at the LaVilla Museum.

I'm not sure where else he lived in Jax but it's likely any other home he had in LaVilla has been destroyed. His later important work, the novel "Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man", the poetry collection "God's Trombones", and his actual autobiography, "Along This Way", were written elsewhere.

Ok, so that makes sense if he actually wrote it there.  In the original MJ story, the plaque on the property doesn't mention that. I stand corrected. As my tag line says...

[menace1069]

he was also the father of the idea of black cultural parity and one of the leading intellectual forces behind the Harlem Renaissance.  Not to mention an ambassador for Teddy Roosevelt.  One of the pivotal men in the history of the United States

Good information...

[RattlerGator]

Um . . . "Lift Ev'ry Voice and Sing" Park ? ? ? Really? That's an odd name for a park, isn't it?

While on names for parks, wouldn't the "John Rosamond Johnson and James Weldon Johnson Park" be a much more appropriate name for what was Dignan Park but is now known as Confederate Park ? ? ?

Wouldn't it?