Confederate Park In Memory of the Women of Our Southland 1915

[The_Choose_1]

yawn

I'm playing a small violin in your honor SD.

[Adam White]

The last few posts make it seem like this is a white vs black thing. For some reason, if it were agreed to rename Rosa Parks Station and Confederate Park after local figures, I believe some would still be pissed.

Your opinion that it's white and Black thing Lake is an easy cop-out. I just think changing names is stupid. 20th Street is in one of the worst parts of town this is a fact. So to rename it MLK would be a slap to me if I was Black. Was 20th street renamed because more Blacks live near 20th street? People will be pissed if anything is done or not done. Nothing really new here. 

[thelakelander]

The last few posts make it seem like this is a white vs black thing. For some reason, if it were agreed to rename Rosa Parks Station and Confederate Park after local figures, I believe some would still be pissed.

Your opinion that it's white and Black thing Lake is an easy cop-out. I just think changing names is stupid. 20th Street is in one of the worst parts of town this is a fact. So to rename it MLK would be a slap to me if I was Black. Was 20th street renamed because more Blacks live near 20th street? People will be pissed if anything is done or not done. Nothing really new here. 

Former Councilman Reggie Fullwood introduced the bill to rename 20th Street back in 2000. At the time, it was viewed as symbolic in an area of town where there was a large African-American community. It was the thoroughfare that ran through all four council districts represented by African-Americans and since it was an expressway, it did not require residents and businesses to change their addresses.

Jacksonville was one of the last major cities in the country to honor the late civil rights leader, who also spent sometime in 1964 in the Duval County Jail, due to his support for local integration initiatives. During that incident, George Smathers, one of our Florida senators at the time, volunteered to pay King's bail if he promised to never come to Florida again. King refused.


Dr. Martin Luther King and the Rev. Ralph Abernathy in the St. Johns County jail after their arrest on June 11, 1964. Photo by PHILLIP WHITLEY, Special to The Record
http://staugustine.com/news/local-news/2011-01-16/king-was-arrested-st-augustine

The name change officially took place on King's 72nd birthday anniversary (1/15/01).  Btw, the frontage roads still have their original names and addresses. In a way, this would be like adding a monument in Dignan Park, because of a reunion event, without erasing the memory of Dignan's decades of service, during the city's formative years, from future generations. If you're going to rename something, the path taken with 20th Street/Haines Street/MLK Parkway, is one of the better examples to follow.

For the third time, the Jacksonville City Council will consider naming a Jacksonville thoroughfare after slain civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr.

An upcoming public hearing will give residents and business owners along the Haines Street Expressway a chance to sound off on a proposal to rename the expressway Martin Luther King Jr. Parkway.

The hearing is scheduled for 1 p.m., July 7, before the City Council's transportation committee at City Hall.

The City Council has twice supported renaming the 20th Street Expressway after King. A May 1999 vote foundered on technical issues involving the wording of the council's ordinance, but the council cleared that up in December, voting unanimously to rename the 20th Street Expressway for King, the Nobel Peace Prize winner who galvanized the civil rights movement in the 1950s and 1960s.

But City Council member Reggie Fullwood, who introduced the measure, said he incorrectly thought the December vote also put the new name on the Haines Street Expressway. He has filed a pending bill that would rename the Haines Street Expressway along with the 20th Street Expressway.

The two expressways link as part of a beltway north of downtown. Fullwood said King's impact on American history warrants putting his name on the entire thoroughfare, which runs through all four council districts represented by African-Americans.

"It just makes a better statement," Fullwood said. "It's a continuous roadway, so it makes sense. It's really symbolic in that area where there's a large African-American community, and that's what we've been asking for is a thoroughfare named after Martin Luther King. ...

Full article: http://jacksonville.com/tu-online/stories/052900/met_3178309.html#.Vgu1-PlVhBc

[The_Choose_1]

The last few posts make it seem like this is a white vs black thing. For some reason, if it were agreed to rename Rosa Parks Station and Confederate Park after local figures, I believe some would still be pissed.

Your opinion that it's white and Black thing Lake is an easy cop-out. I just think changing names is stupid. 20th Street is in one of the worst parts of town this is a fact. So to rename it MLK would be a slap to me if I was Black. Was 20th street renamed because more Blacks live near 20th street? People will be pissed if anything is done or not done. Nothing really new here. 

Former Councilman Reggie Fullwood introduced the bill to rename 20th Street back in 2000. At the time, it was viewed as symbolic in an area of town where there was a large African-American community. It was the thoroughfare that ran through all four council districts represented by African-Americans and since it was an expressway, it did not require residents and businesses to change their addresses.

Jacksonville was one of the last major cities in the country to honor the late civil rights leader, who also spent sometime in 1964 in the Duval County Jail, due to his support for local integration initiatives. During that incident, George Smathers, one of our Florida senators at the time, volunteered to pay King's bail if he promised to never come to Florida again. King refused.


Dr. Martin Luther King and the Rev. Ralph Abernathy in the St. Johns County jail after their arrest on June 11, 1964. Photo by PHILLIP WHITLEY, Special to The Record
http://staugustine.com/news/local-news/2011-01-16/king-was-arrested-st-augustine

The name change officially took place on King's 72nd birthday anniversary (1/15/01).  Btw, the frontage roads still have their original names and addresses. In a way, this would be like adding a monument in Dignan Park, because of a reunion event, without erasing the memory of Dignan's decades of service, during the city's formative years, from future generations. If you're going to rename something, the path taken with 20th Street/Haines Street/MLK Parkway, is one of the better examples to follow.

For the third time, the Jacksonville City Council will consider naming a Jacksonville thoroughfare after slain civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr.

An upcoming public hearing will give residents and business owners along the Haines Street Expressway a chance to sound off on a proposal to rename the expressway Martin Luther King Jr. Parkway.

The hearing is scheduled for 1 p.m., July 7, before the City Council's transportation committee at City Hall.

The City Council has twice supported renaming the 20th Street Expressway after King. A May 1999 vote foundered on technical issues involving the wording of the council's ordinance, but the council cleared that up in December, voting unanimously to rename the 20th Street Expressway for King, the Nobel Peace Prize winner who galvanized the civil rights movement in the 1950s and 1960s.

But City Council member Reggie Fullwood, who introduced the measure, said he incorrectly thought the December vote also put the new name on the Haines Street Expressway. He has filed a pending bill that would rename the Haines Street Expressway along with the 20th Street Expressway.

The two expressways link as part of a beltway north of downtown. Fullwood said King's impact on American history warrants putting his name on the entire thoroughfare, which runs through all four council districts represented by African-Americans.

"It just makes a better statement," Fullwood said. "It's a continuous roadway, so it makes sense. It's really symbolic in that area where there's a large African-American community, and that's what we've been asking for is a thoroughfare named after Martin Luther King. ...

Full article: http://jacksonville.com/tu-online/stories/052900/met_3178309.html#.Vgu1-PlVhBc

Look I know all this the point I'm making is just because one group of people want something your way and another group of people want it another way. We will never really meet half way. Case Closed

[camarocane]

lol.  "All I know is...."  And yet you keep talking about subjects anyways.

Obviously.

What?

[thelakelander]

the point I'm making is just because one group of people want something your way and another group of people want it another way. We will never really meet half way. Case Closed

I don't think such a case was ever open. No matter what the topic is, you'll never have 100% agreement.

[UNFurbanist]

MLK didn't exactly start a rebellion or kill and enslave millions of people. Confederate Park makes it seem like only confederates of the southland are welcome and it being in the heart of the city near a racially mixed neighborhood is also in bad taste IMO. That being said, keep the current monuments, change the park name to something neutral (Dignan, City Park, Emerald Necklace Park, Hogan Creek Park whatever) and maybe add a monument representing the civil rights struggle in Jax and we can call it square. My great great grandfather was a confederate in the Virginia calvary and I was born in a small southern town and I still don't get why anyone gives a rats ass about the confederacy. History is important but is renaming a park something that doesn't alienate a majority of the people that visit going to make people suddenly forget the civil war happened? No. So lets just give it up shall we?

To me naming a park after them basically sends a message of "Gosh, we really liked and miss these people. Wish they were still around to round up all the blacks as slaves again and kick these northerners out. A damn shame really. So let it be known that this park is a little piece of the confederacy in our time!  <3" Crazy.

You miss my point, why spend any time or money to rename it? You're obviously angry and offended by a name that really does not impact you whatsoever. It doesn't impact anyone actually. If it does, please enlighten me other than "it hurts his/her/their feelings"... additionally you cannot argue that (bad) taste is also a matter of opinion.
I've brought this up before, placed myself in the same situation and its still hard for me to comprehend. As an Arab, Christian and American if there was a war between the USA and the Islamic State that ended in 1865 and that same USA wanted to fly the flag of sharia over that park to commemorate a historic evert, would I like it? NO. Would I demand it be changed? Absolutely not. I would go further to say if ISIS was disbanded after said war, I would have even less of an opinion to dislike it.

Well lets just say I think you hold a very minority (as in strictly number of people who would agree) opinion on that one. Especially an ISIS flag! That would piss off A LOT of people and most of them probably the strongest supporters of the confederate flag. By that logic the Nazi flag should be in parks all across Europe and Northern Africa or the Japanese imperial flag all over Asia. Also the difference is that it was not just some "nation" we defeated 150 years ago but was a lasting symbol that was erected all over the south in defiance of desegregation. It is a current symbol not some dead one of the distant past... ALL THAT being said, it really doesn't offend me personally because I've grown up with it my whole life and I've always just brushed it off as ignorance. I'm also white so it really doesn't send a message to me of "If we had won you would be serving me lemonade". However, I know for a fact that other people find it very offensive so why support something that I know others can't stand for good reason? I don't know. Agree to disagree I guess but renaming a park would probably cost less then always playing damage control for a bad image. Like it or not, lots of people see "Confederate Park" and think "wow, that must be a pretty ass backwards place".

[The_Choose_1]

lol.  "All I know is...."  And yet you keep talking about subjects anyways.

Obviously.

I have dyslexia so please make fun of the way I mix words up. JERK! Stephen please get in touch with these people and make fun of them.
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Read more: http://www.dyslexia.com/famous.htm#ixzz3nEm7Bhmj