JACKSONVILLE, Fla — A move to rename Hemming Park after James Weldon Johnson, the Jacksonville native who composed the famous anthem "Lift Every Voice and Sing," ran into opposition after veterans organizations made a late-breaking push to rechristen the city's first and oldest park as Veterans Memorial Park.
The city council's neighborhood committee deferred a vote Monday on legislation (2020-357) that would put Johnson's name on the downtown park after City Council member Danny Becton proposed a substitute to call it Veterans Memorial Park.
Some members of the city council's Neighborhoods Committee described themselves as torn between two worthy choices. The debate also ignited exchanges between Becton and council member Garrett Dennis, who questioned why there was reluctance to honor an internationally known Black resident of the city by naming the park after him. Becton said Dennis was injecting racism into the discussion.
Hemming Park, located in front of City Hall, was named after Civil War veteran Charles C. Hemming in 1899 after he donated a Confederate monument to the city. Mayor Lenny Curry ordered the removal on June 9 of the Confederate solider statue that stood atop the tall spire.
Dennis then filed legislation in June to rename the park after Johnson, who was born in Jacksonville in 1871. Johnson went on to become a principal at Stanton School, a leader in the NAACP, and was appointed by President Theodore Roosevelt as the nation's consul to Venezuela and Nicaragua.
He and his brother John Rosamond Johnson composed "Lift Every Voice and Sing" which had its first performance on Feb. 12, 1900, when 500 students performed it at Stanton School in honor of Abraham Lincoln's birthday, according to a summary of the bill presented to City Council. The NFL plans to play the song, also known as the Black national anthem, before the kickoff of all its season-opening games.
Dennis, who co-introduced the bill in June for naming the park after Johnson, said he often hears comments that young people of color need positive role models and Johnson would fit that bill, but he said it seems like "it rubs people wrong to put a man of color in Jacksonville as the name of that park."
"If you look at his background, he's a man of stature and a man we can be proud of, and yet, there's something ingrained there that just won't allow us to name a park after him," Dennis said.
Becton objected that that "my fellow council member continues to seem to think and bring racism into a conversation."
Becton had joined the rest of the Rules Committee in voting earlier on a 7-0 vote for a bill changing the name of Confederate Park to Springfield Park. Becton said he likewise would support changing the name of Hemming Park but not to another person's name.
He said using a person's name is a "tremendous slippery slope" because any person might have taken actions that "were perceived as normal at the time" but would later be viewed differently. He said he opposes any effort to use someone's name in a renaming "under any circumstances for the foreseeable future."
He said Veterans Memorial Park would honor veterans who go every day to City Hall to get service at the veterans affairs division.
Council members on the Neighborhoods Committee said they don't like being put in a position of having to choose.
"I'm sitting here and my hands are sweating," council member Ju'Coby Pittman said.
She said when she signed on as a co-sponsor of the James Weldon Johnson Park legislation, there wasn't another alternative on the table for a Veterans Memorial Park. She said she knows the history of Johnson and has sung "Lift Every Voice and Sing" many times.
"He is a giant, and the veterans have been on the front lines for all of us, so right now, I'm torn," she said. "I'm really torn and I don't like being in this position."
Council member Rory Diamond, who had joined Dennis in co-introducing the legislation for James Weldon Johnson Park, suggested a compromise that would rename the park after Johnson and also have a "Veterans Memorial Plaza" in the center of square-block site.
"That way we could essentially honor both," Diamond said. "We can do the right thing and show basically the most famous resident in the city of Jacksonville's history and at the same time stand up for these people who fought for our freedoms."
Council member Terrance Freeman said he doesn't want a vote for naming the park after Johnson to be viewed as a vote against veterans who served by "putting their lives on the line."
"James Weldon Johnson is a staple not only to Jacksonville but to our state and to our country," Freeman said. "In a conversation I had with someone, he said, 'Mr. Freeman, you've got to get away from these black or white issues.' I said, 'Sir, I don't see him as a Black individual. I see him as a person.'"
Neighborhoods Committee Chairman Randy White, who said he agrees with Becton that the city should not use people's names in renaming places, deferred the bill for another two weeks in the committee.
Dennis said he plans to ask the full council at its Aug. 11 meeting to discharge the bill from the committee so the council can vote on it that night.