JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — Buildings in Downtown Jacksonville have been used as billboards for hate.
Miriam Feist, CEO of the Jewish Federation and Foundation of Northeast Florida.
“Hate is taking on a form of a building even faster than it was a decade ago,” Feist said.
Jacksonville City Council has responded with legislation prohibiting signs or messages from being projected on buildings without the owner's consent.
The bill passed, 18-1 Tuesday night.
“It makes the first step in saying that our city will not tolerate hate speech of any kind,” Feist said.
Feist and members of other local civil rights groups applauded city council’s response but want more.
“All these people doing is honoring and glorifying traitors to the United States,” one resident said during public comment at Tuesday's council meeting.
"We need to preserve our history, the good, the bad, and the ugly, and each monument reminds us of those lessons."
City council has voted against monument removal in the past. Dozens of people spoke during public comment at Tuesday’s city council meeting, several urging city council to take down confederate monuments because of the painful memories they bring back.
"Two World War I veterans who were actually killed in September 1919 they were killed right by Evergreen Cemetery and one of their bodies was dragged right here into what’s now James Weldon Johnson Park and so every time I go to that area I think of those lives,” 904ward CEO Dr. Kimberly Allen, said.