Move to change the name of Hemming Park in downtown Jacksonville

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — A move to change the name of Hemming Park in downtown Jacksonville.

On Wednesday, Councilman Garrett Dennis introduced legislation to permanently change it to James Weldon Johnson Park.

Dennis explains, “I think this is someone that we can all be proud of. This can help rewrite some of the wrongs that of happened right here in this park.”

Last week we watched as the Confederate statue at the center of Hemming Park was hauled away by the city.

A statue that local historian Dr. Wayne Wood says was paid for by Charles C Hemming, a Confederate veteran and Texas banker who was born here in Jacksonville.

Wood says, “The City Council voted to name the park after him just because he gave them the money.”

Dennis’ legislation hopes to memorialize James Weldon Johnson instead.

He was a civil rights icon who was born and raised in Jacksonville.

A man who did just about everything you could think of -- a local principal, a songwriter, a lawyer, an early leader with the NAACP.

Wood says, “He wrote books, he wrote poems, he wrote songs.

The most famous of which was Lift Up Your Voice and Sing, which is known as the Black National Anthem and he actually wrote that song here in Jacksonville.

© 2020 Cox Media Group