Downtown Jacksonville’s iconic Main Street Bridge — whose blue frame is illuminated every evening — featured a new, temporary lighting scheme Wednesday as members of a local civil rights group gathered to celebrate Juneteenth.
To mark the June 19 federal holiday honoring the emancipation of enslaved people in the United States, the Northside Coalition of Jacksonville illuminated the bridge in red, black and green for 19 minutes beginning at 9:19 p.m.
“We are lighting the bridge for Juneteenth in red, black and green to honor all Black Americans who literally fought for their freedom from slavery; who have suffered from systematic discrimination and violence; who organized, marched, bled and died for civil rights; and who persevere even as obstacles are placed before us today that disrespect us and seek to strip us of our power,” NCOJ President Kelly Frazier said in an emailed statement ahead of the event. “We are here to say that we will continue to conquer!”
The display came nearly three weeks after Jacksonville’s LGBTQ+ community and its supporters — each carrying a powerful LED flashlight with a colored lens — lined the bridge’s pedestrian walkway and cast a rainbow over St. Johns River.
The display, like the bridge lighting on Wednesday evening, followed Florida’s Department of Transportation’s decision earlier this year that decorative lighting on state bridges will be red, white and blue from Memorial Day to Labor Day as part of the “Freedom Day” celebration. of the state. Summer.”
The decision impacts bridges with programmable LED lighting, such as Tampa’s Sunshine Skyway Bridge, Sarasota’s John Ringling Causeway Bridge and Jacksonville’s Acosta Bridge, where a number of lighting designs have been implemented this year to highlight special events and causes ranging from St. .Patrick’s Day to Mental Health Awareness Month for the NFL Draft.
Earlier this year, the Acosta featured a red-black-green lighting scheme in February to commemorate Black History Month.
“We are here to honor our ancestors and show the governor that we are going to light the bridge tonight,” Northside Coalition member Maceo George told Times-Union news partner First Coast News.
Acosta Pride display: Florida will not light bridges in rainbow colors. So did Jacksonville’s LGBTQ community.
Acosta Bridge will be put on display in 2024
This year, the Acosta Bridge has already delivered a number of lighting designs, including:
-
Jacksonville Jazz Festival (May 23-26): red, orange, blue, purple and green
-
Mental Health Awareness Month (week of May 13): green
-
ALS Awareness Month (May 3-5): blue and white
-
NFL Draft (April 25): Teal
-
Jacksonville Jumbo Shrimp (April 12-14): Pink, blue and red
-
Jax River Jams (Thursdays in April): dark blue
-
Autism Acceptance Month (April 2): red, dark blue, yellow, light blue
-
First day of spring (March 19): yellow
-
St. Patrick’s Day (March 17): green
-
Kidney Cancer Awareness Month (March 6): orange
-
Presidents Day (February 19): red, white and blue
-
Black History Month (February 6-9): red, black and green
-
DONNA Marathon (February 3-4): pink
-
Jax Icemen (January 12): Blue and White
-
National Blood Donor Month (January 8-10): red
This article originally appeared on Florida Times-Union: Jacksonville group lights up Main Street Bridge for Juneteenth
