In a dimly-lit room above Riverside’s Cool Moose Café, an innocuous meeting was taking place on an otherwise mundane Tuesday evening in September of 2013. Those driving down Park Street would never have known, but that night history was being made for Jacksonville’s skateboarding community. This is the story of how the Artist Walk Skate Park under the Fuller Warren Bridge was born. Read More
Established in 1901 and operating until 1990, the Afro-American Life Insurance Company may be the most well known Black-owned business in Jacksonville's history. However, it wasn't the only large one. In honor of Black History Month, here are five other early 20th century African-American owned businesses associated with the city. Read More
The Great Migration was the movement of roughly six million Black people from the South to the North, Midwest, and West between 1916 and 1970, making it one of the largest internal migrations in U.S. history. However, many contemporary historians overlook the fact that this migration was largely sparked by a series of events rooted in Black Jacksonville’s local resistance to Jim Crow-era segregation. In honor of Black History Month, here are six key facts that highlight Jacksonville’s pivotal role in reshaping the cultural demographics of the entire country. Read More
The City of Jacksonville has negotiated to provide 23 buildable acres to the University of Florida for the new graduate campus in downtown Jacksonville, pending an open and public disposition process. These parcels of land will begin moving through the Downtown Investment Authority process at the Retail Enhancement and Property Disposition Committee on February 13, followed by a full board vote on February 19. Upon DIA approval, the proposals will move to City Council. The first degree program is expected to begin in August 2025 with a main launch in 2026. Read More
It was the party of the century. It saved a building. It helped save a neighborhood. It was led by a conductor that never even worked in the rail industry. This is the story of the Station Celebration, a forgotten dispatch that rallied thousands of Jaxsons together to help save Jacksonville’s Union Terminal. Read More
