TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — A stretch of Tallahassee roadway now bears the name of the Rev. Jesse Jackson, honoring a civil rights leader with decadeslong ties to the city and a message that local leaders say helped shape generations.<\/p>\n
West Carolina Street has been renamed in Jackson\u2019s honor, reflecting what city leaders described as a long history of his visits and advocacy in Tallahassee. The \u201cI am somebody\u201d affirmation associated with Jackson was heard again at Bethel Missionary Baptist Church, where the community gathered to recognize his life\u2019s work for civil rights, equality and access to the ballot box.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe was one of the first people I heard to say, \u2018I am somebody.\u2019 I am somebody. He didn\u2019t whisper it. He was confident in it,\u201d City Commissioner Dianne Williams-Cox said.<\/p>\n
Jackson\u2019s connection to Bethel Missionary Baptist Church and Tallahassee dates back decades. He returned repeatedly to speak at churches and college campuses, promoting civil rights and voter participation. Bethel was among the places he visited often.<\/p>\n
\u201cReverend Jesse Jackson stood many, many, many, many times here Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. stood here… And because they stood here, we\u2019re here,\u201d said the Rev. R.B. Holmes of Bethel Missionary Baptist Church.<\/p>\n
The Tallahassee City Commission voted 5-0 to rename West Carolina Street from North Adams to South Copeland for Jackson.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis street naming will forever be a reminder of the impact Reverend Jackson had, not only internationally, not only nationally, not only in the state of Florida, but right here in Tallahassee, right here in our community,\u201d Mayor John Dailey said.<\/p>\n
Williams-Cox said the designation also carries symbolic weight because the renamed street intersects with Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe naming of this street is historic. But what is also historic is that it intersects with Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard. So they\u2019re back together here, right here in Tallahassee,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Jackson\u2019s visits to Tallahassee included a 2016 \u201cSouls to the Polls\u201d walk encouraging voters to participate. City leaders said Tallahassee is the second city in the country to name a street after the Rev. Jesse Jackson.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — A stretch of Tallahassee roadway now bears the name of the Rev. Jesse Jackson, honoring…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":368859,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[232,234,233],"class_list":["post-368858","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tallahassee","tag-tallahassee","tag-tallahassee-headlines","tag-tallahassee-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/368858","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=368858"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/368858\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/368859"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=368858"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=368858"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=368858"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}