JACKSONVILLE, Fla. \u2014 Jacksonville has emerged as a top contender to become the permanent home of the National Rhythm & Blues Hall of Fame, a move that would bring a prestigious national museum to the city. <\/p>\n
The city is currently being evaluated alongside four other finalists across the country: Jackson, Mississippi; Gary, Indiana; Detroit, Michigan; and Augusta, Georgia. <\/p>\n
>>> STREAM ACTION NEWS JAX LIVE <<<<\/a><\/p>\n The Hall of Fame is currently based in Detroit, but organizers are looking to establish a long-term, dedicated footprint. According to organization founder Lamont \u201cShowboat\u201d Robinson, Jacksonville\u2019s deep-seated musical heritage makes it an exceptionally strong candidate for the project. <\/p>\n \u201cWhy we picked Jacksonville as a possible potential home is because of its history in Jacksonville as well as the history of Florida,\u201d Robinson said, noting the region\u2019s historic ties to legendary R&B figures such as Ray Charles and Jackie Moore. <\/p>\n Local residents and visitors have expressed immense enthusiasm for the prospect. <\/p>\n \u201cYeah, obviously it\u2019s awesome,\u201d said local resident Brahma Pulaka. Fellow resident Carmella McCaskill agreed, adding, \u201cI think it\u2019d be right on brand for Jax.\u201d <\/p>\n The attraction would also serve as a major draw for tourism. Sheri Lelia, who was visiting the area, noted the museum\u2019s broad appeal. \u201cI think it would be a wonderful idea because I love R&B, and I think that it would just be an addition to this wonderful city,\u201d Lelia said. <\/p>\n ” It would make me feel as though Jacksonville understands our culture,\u201d said Christopher Selby, a local who grew up with R&B music. <\/p>\n The institution has honored 300 music icons, including: Aretha Franklin, James Brown, Whitney Houston, Prince, Michael Jackson, and Elvis Presley. <\/p>\n Robinson also recently announced that country music icon Dolly Parton will join the ranks, officially being inducted into the 2027 class as a major contributor to the genre. <\/p>\n While organizers state that a final decision on the future location will be made within the next two to three weeks. The city said in a statement- We can confirm that the group interested in bringing the R&B Hall of Fame and a museum to Jacksonville has had an introductory meeting with Visit Jacksonville. However, no formal plan or proposal has been presented to Visit Jacksonville or the City. We decline to comment further while they formalize this effort. Additionally, no commitments of this nature will be made before Florida voters make their decision about property taxes in November. <\/p>\n [DOWNLOAD: Free Action News Jax app for alerts as news breaks<\/a>]<\/p>\n [SIGN UP: Action News Jax Daily Headlines Newsletter<\/a>] <\/p>\n Click here<\/a> to download the free Action News Jax news and weather apps, click here<\/a> to download the Action News Jax Now app for your smart TV and click here<\/a> to stream Action News Jax live.<\/p>\n Action News Jax Top Stories<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"JACKSONVILLE, Fla. \u2014 Jacksonville has emerged as a top contender to become the permanent home of the National…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":387536,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[344,347,28,348,116,351,118,117,155179,349,350,346,345],"class_list":["post-387535","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-jacksonville","tag-action-news-jax","tag-cbs47","tag-florida","tag-fox30","tag-jacksonville","tag-jacksonville-fl","tag-jacksonville-headlines","tag-jacksonville-news","tag-national-rhythm-blues-hall-of-fame","tag-northeast-florida","tag-southeast-georgia","tag-wfox","tag-wjax"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/387535","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=387535"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/387535\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/387536"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=387535"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=387535"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=387535"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}