TALLAHASSEE, FL (WTXL) — The City of Tallahassee will honor the late Reverend Jesse Louis Jackson Sr. with a street renaming ceremony Tuesday, Aug. 11th, recognizing the impact the renowned civil rights leader made locally.
The ceremony will be held at 10:30 a.m. at Bethel Missionary Baptist Church off N. Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd.
The release says the Tallahassee City Commission passed a resolution June 10th renaming W. Carolina Street — from N. Adams Street to S. Copeland Street — as Rev. Jesse Jackson Street.
Jackson was an internationally recognized civil rights leader, two-time presidential candidate and ordained Baptist preacher whose six decades of service significantly advanced civil rights, economic and social justice, gender equality and human rights. He died earlier this year at age 84.
The City says while not from Tallahassee, Jackson's trips to the city spanned decades. According to published reports, Jackson had a special affinity for Florida's capital city because of its role in the Civil Rights Movement. The Tallahassee Bus Boycott in 1956 ended segregation on public buses in the community. Jackson had also met Rev. C.K. Steele — then pastor of Bethel Baptist Church and president of the Florida NAACP — who was recruited by Dr. King to help lead the Southern Christian Leadership Conference.
From 1984, when Jackson first ran for president, to 2016, when he led a group of pastors, residents and politicians on a Sunday walk through downtown for "Souls to the Polls" on the last day of early voting in Leon County, Jackson traveled to Tallahassee at least 12 times. He visited churches and the campuses of Florida A&M University and Florida State University to address civil rights and human rights issues and discuss the importance of voter registration and voting.
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