Inside Mount Ararat Missionary Baptist Church in Durkeeville, Jacksonville officials unveiled a replica civil-rights marker meant to stand outside the church and mark the city’s inclusion on the U.S. Civil Rights Trail. The event on Wednesday brought elected officials and residents together as speakers recounted civil-rights history tied to the neighborhood and the institutions that supported the push for equal treatment under the law.
The city said the Mount Ararat marker is connected to Martin Luther King Jr.’s appearance in March 1961, when the civil-rights leader spoke at the church. Janie Scott Griffin, 85, told attendees she was in the church when King spoke, describing what she remembered of the encounter and how his presence felt to her.
Griffin sat in a red pew in the third row and recalled that King was welcoming to people around him. “He was a man of all me,” Griffin said, adding that King “was just so friendly” and that he “didn’t ignore anybody.” She said she was thankful for the chance to see him, and compared her brief interaction with King to the New Testament passage in which a woman is healed by touching the hem of Jesus’ cloak.
Mayor Donna Deegan told those gathered that the marker project connects civil-rights change to the places where people lived and organized. “Here is Jacksonville, the movement unfolded across our neighborhoods, our churches, our schools, our parks, our courtrooms and along the streets where history was lived and where citizens chose boldly to stand for change,” Deegan said. She described students organizing peaceful demonstrations, faith leaders opening their doors for planning and prayer, workers standing for dignity and fairness, and families risking safety to demand equal treatment under the law.
Deegan’s remarks placed Mount Ararat among longer threads of the city’s civil-rights history. The church’s pastor, the Rev. Dallas Graham, challenged the local law and custom that prohibited Black voters from registering to join the Democratic Party, and Graham’s attorney, Daniel W. Perkins, helped him win the case, the city said. The Democratic Party appealed, but the initial decision was upheld, and in May 1945 Graham and 13 others became the first Black voters in Duval County to register as Democrats.
Beyond the church marker, officials said Wednesday’s event was part of a broader rollout of civil-rights trail sites across Jacksonville. In the coming months, more than three dozen markers are expected to be erected, including locations at Edward Waters University, the home of Mary Singleton, the Durkeeville ballpark J.P. Small Park, and the old Stanton High School building in LaVilla, among other stops, city officials said.
The program at Mount Ararat also included performances and testimony from people tied to civil-rights history. Attendees heard Isaiah Mack, a student at Douglas Anderson, sing “Ain’t Gonna Let Nobody Turn Me ’Round,” and Alton Yates sat nearby in the audience; Yates, a military veteran, was beaten on Ax Handle Saturday in August 1960 as he and others demanded racial equality in public restaurants and facilities.
Other audience members were recognized as well, including Ax Handle Saturday survivors and the family of the late Johnnie Mae Chappell, as applause rose. High school student Ashwin Venkatesh told the crowd that the courage, sacrifice and unity demonstrated during the civil rights movement should never be forgotten, and said, “This trail is more than just 40 markers,” describing it as “a bridge between generations” and a reminder that courage “happens when ordinary people choose to do extraordinary things together.”
As Jacksonville completes the marker installations tied to the U.S. Civil Rights Trail, officials said the project will expand beyond a single site to document how civil-rights efforts played out across neighborhoods, schools, churches, parks and courtrooms—and how residents chose to stand for change in public life.