Florida can paint over the crosswalks. It can turn off the rainbow bridge lights. It can restrict what is taught about race and LGBTQ+ issues in classrooms. But Jacksonville continues finding ways to put its diversity back on display.
The latest statement appeared Thursday in historic Five Points, where a new 1,700-square-foot mural celebrating the LGBTQ+ community and its history was unveiled near Park and Lomax streets. The artwork comes about a year after rainbow crosswalks in the neighborhood were painted over to comply with state transportation directives.
The mural joins a growing list of local responses to state policies championed by Gov. Ron DeSantis and his administration. Florida rejected the pilot AP African American Studies course in 2023 and has imposed restrictions on how race, racism, sexual orientation and gender identity can be addressed in public education. State officials counter that African American history remains required by Florida law and say the restrictions are intended to prevent ideological indoctrination, not erase history.
Jacksonville has pushed back symbolically in its own way. When state rules interfered with rainbow lighting on downtown bridges, residents became the lights themselves, gathering with rainbow-colored lights and glow sticks to illuminate the Main Street Bridge and marching across the Acosta Bridge in support of Pride.
And just last month, Jacksonville unveiled a new historical marker recognizing Ax Handle Saturday, preserving the story of the Black teenagers whose peaceful 1960 sit-ins were met by a white mob armed with ax handles and clubs.
Now, after government-sponsored roadway art was ordered removed, Jacksonville has another answer: put the art somewhere it can’t be painted over as a crosswalk.
Artist Shaun Thurston said the Five Points mural intentionally represents people across the spectrum of humanity so residents can see themselves in both the artwork and the rainbow.
The message emerging from Jacksonville is increasingly difficult to miss: You can regulate the colors. You can restrict the classroom. You can paint over the pavement. But you can’t paint a city’s diversity out of existence.