JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – The U.S. Civil Rights Trail is expanding in 2026 to include Jacksonville, the city announced Thursday, creating a local trail of place-based markers, educational programming and storytelling that will highlight streets, neighborhoods and institutions where civil rights organizing took root.
The Jacksonville Civil Rights Trail will include 40 markers, with the first five installed during Black History Month. The city will place the first marker in front of Mt. Ararat Baptist Church on Wednesday, Feb. 25, 2026, at 1 p.m. After February, the city plans to install three to five markers each month.
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On March 19, 1961, Dr. Martin Luther King gave his “This is a Great Time to Be Alive,” sermon at the church. The speech was centered on nonviolent resistance at a time when African-Americans in Jacksonville stood up to segregationists.
“The Jacksonville sites being added to the Trail will add unique and powerful stories that will deepen our understanding of the Civil Rights Movement and the role our city played in it,” Mayor Donna Deegan said. “We are honored to be chosen as one of the U.S. Civil Rights Trail’s 2026 expansion locations and grateful to everyone who worked so hard to make it possible.”
The trail will honor landmark events and everyday leaders who worked across neighborhoods and generations to sustain the movement, the city said.
Launched in 2018, the U.S. Civil Rights Trail is a collection of more than 130 churches, courthouses, schools, museums and other landmarks, primarily in Southern states, where activists challenged segregation in the 1950s and 1960s. For more information, visit CivilRightsTrail.com.