Downtown Jacksonville’s iconic Main Street Bridge – whose blue frame is illuminated nightly – featured a new, temporary lighting scheme on Wednesday as members of a local civil rights group came together to celebrate Juneteenth.

Marking the June 19 federal holiday celebrating the emancipation of enslaved people in the United States, the Northside Coalition of Jacksonville lit the bridge up in red, black and green for 19 minutes beginning at 9:19 p.m.

“We are lighting the bridge for Juneteenth in red, black, and green to honor all Black Americans who literally fought for their freedom from slavery; who suffered systematic discrimination and violence; who organized, marched, bled, and died for civil rights; and who persevere even when obstacles are thrown in front of us today that disrespect us and attempt to disempower us,” said NCOJ President Kelly Frazier in an emailed statement before the event. “We are here to say that we shall continue to overcome!” 

The display came nearly three weeks after Jacksonville’s LGBTQ+ community and its supporters – each holding a high-powered LED flashlight with a colored lens – lined the bridge’s pedestrian pathway, creating a rainbow above the St. Johns River on the eve of Pride Month.

The display, like Wednesday night’s lighting of the bridge, followed the decision by Florida’s Department of Transportation earlier this year that decorative lighting on state-owned bridges will be red, white and blue from Memorial Day through Labor Day as part of the state’s “Freedom Summer.”

The decision affects bridges with programmable LED lighting such as Tampa’s Sunshine Skyway Bridge, Sarasota’s John Ringling Causeway Bridge and Jacksonville’s Acosta Bridge, which has featured a number of lighting designs this year to highlight special events and causes, ranging from St. Patrick’s Day to Mental Health Awareness Month to the NFL Draft.

Earlier this year, the Acosta sported a red-black-green lighting scheme in February to commemorate Black History Month.

“We’re here to celebrate our ancestors and show the governor that hey, we’re going to light the bridge up tonight,” Northside Coalition member Maceo George told Times-Union news partner First Coast News.

Acosta Pride display: Florida won’t light bridges in rainbow colors. So Jacksonville’s LGBTQ community did.

Acosta Bridge displays in 2024

Already this year, the Acosta Bridge has featured a number of lighting designs , including:

• Jacksonville Jazz Festival (May 23-26): red, orange, blue, purple and green

• Mental Health Awareness Month (Week of May 13): green

• ALS Awareness Month (May 3-5): blue and white

• NFL Draft (April 25): teal

• Jacksonville Jumbo Shrimp (April 12-14): pink, blue and red

• Jax River Jams (Thursdays in April): dark blue

• Autism Acceptance Month (April 2): red, dark blue, yellow, light blue

• First Day of Spring (March 19): yellow

• St. Patrick’s Day (March 17): green

• Kidney Cancer Awareness Month (March 6): orange

• Presidents Day (Feb. 19): red, white and blue

• Black History Month (Feb. 6-9): red, black and green

• DONNA Marathon (Feb. 3-4): pink

• Jax Icemen (Jan. 12): blue and white

• National Blood Donor Month (Jan. 8-10): red

This article originally appeared on Florida Times-Union: Jacksonville group lights up Main Street Bridge for Juneteenth