Emerald Trail LaVilla Connection
By Susan D. Brandenburg
Artist Overstreet Ducasse and his collaborative team, Grace Bio, Dustin Harewood, and Alexi McMonigle, met at their LaVilla Emerald Trail Mural on an overcast Saturday morning recently. Their pride in their work was palpable.
“We are honored to have been chosen to portray the vibrant African American history of LaVilla and Brooklyn in this mural,” says Ducasse. “It has been a labor of love that has enriched our lives.”
Underwritten by donors Rushton and Charles Callaghan and sponsored by Groundwork Jacksonville, the colorful 1,100-foot-long mural along the Park Street Bridge took more than four months for the team of artists to complete. According to Ducasse, a great deal of research was involved in the design, as it was important to accurately pay tribute to so many facets of Jacksonville’s past.
“We became students of history ourselves as we learned about the impact of the Buffalo Soldiers—Black Union soldiers who occupied Confederate Jacksonville in 1864 and manned a Union stockade in the marshes of what’s now inner-city LaVilla,” says Ducasse. “Some of them ended up settling in Jacksonville and there is still an old, abandoned house in Brooklyn that is known as the Last Buffalo Soldier’s House. It’s vital history that might have eventually been lost if we hadn’t preserved it in this mural.”
