Backers push for Franklin Florence civil rights heritage site
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The death last month of Franklin Florence, a longtime minister and civil rights icon in Rochester, has refocused energy into creating a civil rights heritage site that would bear his name.
The proposed Minister Franklin D. Florence Civil Rights Heritage Site at Baden Park in northeast Rochester has been under development since 2017, when 25 people with the Spiritus Christi Anti Racism Coalition (SPARC) toured civil rights sites through the South. They were struck in particular by Kelly Ingram Park in Birmingham, Alabama, a historic outdoor gathering space.
"We saw the South excavating their history so they could stare it down and fight not to go back to it," said the Rev. Myra Brown, pastor at Spiritus Christi. "We came back realizing we have our own history we’re not talking about."
They settled upon the idea of an outdoor sculpture garden that would serve to memorialize and commemorate the heroes of the Civil Rights movement in Rochester, Florence chief among them. He was present in 2022 at a ceremony announcing the name and gave one of his last public speeches.
"He was elated and humbled that the community would think of him in that manner," said his son, Franklin Florence Jr., a pastor in Florida at the church his father led as a young man. "When he was involved, he was involved out of a spiritual and moral conviction; he didn’t see himself as others now view him historically."
Spiritus Christi and the Black Community Focus Fund, an associated nonprofit, have raised more than $1 million toward the project from both private and public sources. That includes pledges of $500,000 each from the city of Rochester's federal American Recovery Plan Act funds and from the state Legislature.
The final cost is projected at around $6 million. The city soon will send out a request for design proposals, with the hope being to find a Black sculptor or public artist for the job, Brown said.
SPARC and the Black Community Focus Fund hold a few fundraisers for the park each year, including a 5K on Juneteenth and an event in February. Last weekend, Children's Defense Fund Executive Director Starsky Wilson spoke at the church for that fundraiser.
Baden Park, or Baden-Ormond Park as it was formerly known, was opened in 1964 on land that had been cleared through urban renewal. The city touted it then as the grandest outdoor neighborhood center in the city. Much of Florence's activism work — and much of his political power base — centered on that section of the city.
"(Florence's) story needs to be told," Brown said. "He was one ordinary pastor who did extraordinary things because he was committed and focused to justice and love. We want to continue that focus in this city on justice and love."
This article originally appeared on Rochester Democrat and Chronicle: Backers push Rochester Franklin Florence Civil Rights Heritage Site
