In celebration of Black History Month, we continue sharing the story of Jacksonville’s Historic Eastside, a once thriving Black community dating back to the post-Civil War era.

Racial unrest and disinvestment reshaped the area over the decades, but the neighborhood remains a powerful symbol of resilience, legacy, and community pride.

Our focus turns to Mt. Olive A.M.E. Church, established in 1887, which serves as a cornerstone of faith and history in the Eastside community.

Generations of Eastsiders have gathered within its walls.

“This was my first church,” Audrey Pridgen said. “This is the church I was christened in. This was the church that I got married in over 40 years ago. This is the church that my daughter was christened in.”

The church was designed by Jacksonville’s first Black architect, Richard L. Brown, who was born into slavery in 1854.

“That is probably one of the last bastions of his work, Mt. Olive as a whole,” Elaine Ford Jackson said.

The church’s current structure was erected in 1922, standing as one of the last remaining examples of Brown’s craftsmanship.

“The church is such a beautiful church,” Pridgen said. “Stained glass windows with different people on it, Martin Luther King, you have a lot of people on the windows that need to be preserved.”

Its legacy is deeply connected to foundational leaders in the fight for equal rights.

“We had the Lewises here,” Pridgen said. “Their girls would take us to their home and do an Easter egg hunt with us.”

Historic figures with ties to the church and community include Abraham Lincoln Lewis, Florida’s first African American millionaire, A. Philip Randolph, a labor leader and civil rights activist, and Joseph Edward Lee, a judge and federal official.

“In this church you had doctors, you had lawyers, you had teachers, some of the teachers were the first Black American teachers in Jacksonville,” Pridgen said.

“Mt. Olive was the pillar of this community,” Jackson said. “Along with St. Johns Baptist, along with First Baptist of Oakland, along with Mother Midway and other churches.”

Over the decades, Mt. Olive’s congregation has dwindled and so have the church’s resources. The sanctuary’s walls now bear the quiet wounds of time.

“We are praying to God that we are able to get our church back to where it needs to be,” Pridgen said. “Where it was when I first joined the church.”

There is now renewed attention on the Eastside. The historic neighborhood sits just blocks from where the Jacksonville Jaguars’ “Stadium of the Future” is being built.

Thanks in part to the largest community benefits agreement in NFL history, funding is set to flow back into the area. Many are hopeful that what is considered Jacksonville’s last remaining 19th-century historically Black neighborhood will thrive once again.

For longtime residents, revitalization is not just about development — it is about preservation. It is about honoring the institutions, like Mt. Olive, that helped build the Eastside’s enduring legacy.

To learn more about this edition’s featured artist, Out East native Zende Randolph, 17, visit his instagram page.