When Ron Davis walked into the courtyard at the Jacksonville Landing at about noon Monday for the “Jordan Davis Day” remembrance, he looked around at hundreds of people gathered there.
Asked what he’d be doing on this day, which would have been his son’s 20th birthday had he not been murdered, Davis said, “I’d be celebrating with Jordan. With music.”
Davis and Lucia McBath, Jordan Davis’ mother, were joined by elected officials, pastors, justice advocates and people who wanted to remember the life of the Jacksonville teen who was killed in November 2012 at a Southside gas station when an argument over loud music ended with shots fired.
Mayor Alvin Brown went to the stage and acknowledged Davis and McBath. He said Jordan Davis could have had a life full of potential and hope and praised the couple for their strength in tragedy.
‘It’s a parent’s worst nightmare that they have gone through. But they have fought diligently and transformed their grief into positive action,” said Brown.
“We cannot bring Jordan back, but we can honor his memory and work together to stop violence in this community,” he said.
Pastor Gary Williams from First Baptist Church of Mandarin, paraphrased the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.
“Our prayer is that our children will not be judged by the music they listen to, but by their character,” he said.
Ann Dugger, executive director of the Justice Coalition, a nonprofit that aids victims of crime, echoed Brown’s comments.
“There were more than 120 homicides in Jacksonville last year,” she said. “We have got to come together and put a stop to this. Together we can, together we will, make a difference in Jacksonville.”
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