Gun violence among children in Jacksonville has become a public-health emergency, with a boarded-up elementary school on a site once called “Brown’s Dump” symbolizing a decades-long link between environmental contamination and firearm injuries.
Toxic Legacy of Brown’s Dump
From the late 1940s to the mid-1950s the city operated a landfill on the 250-acre parcel, piling ash from municipal incinerators that contained lead, arsenic and other heavy metals. The practice coincided with redlining that earmarked the surrounding neighborhoods as high-risk for mortgage lending.
In the 1950s the Duval County School Board built the Mary McLeod Bethune elementary school on the same ground. Residential developers later added homes and apartments, exposing generations of Black children to the contaminated soil.
The site was first flagged as a potential Superfund location in 1985, and a 1999 federal-state assessment declared the soil a “potential public health hazard.” The school closed in 2001, and cleanup of lead, arsenic and related toxins began eight years later.
Rising Child Firearm Injuries
A study by University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee researchers found that lead exposure during the first six years of life raises the odds of later firearm violence. Lead-related neurodevelopmental impacts are cited as a key factor in aggressive behavior.
“It’s the legacy of segregation and redlining,” said study lead author Lindsay Emer. “It’s a huge environmental injustice to our African American population.”
Hospital billing data from the Florida Agency for Health Care Administration show that from 2018 to 2024 more than 4,000 children statewide were hospitalized for gunshot wounds—about 1.5 a day.
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In Jacksonville at least 375 minors have been admitted for firearm injuries during the same period, with a concentration of cases in ZIP codes 32206, 32208 and 32209, where the former dump sits. Those three ZIPs account for at least 150 of the city’s child hospitalizations.
Community organizer A.J. Jordan said, “We have to work hard to make sure our kids get home safe,” as he expressed concern about the safety of children in the community.
In 2023 the city settled a $9 million case with Ameris Bank, which the Justice Department accused of recent redlining in minority neighborhoods. The agreement includes a loan-subsidy fund and plans for a new branch in a predominantly Black area.
Local activists also objected to the construction of a new medical examiner’s office and morgue in Brentwood, a neighborhood north of downtown that is over 80% Black. The facility, opened in 2024, now serves five counties and sits across the street from a public charter school.
Historical Redlining and Its Legacy
During the 1930s, federal officials marked Jacksonville neighborhoods on maps, coloring predominantly Black districts red to deter mortgage lenders.
Redlined areas later attracted municipal incinerators, oil-and-gas plants, and other polluting facilities, a pattern repeated across more than 240 U.S. cities.
Community Response and Ongoing Challenges
Anthony Brown, founder of the Red Alliance for Justice, criticized the council’s $60 million investment in the morgue as lacking a dedicated funding stream to improve conditions in redlined districts.
