HomeMy WebLinkAboutSubmittal-Carole Jackson-NAACP Statement on Virginia Key Beach BoardSubmitted into the public
record for item(s) SR.S
NAACP on 10 13 2022, City Clerk
South Dade Branch
P.O. Box 971515 -Miami, Florida 33197
Dwight Bullard President South Dade
WWW.South DadeNAACP.org.
https://www,facebook.com/SouthDadeNAACP
Contact:
Brad Brown Secretary
Jabaribrad(aeaol.com 7862051634
Statement on Virginia Key Beach Board
The existing Board for Virginia Key Beach is steeped in both the struggle
to open the Beach in a segregated environment and the struggle more
recently to restore the Park. They are uniquely positioned to develop
the proposed museum so that it will not only educate present-day
Miamians on the area's Black history but will be a tourist attraction.
Blacks as well as others were attracted to the sun and surf of Miami
and for Black individuals coming to Miami to get away from the ice and
snow Virginia Key Beach was the only place in Miami Dade County they
could be on the beach and the cottages in the Park the only place they
could stay on a beach. This despite the Beach with its strong currents
and deep water was not as safe a place to swim as those areas set aside
for whites only. Do not destroy this history and leave the board in the
hands of its current knowledgeable leadership and singular purpose to
make this area a jewel in the Parks system available and used by all but
forever keeping the history of both the struggle for justice and fairness
and the good times despite the surrounding hostile environment that
the Black community enjoyed at this sacred Park.
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