Virginia Key Beach board decision by city commission cheats Black Miamians | Opinion
On Oct. 13, Black Miamians were once again cheated as the City of Miami Commission thoughtlessly snatched the Historic Virginia Key Beach Park out of our hands and placed it into the hands of those who will do, only God-knows-what, with the beloved Black beach.
For starters, it was bad enough when it was suggested that the north point of Virginia Key become a gathering place for the homeless. While the idea was not to relocate the homeless to the Black beach/park, I believe that placing the homeless on Virginia Key would have a profound and negative affect on the Historic Virginia Key beach/park. As a lay person and citizen of Miami-Dade, I couldn’t fathom the idea of placing the vulnerable homeless on an island where there is no public transportation, no grocery stores, and no schools. To me it would be like abandoning the homeless to a place to die. The thought horrified me.
Then, for a few weeks, I didn’t hear any more about housing the homeless on Virginia Key. But I, along with many others, wasn’t convinced that the problem of what to do with Virginia Key Beach had gone away. Sure enough, there arose accusations by the City Commission of mismanagement of the area by the Virginia Key Beach Trust, the body created by the city of Miami in 2001 to bring community vision to fruition.
Some have even suggested that Virginia Key Beach Park is inappropriate for money-making purposes and supposedly so focused on the Black history of segregation and oppression that it is less welcoming, or not inclusive for everyone’s enjoyment. But the fact that Virginia Key was a Black beach never stopped people of other colors or races from frequenting its shores.
As a Black child growing up in Miami and traveling to Virginia Key pre-Rickenbacker Causeway days via motorboat for 25 cents a head for children and 50 cents for adults, it was not uncommon to see people of other races on the “Black” beach. And I don’t ever recall seeing or hearing about anyone of another nationality being thrown off the beach because he/she wasn’t Black.
Being focused on our history is what is supposed to happen on a Black beach. Our children, and our children’s children need to know our history — all of it. But in this climate of history thieves, I can see where some people would object to us telling our history. They don’t want to hear us talk about how it was and how far we have come.
An open letter to Suarez was sent
According to Gene Tinnie, the powers that be are playing the old race game of “divide and steal.” Tinnie even wrote an open letter to Mayor Francis Suarez asking him to veto the commissioners’ vote to take the beach/park out of the hands of the Virginia Key Trust that was established in 2001. The mayor refused to veto the commission’s action, and now the takeover has automatically become law.
“Many times, over the years, in private meetings with mayors and commissioners and their staff, the Trust has explained that the vision of the museum/park is not limited to civil rights or Black history alone but will prominently include both natural and social history as a place of freedom,” Tinnie said. “Plans for Virginia Key also included indigenous heritage, the significant roles of women, the mutually welcomed presence of early Cuban refugees to the segregated park as the first landfall for freedom-seeking Cuban rafters, and Haitian boat people.”
Tinnie said the officials “stubbornly” insisted on “pigeonholing” the entire project as appealing to Blacks only, as if to wishfully stoke groundless fears that everyone else will be made “uncomfortable” in their visits.
Even so, Tinnie said, “How is it possible for this newly commission-appointed Trust to be trusted to build a museum and park experience for the citizens and visitors of Miami, with so little knowledge of the history surrounding Virginia Key, and so little respect for truth and for the public will, and so few, if any, qualifications in the field of museum planning?”
While Christine King was appointed chairwoman, and while Suarez was quoted in a Miami Herald story saying that he has “… great confidence in her [King] to lead the Virginia Key Beach board with integrity, efficiency and inclusiveness,” the move still seemed shaky to the 14 Black business and civic leaders, and to me, too, who signed a letter to the mayor asking him to veto the commissioners’ Oct. 13 move that ousted the then-current Virginia Key leadership and installed themselves as the new board.
One of the complaints the commission had was the lack of progress in the development of a civil rights museum on Virginia Key. Although Miami-Dade County has nearly $20 million set aside for its construction, nothing has been done to move the museum plans forward.
But if the Miami City Commission was unhappy with the current board and the lack of action, why didn’t it vote to replace it with a board that would be more reflective of our history? In the letter to Mayor Suarez, the Black leaders said that the present change replaces a board that reflects the voices of the Black community with a majority Cuban board.
I can’t imagine the Miami Commission or any other governing body turning over a property that represents the legacy/history of a White or Cuban community to Blacks. That would never happen. The Miami Commission’s vote to turn over our legacy to be overseen by a group of people, many who have no idea of the blood, sweat and tears that went into trying to keep the legacy of the Black beach alive for our future generations, was a very bad move.
The protest is not about race. It is about principles and good judgment and simply just doing the right thing by its Black citizens. It’s about preserving our history when so much of it is being stolen.
And the Oct. 13 vote by our city commissioners is just another move to steal our legacy and our history in the city of Miami.
Commemoration of Kristallnacht kicks off Holocaust Education Week
Freedom-loving Miamians will join the Miami Jewish community at 6 p.m. on Nov. 6, at the Holocaust Memorial Miami Beach to commemorate the 84th anniversary of Kristallnacht, the Night of Broken Glass.
The ceremony will be the first event to kick off Holocaust Education Week, which is Nov. 6-11. During the week, there will be a series of community events dedicated to preserving the legacy, and teaching the lessons of the Holocaust.
While the Kristallnacht ceremony is an in-person event, it will also be livestreamed. All other Holocaust Education Week presentations will livestreamed only, and will be accessible by registering at JewishMiami.org/hew2022.
Bea Hines can be reached at bea.hines@gmail.com
