1 00:00:00,867 --> 00:00:10,300 [electronic music] 2 00:00:02,000 --> 00:00:07,000 Downloaded from YTS.MX 3 00:00:08,000 --> 00:00:13,000 Official YIFY movies site: YTS.MX 4 00:00:26,133 --> 00:00:28,333 And what you don't know about Miami 5 00:00:28,367 --> 00:00:32,000 is that back in the 1640s black pirates came here. 6 00:00:32,033 --> 00:00:33,533 They came from the Bahamas, 7 00:00:33,567 --> 00:00:36,600 Andros Island was a hotbed for pirates. 8 00:00:36,633 --> 00:00:38,867 About a third of the crew members of pirate ships 9 00:00:38,900 --> 00:00:40,433 were black. 10 00:00:40,467 --> 00:00:43,867 In fact, piracy was the first opportunity for equal employment 11 00:00:43,900 --> 00:00:45,967 that blacks had in the new world. 12 00:00:46,000 --> 00:00:47,967 Many brothers took advantage of that. 13 00:00:48,000 --> 00:00:49,967 If you go to Disney world and you go through 14 00:00:50,000 --> 00:00:52,100 the Pirates of the Caribbean exhibit 15 00:00:52,133 --> 00:00:54,000 you don't see blacks among the pirates. 16 00:00:54,033 --> 00:00:56,200 But they were there. 17 00:00:56,233 --> 00:00:57,933 They had a very very stable presence in the industry. 18 00:00:57,967 --> 00:01:00,400 They were free, they shared equally 19 00:01:00,433 --> 00:01:02,867 in the spoils that the ships took, 20 00:01:02,900 --> 00:01:04,800 and in fact some of the emerged 21 00:01:04,833 --> 00:01:07,267 as captains of their own ships. 22 00:01:07,300 --> 00:01:09,633 The most well known black pirate that we know of 23 00:01:09,667 --> 00:01:12,567 who came to the South Keyes was Black Cesar. 24 00:01:12,600 --> 00:01:16,567 He operated around Biscay bay back in the 1640s. 25 00:01:16,600 --> 00:01:20,767 In fact there is a place on the map today in the Florida Keyes 26 00:01:20,800 --> 00:01:22,967 shown as Cesar's Creek. 27 00:01:23,000 --> 00:01:24,833 That was one of his headquarters 28 00:01:24,867 --> 00:01:25,967 in the South Florida area. 29 00:01:26,000 --> 00:01:28,033 A notorious pirate who was 30 00:01:28,067 --> 00:01:30,667 eventually pressed by the British, 31 00:01:30,700 --> 00:01:32,533 there was no US government at that time 32 00:01:32,567 --> 00:01:34,867 the US didn't exist at that time, 33 00:01:34,900 --> 00:01:36,200 Pressed by the British government 34 00:01:36,233 --> 00:01:38,533 went around the West Coast of Florida 35 00:01:38,567 --> 00:01:42,267 hooked up with Blackbeard, who were then notorious 36 00:01:42,300 --> 00:01:44,400 during their reign of piracy, 37 00:01:44,433 --> 00:01:46,233 until finally the British caught them both, 38 00:01:46,267 --> 00:01:48,067 and they were executed. 39 00:01:48,100 --> 00:01:49,400 (PAUL) Well Black Cesar would be... 40 00:01:49,433 --> 00:01:51,033 well he's either mythological or he's real, 41 00:01:51,067 --> 00:01:53,267 or somewhere in between that 42 00:01:53,300 --> 00:01:54,700 hanging around South Biscay Bay, there's Cesar's Creek, 43 00:01:54,733 --> 00:01:58,267 he might have been a fugitive slave from Virginia, 44 00:01:58,300 --> 00:01:59,567 (MARVIN) There were two of them. 45 00:01:59,600 --> 00:02:01,700 But the main one was the one that operated 46 00:02:01,733 --> 00:02:03,200 back in the 1640s. 47 00:02:03,233 --> 00:02:05,233 The one who came after about 100 years later 48 00:02:05,267 --> 00:02:10,300 was just a copycat of no consequence. 49 00:02:13,767 --> 00:02:16,300 Well the next movement of blacks into what became Miami 50 00:02:16,333 --> 00:02:18,000 would have been Bahamians, 51 00:02:18,033 --> 00:02:20,433 who came in just during the fishing season, 52 00:02:20,467 --> 00:02:22,400 just during the turtling season. 53 00:02:22,433 --> 00:02:23,933 Because tens of thousands of turtles would 54 00:02:23,967 --> 00:02:26,233 crawl up on these beaches, lay their eggs, 55 00:02:26,267 --> 00:02:28,333 and these Bahamians would come over 56 00:02:28,367 --> 00:02:30,867 harvest the eggs, slaughter some of the turtles, 57 00:02:30,900 --> 00:02:34,867 come back to Nassau and make their living that way. 58 00:02:34,900 --> 00:02:36,567 So that was going on many many years 59 00:02:36,600 --> 00:02:38,867 before the first English speaking white people 60 00:02:38,900 --> 00:02:40,400 came to South Florida. 61 00:02:40,433 --> 00:02:43,033 And those Bahamian fishermen who would be here 62 00:02:43,067 --> 00:02:45,433 for weeks if not months at a time, 63 00:02:45,467 --> 00:02:48,367 would encounter black escaped slaves 64 00:02:48,400 --> 00:02:50,400 coming down mainly from Georgia. 65 00:02:50,433 --> 00:02:52,400 And these people were trying to make it to the Bahamas 66 00:02:52,433 --> 00:02:54,533 to freedom. 67 00:02:54,567 --> 00:02:56,367 So the first ferrying of black escaped slaves that we know of 68 00:02:56,400 --> 00:02:59,500 from Georgia to the Bahamas to freedom 69 00:02:59,533 --> 00:03:01,967 happened with these Bahamian fishermen 70 00:03:02,000 --> 00:03:05,233 encountering these people on these shores. 71 00:03:05,267 --> 00:03:08,333 The Bahamas were so very close to South Florida 72 00:03:08,367 --> 00:03:11,700 and particularly during the brief British period 73 00:03:11,733 --> 00:03:14,067 in the late 1700s. 74 00:03:14,100 --> 00:03:16,800 A lot of the Bahamians came to Florida. 75 00:03:16,833 --> 00:03:18,300 a lot of them were wreckers 76 00:03:18,333 --> 00:03:20,267 because of the Great Florida Reef. 77 00:03:20,300 --> 00:03:22,067 There were no lighthouses at the time. 78 00:03:22,100 --> 00:03:25,367 And the first community was Key West 79 00:03:25,400 --> 00:03:27,567 and that was the wrecking capital of the world. 80 00:03:27,600 --> 00:03:31,867 Many of them ended up settling in the Florida Keyes 81 00:03:31,900 --> 00:03:33,800 and some even in the Miami area. 82 00:03:33,833 --> 00:03:36,200 Now these Bahamians coming in then from the Bahamas 83 00:03:36,233 --> 00:03:40,667 to Key West began migrating up the Florida Keyes 84 00:03:40,700 --> 00:03:42,300 primarily picking pineapples, 85 00:03:42,333 --> 00:03:44,967 which were a major crop during that time. 86 00:03:45,000 --> 00:03:46,533 That brought many of the Bahamians here 87 00:03:46,567 --> 00:03:48,533 many of them stayed so that by the time 88 00:03:48,567 --> 00:03:52,200 Coconut grove emerged in the 1880s 89 00:03:52,233 --> 00:03:55,233 there was a steady flow of Bahamians already 90 00:03:55,267 --> 00:03:58,600 in the Florida Keys coming in from Key West. 91 00:03:58,633 --> 00:04:01,633 As these Bahamians and African Americans 92 00:04:01,667 --> 00:04:04,367 black settlers that were coming down from Georgia 93 00:04:04,400 --> 00:04:07,067 encountered each other in Coconut Grove 94 00:04:07,100 --> 00:04:10,233 there was always a little bit of friction. 95 00:04:10,267 --> 00:04:14,333 Because the Bahamians had kind of an attitude. 96 00:04:14,367 --> 00:04:18,100 They would tell you quickly "we're not ex-slaves. 97 00:04:18,133 --> 00:04:21,167 We are subjects of the British crown." 98 00:04:21,200 --> 00:04:24,267 And expected white people to treat them that was as well. 99 00:04:24,300 --> 00:04:26,867 So a lot of the early friction in Miami was between 100 00:04:26,900 --> 00:04:29,733 African Americans and Bahamians 101 00:04:29,767 --> 00:04:33,300 but particularly between white people and Bahamians 102 00:04:33,333 --> 00:04:35,967 because Bahamians simply behaved differently. 103 00:04:36,000 --> 00:04:37,467 They came from a different culture. 104 00:04:37,500 --> 00:04:39,533 They were not as passive or as accepting 105 00:04:39,567 --> 00:04:42,400 of some of the discrimination that was so apparent 106 00:04:42,433 --> 00:04:45,067 when they came into Florida. 107 00:04:45,100 --> 00:04:49,567 (ARVA)The Bahamas abolished slavery in the 1830s. 108 00:04:49,600 --> 00:04:53,333 So the black Bahamians, by the time they got here 109 00:04:53,367 --> 00:04:55,200 had long not been slaves. 110 00:04:55,233 --> 00:04:58,433 And they were educated, because the English 111 00:04:58,467 --> 00:05:00,500 one of the things they tended to do everywhere 112 00:05:00,533 --> 00:05:03,233 is as a colonial power they educated people 113 00:05:03,267 --> 00:05:05,200 better than most. 114 00:05:05,233 --> 00:05:07,100 There was some snobbery. 115 00:05:07,133 --> 00:05:09,133 I think it still exists. 116 00:05:09,167 --> 00:05:11,567 I find it today talking to different people 117 00:05:11,600 --> 00:05:15,700 that the Bahamians just have a very... 118 00:05:15,733 --> 00:05:18,333 Like the old Americans. 119 00:05:18,367 --> 00:05:20,167 Like the DAR types or something. 120 00:05:20,200 --> 00:05:22,333 They were here first 121 00:05:22,367 --> 00:05:24,100 and they feel they have made a tremendous contribution. 122 00:05:24,133 --> 00:05:25,400 And they have. 123 00:05:25,433 --> 00:05:27,333 (MARVIN) The Bahamians built Vizcaya. 124 00:05:27,367 --> 00:05:30,033 They provided the labour force for Vizcaya. 125 00:05:30,067 --> 00:05:33,033 They built many of the early buildings in Miami. 126 00:05:33,067 --> 00:05:36,433 The Bahamians built the Dade County Courthouse. 127 00:05:36,467 --> 00:05:38,367 Primarily Bahamians, and other blacks too 128 00:05:38,400 --> 00:05:41,433 were part of the workforce all along. 129 00:05:41,467 --> 00:05:43,200 African Americans and Bahamians both. 130 00:05:43,233 --> 00:05:44,267 Because you've got the railroad 131 00:05:44,300 --> 00:05:45,367 coming in with with Flagler, 132 00:05:45,400 --> 00:05:47,233 and its early African Americans 133 00:05:47,267 --> 00:05:48,700 coming down to help build the railroad 134 00:05:48,733 --> 00:05:50,767 like they did with the rest of the country. 135 00:05:50,800 --> 00:05:53,000 And they're coming in and there's a tourism industry here. 136 00:05:53,033 --> 00:05:54,533 there's agricultural labour 137 00:05:54,567 --> 00:05:56,700 there's a need for domestic labour 138 00:05:56,733 --> 00:05:57,767 and they're coming in, 139 00:05:57,800 --> 00:05:59,567 they're working for white families in the homes, 140 00:05:59,600 --> 00:06:02,167 they're also building the streets, the buildings, 141 00:06:02,200 --> 00:06:06,433 huge estates like Vizcaya. They were working the land. 142 00:06:06,467 --> 00:06:10,133 But they were particularly important in teaching whites 143 00:06:10,167 --> 00:06:13,233 how to use coral rock to construct buildings. 144 00:06:13,267 --> 00:06:15,900 And we still have some homes, some structures today 145 00:06:15,933 --> 00:06:20,800 that reflect this influence on architecture by the Bahamians. 146 00:06:20,833 --> 00:06:27,233 (ARVA) But if you've ever tried to dig in our wonderful "soil" 147 00:06:27,267 --> 00:06:29,533 and you think that all they had was a grub hoe 148 00:06:29,567 --> 00:06:32,567 and to plant in Coral Gables, it was all pineland 149 00:06:32,600 --> 00:06:33,900 they had to grub up the pine meadows 150 00:06:33,933 --> 00:06:35,700 and grub up the rock. 151 00:06:35,733 --> 00:06:37,633 And that's why they built a lot of the buildings 152 00:06:37,667 --> 00:06:42,567 out of coral rock. 153 00:06:44,500 --> 00:06:48,900 In the early 1800s blacks began coming down from Georgia 154 00:06:48,933 --> 00:06:51,600 and the other slave states, into Florida 155 00:06:51,633 --> 00:06:55,333 to join up with the Seminole Indians 156 00:06:55,367 --> 00:06:58,900 who were themselves trying to escape removal from Florida 157 00:06:58,933 --> 00:07:03,267 to be out of the way of white settlement of the south. 158 00:07:03,300 --> 00:07:06,733 And these blacks, who were not blood related to the Seminoles, 159 00:07:06,767 --> 00:07:10,867 they joined them in terms of a neutral survival strategy. 160 00:07:10,900 --> 00:07:12,467 Whereas the black Seminoles... 161 00:07:12,500 --> 00:07:14,500 basically fought with the Seminoles, 162 00:07:14,533 --> 00:07:16,667 were interpreters for the Seminoles, 163 00:07:16,700 --> 00:07:21,000 and in fact there was marriage between the Seminoles 164 00:07:21,033 --> 00:07:23,233 and these blacks who joined them. 165 00:07:23,267 --> 00:07:25,567 One of the main reasons for the so called Seminole wars, 166 00:07:25,600 --> 00:07:27,600 which are kind of forgotten wars in American History 167 00:07:27,633 --> 00:07:31,100 unless you're a Floridian, was the fact that many of the slaves 168 00:07:31,133 --> 00:07:33,833 were fleeing into then Spanish Florida. 169 00:07:33,867 --> 00:07:39,000 And the United States wasn't very happy about that. 170 00:07:39,033 --> 00:07:42,367 So they really started fighting the Seminoles 171 00:07:42,400 --> 00:07:44,867 because they had provided sanctuary 172 00:07:44,900 --> 00:07:47,433 to a lot of the African slaves. 173 00:07:47,467 --> 00:07:49,167 (MARVIN) And it's very important to point out 174 00:07:49,200 --> 00:07:51,767 that black Seminoles were not necessarily 175 00:07:51,800 --> 00:07:53,433 dependent on the Seminoles. 176 00:07:53,467 --> 00:07:56,133 Sometimes the Seminoles were dependent on the blacks. 177 00:07:56,167 --> 00:07:58,333 So it was a very symbiotic relationship 178 00:07:58,367 --> 00:08:03,400 in which both groups benefited. 179 00:08:06,633 --> 00:08:08,633 I think that one of the unique things about Miami 180 00:08:08,667 --> 00:08:11,500 is that if you look at African American history 181 00:08:11,533 --> 00:08:12,900 there's this big period of time that they call 182 00:08:12,933 --> 00:08:14,400 'The Great Northern Migration' 183 00:08:14,433 --> 00:08:16,833 which happened after reconstruction in the south. 184 00:08:16,867 --> 00:08:19,667 So after the civil war, reconstruction was an attempt 185 00:08:19,700 --> 00:08:21,833 to rehabilitate the south. 186 00:08:21,867 --> 00:08:23,900 Make it more friendly towards blacks 187 00:08:23,933 --> 00:08:26,300 and to make it more friendly in general 188 00:08:26,333 --> 00:08:29,800 towards northern ideals about democracy and things like that. 189 00:08:29,833 --> 00:08:32,300 It didn't work. It crashed, right? 190 00:08:32,333 --> 00:08:35,000 So we saw a lot of black people leaving the south. 191 00:08:35,033 --> 00:08:36,800 They went to New York, they went to Chicago, 192 00:08:36,833 --> 00:08:38,200 they went to major cities. 193 00:08:38,233 --> 00:08:39,867 They left all these agricultural communities 194 00:08:39,900 --> 00:08:41,933 they had been based in before. 195 00:08:41,967 --> 00:08:44,233 So at that period of scholarship, 196 00:08:44,267 --> 00:08:45,400 that period of history 197 00:08:45,433 --> 00:08:47,967 in African American scholarship is called 198 00:08:48,000 --> 00:08:49,767 'The Great Northern Migration'. 199 00:08:49,800 --> 00:08:52,033 People don't often recognize that there was a 200 00:08:52,067 --> 00:08:54,400 great southern migration too. 201 00:08:54,433 --> 00:08:59,100 Miami was booming in the 1880s and the 1890s 202 00:08:59,133 --> 00:09:00,733 because of the fact that it had just been founded 203 00:09:00,767 --> 00:09:03,133 so there were jobs here, the railroad had arrived 204 00:09:03,167 --> 00:09:04,633 there was opportunity here. 205 00:09:04,667 --> 00:09:07,700 So you saw African Americans not just going to the north, 206 00:09:07,733 --> 00:09:09,567 going to New York, 207 00:09:09,600 --> 00:09:11,233 but there were also African Americans 208 00:09:11,267 --> 00:09:12,400 from Alabama and Georgia, 209 00:09:12,433 --> 00:09:14,433 who were coming down to Miami to work. 210 00:09:14,467 --> 00:09:18,467 (MARVIN) Now especially around the 1880s and early 1890s 211 00:09:18,500 --> 00:09:21,100 There were blacks, primarily Bahamians, 212 00:09:21,133 --> 00:09:23,267 who were settled well into Coconut Grove, 213 00:09:23,300 --> 00:09:25,133 who worked on these waters. 214 00:09:25,167 --> 00:09:27,567 They were fishermen, they were crabbers, 215 00:09:27,600 --> 00:09:29,967 they were turtlers, they were tour guides, 216 00:09:30,000 --> 00:09:31,633 they were hunting guides. 217 00:09:31,667 --> 00:09:34,633 So as white people started coming into South Florida 218 00:09:34,667 --> 00:09:38,267 for tourism purposes, they were aided and supported 219 00:09:38,300 --> 00:09:40,500 often by blacks who knew the waters, 220 00:09:40,533 --> 00:09:42,200 who knew the best fishing spots, 221 00:09:42,233 --> 00:09:44,233 knew the best hunting areas 222 00:09:44,267 --> 00:09:48,367 and they made a living, many of them, doing exactly that. 223 00:09:48,400 --> 00:09:50,667 A lot of the blacks were not maids and gardeners 224 00:09:50,700 --> 00:09:53,400 and agricultural workers. 225 00:09:53,433 --> 00:09:57,800 Many of them participated handily in the tourism trade. 226 00:09:57,833 --> 00:09:59,167 We're standing on Charles Avenue 227 00:09:59,200 --> 00:10:01,467 in front of the home of E.W.F. Stirrup. 228 00:10:01,500 --> 00:10:04,300 The richest black man in Coconut Grove. 229 00:10:04,333 --> 00:10:06,167 Charles Avenue was the original avenue 230 00:10:06,200 --> 00:10:09,533 along which most of the homes for blacks were built. 231 00:10:09,567 --> 00:10:11,500 It used to be known as Evangelist Street, 232 00:10:11,533 --> 00:10:13,833 because all of the churches were on this street. 233 00:10:13,867 --> 00:10:16,267 So this was the begging community of Coconut Grove 234 00:10:16,300 --> 00:10:19,533 for the black community, on this street. 235 00:10:19,567 --> 00:10:22,067 Mr. Stirrup was probably the first black 236 00:10:22,100 --> 00:10:25,633 wealthy person in Miami-Dade County. 237 00:10:25,667 --> 00:10:27,433 He acquired a great deal of property. 238 00:10:27,467 --> 00:10:30,833 He owned land from Munroe County to Fort Pierce 239 00:10:30,867 --> 00:10:34,467 and when he died he left a very sizeable estate. 240 00:10:34,500 --> 00:10:36,533 He was one of the people who could be relied upon 241 00:10:36,567 --> 00:10:38,967 to help young men when they got into trouble. 242 00:10:39,000 --> 00:10:40,933 He was the one who when movers came out 243 00:10:40,967 --> 00:10:42,633 would get on his horse and buggy 244 00:10:42,667 --> 00:10:45,600 and go up to the white folks hotel, the Royal Palm hotel, 245 00:10:45,633 --> 00:10:48,433 get the movers, bring them back down to the Odd Fellas Hall 246 00:10:48,467 --> 00:10:51,100 which was the social centre of Coconut Grove. 247 00:10:51,133 --> 00:10:53,767 And that's how black people got to enjoy movies. 248 00:10:53,800 --> 00:10:55,300 It is a very important street. 249 00:10:55,333 --> 00:10:57,200 It may be the most historically significant street 250 00:10:57,233 --> 00:11:02,200 in Miami-Dade county in terms of black history. 251 00:11:04,100 --> 00:11:06,567 1894 this event took place 252 00:11:06,600 --> 00:11:08,900 which became known as the Great Freeze. 253 00:11:08,933 --> 00:11:10,300 It was horrendous. 254 00:11:10,333 --> 00:11:12,000 People had never really seen anything like it 255 00:11:12,033 --> 00:11:14,367 in their lifetimes. Everything froze. 256 00:11:14,400 --> 00:11:17,100 Florida was basically under ice. 257 00:11:17,133 --> 00:11:21,167 They say it even snowed in North Miami. 258 00:11:21,200 --> 00:11:24,667 As a result of that freeze, Henry Flagler was 259 00:11:24,700 --> 00:11:27,767 convinced to bring his Florida East Coast railroad 260 00:11:27,800 --> 00:11:32,300 on down from West Palm Beach on down to the Miami River. 261 00:11:32,333 --> 00:11:36,033 The Great Freeze was a defining moment for the birth of Miami. 262 00:11:36,067 --> 00:11:37,400 And it brought many blacks, 263 00:11:37,433 --> 00:11:40,233 if not more blacks than whites, to South Florida. 264 00:11:40,267 --> 00:11:42,700 Because their labour was needed on this land 265 00:11:42,733 --> 00:11:45,267 that was below the freeze line. 266 00:11:45,300 --> 00:11:47,033 The Big Freeze was an act of God 267 00:11:47,067 --> 00:11:49,933 and this act of God lead to the city of Miami 268 00:11:49,967 --> 00:11:52,967 and the arrival of thousands of blacks into this community. 269 00:11:53,000 --> 00:11:55,500 So yes, it was related to a natural event. 270 00:11:55,533 --> 00:11:57,567 When John Soule came down the March of 1896 271 00:11:57,600 --> 00:12:01,200 he put into his memoirs about 13 or 14 African Americans 272 00:12:01,233 --> 00:12:02,733 who had been working with him in West Palm Beach. 273 00:12:02,767 --> 00:12:04,733 And see, West Palm Beach was a staging ground 274 00:12:04,767 --> 00:12:07,233 for the elaborate Palm Beach across the lake. 275 00:12:07,267 --> 00:12:09,233 And so the really gritty work was done by people 276 00:12:09,267 --> 00:12:10,767 living in West Palm Beach. 277 00:12:10,800 --> 00:12:12,233 Both in West Palm Beach worked 278 00:12:12,267 --> 00:12:15,533 but were also building this great resort called Palm Beach. 279 00:12:15,567 --> 00:12:18,500 And Soule brought down, as he later referred to it, 280 00:12:18,533 --> 00:12:20,167 his Black Artillery, refering to these voters. 281 00:12:20,200 --> 00:12:22,967 But these were trustworthy workers 282 00:12:23,000 --> 00:12:25,667 because Flagler had told him it's now time 283 00:12:25,700 --> 00:12:28,033 to build this great hotel 284 00:12:28,067 --> 00:12:29,667 that I've told Mrs. Tuddle I'm going to build. 285 00:12:29,700 --> 00:12:31,667 Plus I want it because I'm going to promote that 286 00:12:31,700 --> 00:12:32,900 as a tourist spot. 287 00:12:32,933 --> 00:12:34,200 So he brought them down, 288 00:12:34,233 --> 00:12:35,533 they levelled the Indian burial mound 289 00:12:35,567 --> 00:12:38,800 in the March of 1896 on the edge of Briscayne Bay then, 290 00:12:38,833 --> 00:12:40,833 today it's about 3 blocks in. 291 00:12:40,867 --> 00:12:43,833 And they began to lay the foundation for the hotel. 292 00:12:43,867 --> 00:12:48,667 So these were workers that Soule knew from earlier jobs. 293 00:12:48,700 --> 00:12:49,967 The railroad was everything. 294 00:12:50,000 --> 00:12:51,367 People can't appreciate that now. 295 00:12:51,400 --> 00:12:55,500 Before there was the I-95, before there was the turnpike, 296 00:12:55,533 --> 00:12:59,167 before there was air travel, there were trains. 297 00:12:59,200 --> 00:13:01,200 Everything moved on the railroad. 298 00:13:01,233 --> 00:13:03,133 The railroad magnates had a lot of power 299 00:13:03,167 --> 00:13:05,467 a lot of money, a lot of influence. 300 00:13:05,500 --> 00:13:07,567 And the railroad also provided jobs. 301 00:13:07,600 --> 00:13:09,600 A lot of black people worked on the railroad. 302 00:13:09,633 --> 00:13:11,367 One of the best jobs you could have in Miami 303 00:13:11,400 --> 00:13:13,333 was to be a Pullman car porter. 304 00:13:13,367 --> 00:13:15,433 Working the railroad from Miami to Jacksonville, 305 00:13:15,467 --> 00:13:18,033 back and forth, you wore a suit. 306 00:13:18,067 --> 00:13:20,400 It was a clean job, you got tips. 307 00:13:20,433 --> 00:13:23,333 It was wonderful. That was one of the highest status jobs 308 00:13:23,367 --> 00:13:26,833 in black Miami in the early years. 309 00:13:26,867 --> 00:13:30,133 (PAUL) Suddenly with the railroad converging on Miami, 310 00:13:30,167 --> 00:13:33,233 the railroad was laid from West Palm Beach 311 00:13:33,267 --> 00:13:35,633 down to north bank of the Miami River. 312 00:13:35,667 --> 00:13:37,867 People come, because they can get jobs 313 00:13:37,900 --> 00:13:39,833 working with the railroad. 314 00:13:39,867 --> 00:13:41,700 They can get jobs building, get jobs as entrepreneurs. 315 00:13:41,733 --> 00:13:44,800 So suddenly there's hundreds of people in Miami 316 00:13:44,833 --> 00:13:46,600 in the spring of 1896. 317 00:13:46,633 --> 00:13:49,400 nd the Flaglar organization said this is going to be unwieldily. 318 00:13:49,433 --> 00:13:51,167 What we need to do is get this place incorporated. 319 00:13:51,200 --> 00:13:52,700 So they announced in late June 320 00:13:52,733 --> 00:13:54,233 they were going to have a corporation meeting 321 00:13:54,267 --> 00:13:57,433 which they did, they incorporated on July 19 1896. 322 00:13:57,467 --> 00:14:00,233 About a third of the voters were African Americans. 323 00:14:00,267 --> 00:14:02,300 They had been workers primarily for Flagler 324 00:14:02,333 --> 00:14:05,300 under the guidance of John Soule, a white man. 325 00:14:05,333 --> 00:14:08,300 And as he said he marks his black artillery to the poles. 326 00:14:08,333 --> 00:14:10,733 They register to vote, and they march up to the pole 327 00:14:10,767 --> 00:14:12,533 to vote for incorporation. 328 00:14:12,567 --> 00:14:14,533 As it turned out it was by acclimation anyway. 329 00:14:19,433 --> 00:14:22,600 When the city of Miami was established in 1896 330 00:14:22,633 --> 00:14:28,467 about 160 or so black men out of a total of 340 or so, 331 00:14:28,500 --> 00:14:31,967 participated in the actual incorporation meeting 332 00:14:32,000 --> 00:14:33,900 for the city of Miami. 333 00:14:33,933 --> 00:14:35,267 Had the blacks not been there, 334 00:14:35,300 --> 00:14:37,533 and women didn't have the vote at that time, 335 00:14:37,567 --> 00:14:39,667 so had those black men not been there, 336 00:14:39,700 --> 00:14:41,133 the city of Miami could not have been established 337 00:14:41,167 --> 00:14:43,167 at that time. 338 00:14:43,200 --> 00:14:44,900 Because the state required a minimum number of voters 339 00:14:44,933 --> 00:14:46,167 for a place to become a city. 340 00:14:46,200 --> 00:14:48,133 And there simply were not enough 341 00:14:48,167 --> 00:14:50,233 white men present in 1896 to make that happen. 342 00:14:50,267 --> 00:14:53,367 So they ordered all the Flagler workers into the meeting 343 00:14:53,400 --> 00:14:56,600 and they were told to vote to incorporate into a city. 344 00:14:56,633 --> 00:14:57,267 And they did it. 345 00:14:57,300 --> 00:14:59,933 (ARVA) I didn't know that. 346 00:14:59,967 --> 00:15:01,733 That wasn't taught in Miami history. 347 00:15:01,767 --> 00:15:05,300 I was taught that much later, and talking to Dorothy Fields 348 00:15:05,333 --> 00:15:07,100 we started reading all of this. 349 00:15:07,133 --> 00:15:11,300 I had seen their names in the Soule book 350 00:15:11,333 --> 00:15:13,033 and I said wait a minute, 351 00:15:13,067 --> 00:15:15,267 his name is here on the incorporation list. 352 00:15:15,300 --> 00:15:17,367 There's actually a list. 353 00:15:17,400 --> 00:15:21,300 And the first one happens to be black. It was alphabetical. 354 00:15:21,333 --> 00:15:24,333 Blacks were kind of, the pillar of the Palms, 355 00:15:24,367 --> 00:15:26,200 as some people say we are today. 356 00:15:26,233 --> 00:15:29,067 Essentially they were used by the railroad, 357 00:15:29,100 --> 00:15:30,833 by the Flagler structure, 358 00:15:30,867 --> 00:15:34,733 to move whatever political agenda the railroad had. 359 00:15:34,767 --> 00:15:36,433 What's unheard of is that 360 00:15:36,467 --> 00:15:37,967 we've got a very important American City 361 00:15:38,000 --> 00:15:40,900 that was incorporated so late. 1896. 362 00:15:40,933 --> 00:15:44,133 And it had such a sizeable percentage of incorporators 363 00:15:44,167 --> 00:15:46,933 who were African American. That was unheard of. 364 00:15:46,967 --> 00:15:49,433 Overtown used to be called Coloured Town. 365 00:15:49,467 --> 00:15:53,267 And it was born when the city was founded, 1896, 366 00:15:53,300 --> 00:15:55,800 exclusively for blacks. 367 00:15:55,833 --> 00:16:00,833 As the Flagler railroad came south, a lot of towns sprung up. 368 00:16:00,867 --> 00:16:03,633 North Palm Beach, Palm Beach, Fort Lauderdale. 369 00:16:03,667 --> 00:16:07,333 All these towns sprung up as the railroad came through. 370 00:16:07,367 --> 00:16:09,800 And in each case the black community was established 371 00:16:09,833 --> 00:16:13,200 in the north-west quadrant of each of those towns. 372 00:16:13,233 --> 00:16:14,833 So if you go to West Palm Beach, 373 00:16:14,867 --> 00:16:15,800 blacks from the north-west quadrant. 374 00:16:15,833 --> 00:16:17,067 You go to fort Lauderdale, 375 00:16:17,100 --> 00:16:18,333 blacks live in the north-west quadrant. 376 00:16:18,367 --> 00:16:20,700 Miami, we live in the north-west quadrant. 377 00:16:20,733 --> 00:16:23,167 Unless you think that we had a chromosome that made us 378 00:16:23,200 --> 00:16:25,867 gravitate to the north-west corners of communities, 379 00:16:25,900 --> 00:16:27,233 there had to be a plan. 380 00:16:27,267 --> 00:16:31,533 The plan by the railroad was to have blacks isolated 381 00:16:31,567 --> 00:16:35,567 from the rest of the community, but close enough to get to work. 382 00:16:35,600 --> 00:16:36,900 So that was the plan 383 00:16:36,933 --> 00:16:39,267 for establishing the black communities 384 00:16:39,300 --> 00:16:41,133 in the north-west quadrant. 385 00:16:41,167 --> 00:16:42,533 When Overtown was established 386 00:16:42,567 --> 00:16:45,000 it was a highly segregated community. 387 00:16:45,033 --> 00:16:46,333 You couldn't leave Overtown 388 00:16:46,367 --> 00:16:48,267 if you were a black person after dark 389 00:16:48,300 --> 00:16:51,467 or you run the risk of being arrested. 390 00:16:51,500 --> 00:16:54,067 There was a considerate effort by the powers that be 391 00:16:54,100 --> 00:16:56,733 to keep blacks restricted to colour town, 392 00:16:56,767 --> 00:16:58,700 particularly after dark. 393 00:16:58,733 --> 00:17:02,067 Colour town- the races by law had to live apart. 394 00:17:02,100 --> 00:17:04,400 And so soon as Miami incorporated in 1896 395 00:17:04,433 --> 00:17:06,833 colour town is established. 396 00:17:06,867 --> 00:17:10,667 Until then they lived in tents or make shift places 397 00:17:10,700 --> 00:17:12,200 around white people. 398 00:17:12,233 --> 00:17:13,367 But now that you've... 399 00:17:13,400 --> 00:17:15,433 institutionalized a city by incorporating, 400 00:17:15,467 --> 00:17:17,500 you need to do something about this. 401 00:17:17,533 --> 00:17:20,867 And so the north-west quadrant of the city was set aside 402 00:17:20,900 --> 00:17:24,167 as an African American community called colour town. 403 00:17:24,200 --> 00:17:26,400 It was not an unusual name. 404 00:17:26,433 --> 00:17:28,100 Many black communities in the south were called colour town. 405 00:17:28,133 --> 00:17:30,167 (MARVIN) This area has had several names. 406 00:17:30,200 --> 00:17:33,067 Originally colour town, Overtown, 407 00:17:33,100 --> 00:17:35,067 the Central Negro Business District. 408 00:17:35,100 --> 00:17:38,000 All of these names attended to Overtown. 409 00:17:38,033 --> 00:17:39,367 But the reason I understand 410 00:17:39,400 --> 00:17:41,567 that this area is called Overtown, 411 00:17:41,600 --> 00:17:43,500 and there's a lot of controversy about that, 412 00:17:43,533 --> 00:17:46,667 Is that if you lived in Coconut Grove, south of here, 413 00:17:46,700 --> 00:17:49,933 and you wanted to visit someone black, here in Miami, 414 00:17:49,967 --> 00:17:54,733 you had to go over down town to get here. 415 00:18:01,200 --> 00:18:02,567 I tend to think that the earlier period 416 00:18:02,600 --> 00:18:04,267 was a great period. 417 00:18:04,300 --> 00:18:05,700 Now I understand, speaking as a guy born later, 418 00:18:05,733 --> 00:18:08,433 and caucasian, the deprivation that many people experienced. 419 00:18:08,467 --> 00:18:11,900 The outdoor privies, no library for a while, 420 00:18:11,933 --> 00:18:15,267 no high school till 1927. 421 00:18:15,300 --> 00:18:18,000 But I really think it was a community... 422 00:18:18,033 --> 00:18:20,500 that really took care of its own needs. 423 00:18:20,533 --> 00:18:24,567 So for me the golden age, even though there are these problems, 424 00:18:24,600 --> 00:18:29,600 sanitation, KKK, thuggish white policemen, 425 00:18:31,600 --> 00:18:32,733 I think it was a pretty good age by and large. 426 00:18:32,767 --> 00:18:35,200 The community was forced to be self sufficient, 427 00:18:35,233 --> 00:18:37,333 and was self sufficient. 428 00:18:37,367 --> 00:18:41,600 Oh I loved it. It was great. It was like a family 429 00:18:41,633 --> 00:18:46,267 everybody knew each other, everybody cared for each other. 430 00:18:46,300 --> 00:18:51,667 If you didn't have some flour, if you didn't have some sugar, 431 00:18:51,700 --> 00:18:55,933 you went to your neighbour and you could borrow it. 432 00:18:55,967 --> 00:18:59,033 And the neighbour looked out for you. 433 00:18:59,067 --> 00:19:04,433 If anybody saw us doing anything 'wrong' 434 00:19:04,467 --> 00:19:05,833 they would tell my grandmother or tell my aunt. 435 00:19:07,733 --> 00:19:08,700 (MARVIN) If you were to ask me 436 00:19:08,733 --> 00:19:11,500 where the richest people in Dade County lived 437 00:19:11,533 --> 00:19:15,333 I would have to say Fisher Island, behind me. 438 00:19:15,367 --> 00:19:16,767 Probably the greatest concentration 439 00:19:16,800 --> 00:19:19,267 of wealth in Dade County. 440 00:19:19,300 --> 00:19:22,700 But at one time, that Island, now named after Carl Fisher 441 00:19:22,733 --> 00:19:26,433 founder of Miami Beach, was owned by a black man. 442 00:19:26,467 --> 00:19:31,000 His name was D. A. Dorsey. He purchased that island 443 00:19:31,033 --> 00:19:32,467 for the express purpose 444 00:19:32,500 --> 00:19:35,433 of having a place where black people 445 00:19:35,467 --> 00:19:37,367 could actually get into the salt water. 446 00:19:37,400 --> 00:19:41,067 So Fisher Island, actually owned by D.A. Dorsey 447 00:19:41,100 --> 00:19:43,367 up until the Great Depression in the 30s, 448 00:19:43,400 --> 00:19:45,967 was the only place blacks could come 449 00:19:46,000 --> 00:19:49,233 not just from Dade County, but from other parts of the country 450 00:19:49,267 --> 00:19:54,233 to swim and enjoy the benefits of beautiful Biscayne Bay. 451 00:19:54,967 --> 00:19:56,967 When the depression hit, 452 00:19:57,000 --> 00:19:58,733 Mr. Dorsey needed cash like everybody else. 453 00:19:58,767 --> 00:20:01,767 And it was during that time that he sold the property 454 00:20:01,800 --> 00:20:05,567 to Carl Fisher who was the developer of Miami Beach. 455 00:20:05,600 --> 00:20:08,700 And that's why this is now called Fisher Island. 456 00:20:08,733 --> 00:20:11,667 We are standing in front of the Lyric Theatre. 457 00:20:11,700 --> 00:20:14,833 The Lyric was the social centre of Overtown 458 00:20:14,867 --> 00:20:16,100 during its heyday. 459 00:20:16,133 --> 00:20:18,567 This building was erected around 1917 460 00:20:18,600 --> 00:20:21,200 owned by a black man, Juda Walker. 461 00:20:21,233 --> 00:20:24,833 Everything that happened that was of social importance 462 00:20:24,867 --> 00:20:26,233 happened in this building. 463 00:20:26,267 --> 00:20:28,100 It's importance to the community, culturally 464 00:20:28,133 --> 00:20:30,333 and historically is unsurpassed. 465 00:20:30,367 --> 00:20:32,467 It's the most historic building still standing 466 00:20:32,500 --> 00:20:34,300 in Overtown today. 467 00:20:34,333 --> 00:20:36,700 During Overtown's boom the Lyric was the place to be. 468 00:20:36,733 --> 00:20:39,633 You wanna be here to see the latest movies, 469 00:20:39,667 --> 00:20:41,533 to be entertained... 470 00:20:41,567 --> 00:20:43,767 by the biggest entertainers of the time. 471 00:20:43,800 --> 00:20:47,100 This was a major place to be during the heyday 472 00:20:47,133 --> 00:20:49,633 because of the attraction of this place to 473 00:20:49,667 --> 00:20:51,433 so many performers. 474 00:20:51,467 --> 00:20:53,433 A lot of the nightclubs in Overtown, 475 00:20:53,467 --> 00:20:56,233 the big nightclubs attracted many white people. 476 00:20:56,267 --> 00:20:58,133 They would come to Overtown not so much for the movies 477 00:20:58,167 --> 00:21:02,633 or black oriented events here, but the nightclubs. 478 00:21:02,667 --> 00:21:04,133 A lot of these folks 479 00:21:04,167 --> 00:21:06,500 found their best entertainment in Overtown. 480 00:21:06,533 --> 00:21:10,033 But even then, even in the black nightclubs in Overtown, 481 00:21:10,067 --> 00:21:11,833 they were segregated. The whites had one section 482 00:21:11,867 --> 00:21:14,033 the blacks had another section. 483 00:21:14,067 --> 00:21:16,433 In their own neighbourhood there was segregation. 484 00:21:16,467 --> 00:21:21,367 In Miami, Colortown was the Harlem of the south. 485 00:21:21,400 --> 00:21:23,000 People called it that: the Harlem of the south. 486 00:21:23,033 --> 00:21:25,667 Anything you could get in Harlem 487 00:21:25,700 --> 00:21:30,300 you could get here on 2nd Ave. or 3rd Ave. 488 00:21:30,333 --> 00:21:32,967 Overtown experienced so many problems with law enforcement. 489 00:21:33,000 --> 00:21:37,133 Both legal, the police, and extra-legal. 490 00:21:37,167 --> 00:21:40,100 This is a deep south community in many ways 491 00:21:40,133 --> 00:21:42,233 all through the 60s. 492 00:21:42,267 --> 00:21:46,133 And the police were thuggish. 493 00:21:46,167 --> 00:21:47,767 My dissertation was on criminal justice 494 00:21:47,800 --> 00:21:51,100 and there were stories where they would look at statistics 495 00:21:51,133 --> 00:21:53,567 for a month of arrests, and I think one month 496 00:21:53,600 --> 00:21:56,167 there were 38 arrests, 37 were African American 497 00:21:56,200 --> 00:21:58,933 yet they only comprised 25% of the population. 498 00:21:58,967 --> 00:22:00,400 Then there was the extra-legal problem. 499 00:22:00,433 --> 00:22:03,133 The Klan entered Miami, as far as we know, in 1921 500 00:22:03,167 --> 00:22:06,300 for the first time. They would kidnap ministers, 501 00:22:06,333 --> 00:22:08,267 one in Coconut Grove and one in Overtown, 502 00:22:08,300 --> 00:22:14,167 tar and feather both, push them out of speeding cars, 503 00:22:14,200 --> 00:22:16,000 attempted to force them to go back to the Bahamas. 504 00:22:16,033 --> 00:22:18,100 And the reverend Hayes did go back. 505 00:22:18,133 --> 00:22:20,433 There were never any charges, never any arrests 506 00:22:20,467 --> 00:22:23,367 never any prosecution of those cases against the Klan. 507 00:22:23,400 --> 00:22:25,100 And the klan would march through Overtown 508 00:22:25,133 --> 00:22:27,933 as late as 1939. 509 00:22:27,967 --> 00:22:30,267 There was a spring municipal election 510 00:22:30,300 --> 00:22:31,633 and there was a man named Sam Solomon 511 00:22:31,667 --> 00:22:34,933 who organized a lot of new voters in Overtown 512 00:22:34,967 --> 00:22:36,767 and he was going to take them to the polls the next day. 513 00:22:36,800 --> 00:22:40,500 And the klan didn't march, they drove through Overtown 514 00:22:40,533 --> 00:22:44,400 early May of 39, and they had a makeshift noose 515 00:22:44,433 --> 00:22:47,100 and they had a black man hanging from it, you know, 516 00:22:47,133 --> 00:22:50,300 "this 'N' attempted to vote." 517 00:22:50,333 --> 00:22:53,533 But the next day Solomon marched those people north 518 00:22:53,567 --> 00:22:57,167 on 2nd avenue which splits at 1st place, 519 00:22:57,200 --> 00:23:00,100 then from 1st place up to 14th street 520 00:23:00,133 --> 00:23:02,300 and over to the fire station, 521 00:23:02,333 --> 00:23:03,533 which is now being restored, it's over on Miami Ave. 522 00:23:03,567 --> 00:23:05,533 and 14th street. And they voted. 523 00:23:05,567 --> 00:23:08,867 So the klan was a force for decades. 524 00:23:08,900 --> 00:23:11,833 Not just the early and mid 20s, they remained here. 525 00:23:11,867 --> 00:23:15,567 I don't know how robust it was but it appeared periodically. 526 00:23:15,600 --> 00:23:22,200 By then its targets are Catholics, Jews, Philippinos, 527 00:23:22,233 --> 00:23:25,300 Caucasian women- I mean they went after everybody 528 00:23:25,333 --> 00:23:26,967 who didn't fit their narrow definition of 529 00:23:27,000 --> 00:23:31,800 100% white American Protestant. 530 00:23:33,667 --> 00:23:35,933 (MARVIN) In 1926 there was no weather bureau. 531 00:23:35,967 --> 00:23:39,467 People had no way of knowing what was coming from out there. 532 00:23:39,500 --> 00:23:44,233 This thing came in late at night 533 00:23:44,267 --> 00:23:47,067 swept across Miami, went right across Miami. 534 00:23:47,100 --> 00:23:50,067 The eye passed right over downtown Miami. 535 00:23:50,100 --> 00:23:52,333 And when it did people thought the storm was over. 536 00:23:52,367 --> 00:23:54,600 There were a lot of new arrivals here 537 00:23:54,633 --> 00:23:58,933 they went running out on to the Ocean front to see the damage. 538 00:23:58,967 --> 00:24:00,667 The Bahamians knew better. 539 00:24:00,700 --> 00:24:02,500 They knew the other side of the storm was coming. 540 00:24:02,533 --> 00:24:04,500 So you had many people who were killed 541 00:24:04,533 --> 00:24:06,100 mainly because they exposed themselves 542 00:24:06,133 --> 00:24:08,567 to the rushing water coming in 543 00:24:08,600 --> 00:24:11,233 on the other side of the hurricane. 544 00:24:11,267 --> 00:24:15,933 It destroyed most of Miami, but had an even greater affect 545 00:24:15,967 --> 00:24:19,233 on colour town, what we now call Overtown. 546 00:24:19,267 --> 00:24:21,100 The buildings there were shanties for the most part, 547 00:24:21,133 --> 00:24:24,600 they were vulnerable to the storm, 548 00:24:24,633 --> 00:24:27,467 many more people were left homeless in Overtown 549 00:24:27,500 --> 00:24:30,400 than in other parts of the community. 550 00:24:30,433 --> 00:24:33,000 So it had a great effect on the city of Miami 551 00:24:33,033 --> 00:24:35,100 because aftar that... 552 00:24:35,133 --> 00:24:36,900 they put buildings up with bricks and concrete 553 00:24:36,933 --> 00:24:39,267 rather than wood. 554 00:24:39,300 --> 00:24:43,300 But Overtown/colour town was severely damaged by the storm. 555 00:24:43,333 --> 00:24:46,433 Then the city, the county and possibly others, 556 00:24:46,467 --> 00:24:48,400 went to colour town and got the black men 557 00:24:48,433 --> 00:24:50,000 to come and help clean up. 558 00:24:50,033 --> 00:24:53,333 For free. To move bodies, clear the streets. 559 00:24:53,367 --> 00:24:55,333 And you didn't get to choose not to do it. 560 00:24:55,367 --> 00:24:57,400 If someone told you you were on a work crew to clean up 561 00:24:57,433 --> 00:25:00,300 after the hurrican, you had to go. 562 00:25:00,333 --> 00:25:03,100 This was a common practice. If there was a natural disaster, 563 00:25:03,133 --> 00:25:06,667 not just in Miami, the modus operandi would be to 564 00:25:06,700 --> 00:25:09,033 go to the black community and get black men 565 00:25:09,067 --> 00:25:10,667 to come and help clean it up. 566 00:25:10,700 --> 00:25:14,200 So this happened in most of the major events that I can think of 567 00:25:14,233 --> 00:25:16,333 that required that kind of labour, 568 00:25:16,367 --> 00:25:18,600 black were required to do it. 569 00:25:18,633 --> 00:25:20,467 The same things that we experienced in hurricane Andrew 570 00:25:20,500 --> 00:25:24,800 in 1992, people experienced that in 1926. 571 00:25:24,833 --> 00:25:28,400 There was no federal government to come rushing in to help. 572 00:25:28,433 --> 00:25:32,867 The people had many weeks of isolated survival. 573 00:25:32,900 --> 00:25:35,767 Trying to exist under these horrendous circumstances. 574 00:25:35,800 --> 00:25:37,400 But I have to reiterate that some of the folks here, 575 00:25:37,433 --> 00:25:40,033 some of the blacks, knew what was going to happen. 576 00:25:40,067 --> 00:25:42,867 I interviewed a lady in Coconut Grove 577 00:25:42,900 --> 00:25:44,667 who was alive when it happened. 578 00:25:44,700 --> 00:25:49,200 She said that that night she woke up her husband 579 00:25:49,233 --> 00:25:52,000 because everything outside was yellow. 580 00:25:52,033 --> 00:25:54,233 All the elements had changed colour. 581 00:25:54,267 --> 00:25:56,600 She had never seen anything like that before. 582 00:25:56,633 --> 00:25:58,733 So we know that this was a phenomena 583 00:25:58,767 --> 00:26:03,600 associated with that hurricane. 584 00:26:05,867 --> 00:26:09,000 I came here when I was a boy of 11 or 12 every week. 585 00:26:09,033 --> 00:26:10,633 This was the only place a black person 586 00:26:10,667 --> 00:26:15,600 could get into salt water. This was our beach. 587 00:26:15,633 --> 00:26:18,433 Little did we know that there was a sewage treatment plant 588 00:26:18,467 --> 00:26:21,133 right around the bend here, but we loved it. 589 00:26:21,167 --> 00:26:25,767 We came out here. They would have state troopers 590 00:26:25,800 --> 00:26:28,400 parked on the bridge to keep us from going to 591 00:26:28,433 --> 00:26:32,167 the white beach. We weren't' allowed to go there. 592 00:26:32,200 --> 00:26:36,867 This was just fine as we saw it at the time. 593 00:26:36,900 --> 00:26:40,933 The beach was available to us after the Navy stopped using it 594 00:26:40,967 --> 00:26:44,433 to train black sailors to swim during the second world war. 595 00:26:44,467 --> 00:26:46,633 That's how blacks first got on the Virginia Key Beach. 596 00:26:46,667 --> 00:26:49,600 It was a military training site for the Navy 597 00:26:49,633 --> 00:26:52,567 because the white people would not allow black sailors 598 00:26:52,600 --> 00:26:56,767 to be trained to swim at the white beach. 599 00:26:56,800 --> 00:27:01,667 Blacks could not go anywhere in Miami-Dade County 600 00:27:01,700 --> 00:27:04,533 to a beach. 601 00:27:04,567 --> 00:27:08,133 And a group of blacks got together 602 00:27:08,167 --> 00:27:11,167 and went to Haulover beach. 603 00:27:11,200 --> 00:27:16,400 And Judge Thomas went out there with them. 604 00:27:16,433 --> 00:27:18,467 He didn't go in the water, but people like 605 00:27:18,500 --> 00:27:22,700 Mrs. Madelle Bramen who was active in the PTA, 606 00:27:22,733 --> 00:27:26,000 and some of the PTA people, they went out there 607 00:27:26,033 --> 00:27:28,500 and they went in the water. 608 00:27:28,533 --> 00:27:33,333 And when it was reported they expected to be arrested 609 00:27:33,367 --> 00:27:37,533 and Judge Thomas had money to bail them out. 610 00:27:37,567 --> 00:27:43,700 But when the sherif went out there, he just said: 611 00:27:43,733 --> 00:27:47,167 "Well, we'll talk about this." 612 00:27:47,200 --> 00:27:51,200 And so they got some of the leaders together 613 00:27:51,233 --> 00:27:54,433 to decide how to resolve the problem. 614 00:27:54,467 --> 00:27:57,433 (MARVIN) The NAACP and other groups 615 00:27:57,467 --> 00:28:03,000 had weighed in on Haulover Beach in north Miami, 616 00:28:03,033 --> 00:28:05,367 which is a county owned beach, as a way of 617 00:28:05,400 --> 00:28:07,233 showing the county that if you don't allow us 618 00:28:07,267 --> 00:28:09,967 to have Virginia Key Beach, we will come to this beach. 619 00:28:10,000 --> 00:28:11,767 And that scared the county commission. 620 00:28:11,800 --> 00:28:15,067 For that reason they voted to establish this beach for blacks 621 00:28:15,100 --> 00:28:17,267 within weeks of that demonstration. 622 00:28:17,300 --> 00:28:19,300 and that was before the civil rights movement started. 623 00:28:19,333 --> 00:28:21,700 The demonstration that lead to the opening of 624 00:28:21,733 --> 00:28:24,400 Virginia Key Beach was probably the only civil rights effort 625 00:28:24,433 --> 00:28:27,567 that touched almost all the black folks. 626 00:28:27,600 --> 00:28:29,867 Because you could argue that some blacks got the benefits 627 00:28:29,900 --> 00:28:31,967 of the civil rights movement because they had an education, 628 00:28:32,000 --> 00:28:34,167 they went to colleges and what have you, 629 00:28:34,200 --> 00:28:36,267 but everybody could come to Virginia Key Beach. 630 00:28:36,300 --> 00:28:41,133 So that one effort issued in a freedom for all blacks 631 00:28:41,167 --> 00:28:43,700 regardless of education or status. 632 00:28:43,733 --> 00:28:45,667 A very significant change. 633 00:28:45,700 --> 00:28:49,233 In the late 1950s, the interstate system was expanding 634 00:28:49,267 --> 00:28:52,433 in this country. This is I-95 behind me. 635 00:28:52,467 --> 00:28:57,433 I-95 was put in to go directly through Overtown. 636 00:28:59,267 --> 00:29:00,633 It divided Overtown into east and west. 637 00:29:00,667 --> 00:29:02,967 So that afar this expressway was built, 638 00:29:03,000 --> 00:29:06,767 people could have easy access to other parts of Overtown. 639 00:29:06,800 --> 00:29:08,267 People had to move. 640 00:29:08,300 --> 00:29:11,900 Overtyown went from some 40,000 to about 12-15,00 people 641 00:29:11,933 --> 00:29:14,067 in less than a decade. 642 00:29:14,100 --> 00:29:18,600 This overpass behind me is just one example of 643 00:29:18,633 --> 00:29:21,133 how the interstate as built to ride over the community. 644 00:29:21,167 --> 00:29:22,867 So that if you didn't want to see black people, 645 00:29:22,900 --> 00:29:24,733 all you had to do was not look down. 646 00:29:24,767 --> 00:29:28,000 It only comes down when you get up to Liberty City. 647 00:29:28,033 --> 00:29:31,133 So the expressway didn't kill overtown, 648 00:29:31,167 --> 00:29:34,067 but it added to the decline very significantly. 649 00:29:34,100 --> 00:29:36,300 more things added to it, but the interstate system 650 00:29:36,333 --> 00:29:38,733 was a major factor in its decline. 651 00:29:38,767 --> 00:29:43,733 Well you know what? It was called urban renewal. 652 00:29:45,300 --> 00:29:49,333 And it meant black removal, I think. 653 00:29:49,367 --> 00:29:54,333 Because my parents were offered money for their house 654 00:29:58,233 --> 00:30:01,900 and I'm sure that it wasn't the value. 655 00:30:01,933 --> 00:30:05,400 The initial thought was to put it right overtop of the 656 00:30:05,433 --> 00:30:09,067 Florida East railroad right of way, 657 00:30:09,100 --> 00:30:11,300 but then they decided to move it west 658 00:30:11,333 --> 00:30:13,767 and it came right through a lot of Overtown. 659 00:30:13,800 --> 00:30:17,167 Overtown's population in 1960 was 34,000 plus people, 660 00:30:17,200 --> 00:30:19,633 today it's about 9500. 661 00:30:19,667 --> 00:30:21,400 The expressway's probably the major villain there. 662 00:30:21,433 --> 00:30:26,367 (ENID)The I-95 helped to tear up the community. 663 00:30:28,000 --> 00:30:31,267 The urban renewal did the same thing. 664 00:30:31,300 --> 00:30:44,700 And I think that if we had the insight back then 665 00:30:44,733 --> 00:30:47,300 that we have today, 666 00:30:47,333 --> 00:30:49,633 we should have stood up for our community. 667 00:30:51,967 --> 00:30:54,867 We should have fight for our community. 668 00:30:54,900 --> 00:30:58,600 Because now, the way it's going, 669 00:30:58,633 --> 00:31:01,567 we're not going to be able to stay there 670 00:31:01,600 --> 00:31:06,600 because it's being taken over by developers. 671 00:31:10,100 --> 00:31:13,967 (MARVIN) Fidel Castro came to power in 1960. 672 00:31:14,000 --> 00:31:18,000 And that changed everything in Miami. 673 00:31:18,033 --> 00:31:19,567 It changed life for whites in Miami, 674 00:31:19,600 --> 00:31:22,167 it changed life for blacks in Miami, 675 00:31:22,200 --> 00:31:25,000 and it provided a phenomena that 676 00:31:25,033 --> 00:31:26,700 the country had never seen before. 677 00:31:26,733 --> 00:31:29,767 The influx of tens of thousands of people 678 00:31:29,800 --> 00:31:32,633 in a very short period of time, almost all of them 679 00:31:32,667 --> 00:31:34,333 settling in the same place. 680 00:31:34,367 --> 00:31:38,033 That was the impact of the Cuban migration, 681 00:31:38,067 --> 00:31:40,600 the 1st migration into Miami. 682 00:31:40,633 --> 00:31:44,167 Another one followed in 1980 when the Marioles came in. 683 00:31:44,200 --> 00:31:48,933 Another large group of Cubans coming in, 684 00:31:48,967 --> 00:31:52,000 and this time with many blacks among them. 685 00:31:52,033 --> 00:31:54,167 The 1st wave of Cubans that came in 686 00:31:54,200 --> 00:31:55,867 were basically privileged Cubans who were 687 00:31:55,900 --> 00:31:57,467 trying to get away from Castro. 688 00:31:57,500 --> 00:31:59,300 They had education, businesses. 689 00:31:59,333 --> 00:32:01,133 Many of them were doctors or teachers. 690 00:32:01,167 --> 00:32:04,600 They sort of fit into South Florida seamlessly. 691 00:32:04,633 --> 00:32:07,867 The government also provided a lot of help for them 692 00:32:07,900 --> 00:32:11,767 during this transition as a way of poking Castro in the eye. 693 00:32:11,800 --> 00:32:16,733 Those who came later in 1980 were more impoverished Cubans. 694 00:32:19,667 --> 00:32:21,233 Many of them black, 695 00:32:21,267 --> 00:32:24,467 a significant number of them had mental problems, 696 00:32:24,500 --> 00:32:28,667 law enforcement problems. And they just overwhelmed 697 00:32:28,700 --> 00:32:31,333 South Florida in their numbers 698 00:32:31,367 --> 00:32:33,567 and the suddenness of that migration. 699 00:32:33,600 --> 00:32:36,167 But the black community became very difficult 700 00:32:36,200 --> 00:32:39,400 because just when people were starting to hire blacks 701 00:32:39,433 --> 00:32:41,800 they hired all these Cubans instead. 702 00:32:41,833 --> 00:32:44,333 I remember Dorothy Fields saying: 703 00:32:44,367 --> 00:32:45,767 "We went from 2nd class 704 00:32:45,800 --> 00:32:47,700 to 3d class citizens overnight." 705 00:32:47,733 --> 00:32:50,167 I think that's very well said. 706 00:32:50,200 --> 00:32:54,833 When they came, they got privileges that black Americans 707 00:32:54,867 --> 00:32:58,000 didn't have. Our government was able to give them things 708 00:32:58,033 --> 00:33:00,300 that we didn't get. 709 00:33:00,333 --> 00:33:01,933 So naturally there was this jealousy of all these people 710 00:33:01,967 --> 00:33:04,900 coming to town and being able to get jobs 711 00:33:04,933 --> 00:33:07,633 and most coloured people felt that they were taking the jobs 712 00:33:07,667 --> 00:33:10,867 from coloured people. 713 00:33:10,900 --> 00:33:13,533 My late husband at the time, who wasn't my husband then, 714 00:33:13,567 --> 00:33:18,500 he was the presided of the NAACP was saying that 715 00:33:18,533 --> 00:33:23,300 they were not taking your jobs, you didn't want those jobs. 716 00:33:23,333 --> 00:33:25,667 Blacks had reached a point where they no longer 717 00:33:25,700 --> 00:33:29,200 wanted to be waiters and doing all those things on Miami Beach. 718 00:33:29,233 --> 00:33:31,833 So these people came and they were wiling to do that. 719 00:33:31,867 --> 00:33:34,200 And you had to give them credit for what they did. 720 00:33:34,233 --> 00:33:38,467 A lot of them came already professionals. 721 00:33:38,500 --> 00:33:41,633 A lot of doctors, a lot of lawyers, a lot of nurses came 722 00:33:41,667 --> 00:33:45,400 and they didn't mind doing almost anything to make a living 723 00:33:45,433 --> 00:33:47,367 until they could get to where they wanted to go. 724 00:33:47,400 --> 00:33:55,033 And because of this division of Americans, Bahamians, 725 00:33:55,067 --> 00:33:56,533 that for some reason... 726 00:33:56,567 --> 00:33:58,800 we have always been like crabs in a barrel. 727 00:33:58,833 --> 00:34:01,333 We just didn't want to see one another get ahead. 728 00:34:01,367 --> 00:34:03,667 The Cubans and hispanics that came here? 729 00:34:03,700 --> 00:34:06,767 Different attitude altogether about what they were gonna do. 730 00:34:06,800 --> 00:34:10,000 They stuck together and were able to get something. 731 00:34:10,033 --> 00:34:11,700 Just like the jews. 732 00:34:11,733 --> 00:34:12,700 When the Jews came, 733 00:34:12,733 --> 00:34:14,500 and they were segregated around Miami Beach, 734 00:34:14,533 --> 00:34:18,100 they didn't do anything but go ahead and buy up the beach. 735 00:34:18,133 --> 00:34:21,833 They use said we'll put our monies together 736 00:34:21,867 --> 00:34:23,700 and we'll take over the beach. 737 00:34:23,733 --> 00:34:26,367 So there was no dogs allowed and no Jews allowed 738 00:34:26,400 --> 00:34:28,667 and no coloureds allowed. 739 00:34:28,700 --> 00:34:30,633 And the lines were all over the place on Miami Beach. 740 00:34:30,667 --> 00:34:35,633 And the Jewish came and found moneys to buy Miami Beach. 741 00:34:37,200 --> 00:34:38,700 They did what they had to do. 742 00:34:38,733 --> 00:34:40,533 We just hadn't been able to do it as a people. 743 00:34:40,567 --> 00:34:42,400 Well Haitians started coming in... 744 00:34:42,433 --> 00:34:45,800 in significant numbers in the 1970s. 745 00:34:45,833 --> 00:34:48,567 Surprisingly they began arriving. 746 00:34:48,600 --> 00:34:51,067 No help from the government, the only support they got 747 00:34:51,100 --> 00:34:53,300 was from the Catholic church. 748 00:34:53,333 --> 00:34:56,067 Notre Dame Church in little Haiti helped them. 749 00:34:56,100 --> 00:34:57,967 They were left on their own. 750 00:34:58,000 --> 00:34:59,467 Even those of us who were African Americans 751 00:34:59,500 --> 00:35:02,600 didn't do nearly as much as we should have to help them. 752 00:35:02,633 --> 00:35:06,533 But they came in looking for work, looking for freedom, 753 00:35:06,567 --> 00:35:11,667 just like the Cubans, but they were treated shabbily 754 00:35:11,700 --> 00:35:13,767 by our government. 755 00:35:13,800 --> 00:35:15,300 During the 50s you start to see a trickle. A trickle? 756 00:35:15,333 --> 00:35:16,500 There is always a trickle 757 00:35:16,533 --> 00:35:18,100 before there are these mass migrations, 758 00:35:18,133 --> 00:35:20,167 of other Caribbean groups coming in. 759 00:35:20,200 --> 00:35:22,133 In particular you start to see Haitians coming in and 760 00:35:22,167 --> 00:35:23,933 start to work in the travel and tourism industry 761 00:35:23,967 --> 00:35:27,900 because at the time Haiti is a major travel destination. 762 00:35:27,933 --> 00:35:29,333 So they're coming to promote that. 763 00:35:29,367 --> 00:35:31,400 Some people from the diplomatic core are living here. 764 00:35:31,433 --> 00:35:34,233 And then there's this huge number of labourers 765 00:35:34,267 --> 00:35:35,767 coming in to work in the garment industry 766 00:35:35,800 --> 00:35:38,233 which is very huge in Miami in the 50s as well. 767 00:35:38,267 --> 00:35:40,033 So you start to see Haitian seamstresses coming in 768 00:35:40,067 --> 00:35:41,533 and starting to work during that period, 769 00:35:41,567 --> 00:35:43,433 but at that time it was just a trickle. 770 00:35:43,467 --> 00:35:45,667 You don't start to see mass migration of Haitians 771 00:35:45,700 --> 00:35:47,967 until the 1970s. 772 00:35:48,000 --> 00:35:50,433 I have never heard of the US government 773 00:35:50,467 --> 00:35:53,567 locking out Swedes, Norwegians, Germans- 774 00:35:53,600 --> 00:35:55,267 Any white folks that want to come here 775 00:35:55,300 --> 00:35:58,633 they more or less have an open access into this country. 776 00:35:58,667 --> 00:36:02,433 The browner the people that come, the darker they come, 777 00:36:02,467 --> 00:36:04,400 the less welcome they are here in America. 778 00:36:04,433 --> 00:36:08,333 That was true when Castro came into power and it's true today. 779 00:36:08,367 --> 00:36:11,067 So what you see in the 1970s is that boat loads of Haitians, 780 00:36:11,100 --> 00:36:13,367 because of the political turmoil in Haiti 781 00:36:13,400 --> 00:36:15,800 and also the need for increased economic opportunity, 782 00:36:15,833 --> 00:36:17,600 start coming to Miami. 783 00:36:17,633 --> 00:36:19,600 They're assuming they're going to be treated 784 00:36:19,633 --> 00:36:22,233 maybe the same way the Cubans are being treated. 785 00:36:22,267 --> 00:36:24,133 And so there is going to be more opportunity 786 00:36:24,167 --> 00:36:27,167 for them to stay here. That's not the case of course. 787 00:36:27,200 --> 00:36:28,533 After they land here, 788 00:36:28,567 --> 00:36:31,233 I mean thousands and thousands of people, 789 00:36:31,267 --> 00:36:33,733 it freaks the city of Miami out. 790 00:36:33,767 --> 00:36:36,433 They're dealing with all the influx of a huge amount 791 00:36:36,467 --> 00:36:39,033 of Cubans at the time, so these policies developed 792 00:36:39,067 --> 00:36:41,533 which are known as wet-foot dry-foot. 793 00:36:41,567 --> 00:36:43,833 So the wet-foot dry-foot policy means that 794 00:36:43,867 --> 00:36:49,900 if you are caught at sea you get returned automatically. 795 00:36:49,933 --> 00:36:52,667 But if you get caught on land you get processed here. 796 00:36:52,700 --> 00:36:56,700 If your boat lands on the beaches on Miami 797 00:36:56,733 --> 00:36:59,433 you get to go through the process of figuring out 798 00:36:59,467 --> 00:37:01,967 if you get political asylum here, wether you can stay. 799 00:37:02,000 --> 00:37:03,767 You're not turned around right away. 800 00:37:03,800 --> 00:37:06,367 But that policy gets in place mainly because of 801 00:37:06,400 --> 00:37:08,500 the Haitian migration in particular. 802 00:37:08,533 --> 00:37:10,433 It is only applied to the Haitians. 803 00:37:10,467 --> 00:37:15,433 Unfortunately, the lowest stereotyped group among blacks 804 00:37:17,033 --> 00:37:19,433 are the Haitians. 805 00:37:19,467 --> 00:37:22,967 We are treating Haitians in the same way that 806 00:37:23,000 --> 00:37:25,600 southern white folks treated us. 807 00:37:25,633 --> 00:37:27,600 We expect them to do the worst jobs, 808 00:37:27,633 --> 00:37:32,567 we expect them to be submissive and passive, 809 00:37:32,600 --> 00:37:37,100 we distain their culture, their habits, 810 00:37:37,133 --> 00:37:38,767 their religion. 811 00:37:38,800 --> 00:37:40,700 I don't see that much of a difference in the way 812 00:37:40,733 --> 00:37:44,133 that African Americans treat Haitians today 813 00:37:44,167 --> 00:37:46,467 and the way that southern whites treated us. 814 00:37:46,500 --> 00:37:48,833 The influx of Jamaicans was not nearly as impactfull 815 00:37:48,867 --> 00:37:50,333 as the influx of Haitians. 816 00:37:50,367 --> 00:37:52,300 Mainly because the Jamaicans that came were of a 817 00:37:52,333 --> 00:37:55,633 more educated class. Many of them already had businesses. 818 00:37:55,667 --> 00:37:59,167 Many of them settled in north Dade County. 819 00:37:59,200 --> 00:38:02,233 So they didn't just move into Liberty City, 820 00:38:02,267 --> 00:38:05,300 they moved into the more upscale black communities. 821 00:38:05,333 --> 00:38:06,733 So there was not this kind of problem 822 00:38:06,767 --> 00:38:08,500 with the Jamaicans coming in. 823 00:38:08,533 --> 00:38:11,467 I did a study in terms of which black ethnic groups 824 00:38:11,500 --> 00:38:15,133 were doing best in terms of income, education, etcetera. 825 00:38:15,167 --> 00:38:17,333 And Jamaicans came out far ahead of African Americans, 826 00:38:17,367 --> 00:38:21,767 Haitians, Cuban blacks... 827 00:38:21,800 --> 00:38:23,867 because of what they brought into the country. 828 00:38:23,900 --> 00:38:28,300 A work ethic, a business acumen, no emotional baggage 829 00:38:28,333 --> 00:38:31,733 with slavery, a willingness to take chances with businesses 830 00:38:31,767 --> 00:38:33,200 in the white community. 831 00:38:33,233 --> 00:38:35,600 So we got to give the Caribbean blacks in general 832 00:38:35,633 --> 00:38:37,733 and the Jamaicans in particular, credit for having 833 00:38:37,767 --> 00:38:40,167 ventured out beyond the normal boundaries that 834 00:38:40,200 --> 00:38:43,200 we African Americans set for ourselves. 835 00:38:43,233 --> 00:38:45,933 We have a lot of growth to do. Just as black people 836 00:38:45,967 --> 00:38:49,000 coming together for mutual goals. 837 00:38:49,033 --> 00:38:52,267 I do not see that happening- happen yet. 838 00:38:52,300 --> 00:38:53,800 My experience has been that the thing that brings 839 00:38:53,833 --> 00:38:55,600 people together is crisis. 840 00:38:55,633 --> 00:38:58,333 If you have somebody shooting water hoses and putting 841 00:38:58,367 --> 00:39:01,233 police dogs on black people, and you show it on TV, 842 00:39:01,267 --> 00:39:03,367 a lot of people are moved to act. 843 00:39:03,400 --> 00:39:05,267 If you have dead bodies washed up on the shore 844 00:39:05,300 --> 00:39:08,433 of Biscayne Bay, Haitian bodies, that moves people 845 00:39:08,467 --> 00:39:11,200 to action. If there is some sort of 846 00:39:11,233 --> 00:39:13,267 incredible act of atrocity against people, 847 00:39:13,300 --> 00:39:15,500 it moves people together. 848 00:39:15,533 --> 00:39:18,133 Even natural events bring us together. 849 00:39:18,167 --> 00:39:20,633 So those are the kinds of things that happen 850 00:39:20,667 --> 00:39:23,833 or have to happen before you see real movement 851 00:39:23,867 --> 00:39:27,467 emotionally bringing people form whatever race together. 852 00:39:27,500 --> 00:39:30,033 That and winning the super bowl. 853 00:39:30,067 --> 00:39:31,933 Or the Miami Heat winning the championship, 854 00:39:31,967 --> 00:39:34,133 that'll bring us together quick. 855 00:39:34,167 --> 00:39:36,333 When people think of Miami today 856 00:39:36,367 --> 00:39:39,700 they should think Latin, they should think Hispanic. 857 00:39:39,733 --> 00:39:41,000 That's what we are. 858 00:39:41,033 --> 00:39:42,367 If you want to get away from Hispanics, 859 00:39:42,400 --> 00:39:45,400 you need to move to Idaho. 860 00:39:45,433 --> 00:39:48,333 They're here, they're not leaving. 861 00:39:48,367 --> 00:39:51,167 We need to live together, they're not taking over. 862 00:39:51,200 --> 00:39:52,933 If they did it couldn't be worse than what it was 863 00:39:52,967 --> 00:39:54,400 when the white folks were in charge, 864 00:39:54,433 --> 00:39:55,867 it couldn't be worse than in Detroit 865 00:39:55,900 --> 00:39:57,467 when black folks took over. 866 00:39:57,500 --> 00:40:02,433 I am not moved by this fear that the Cubans are taking over. 867 00:40:09,033 --> 00:40:10,333 Miami, interestingly enough, 868 00:40:10,367 --> 00:40:11,733 was an early civil rights town. 869 00:40:11,767 --> 00:40:16,133 Which means you had some pretty aggressive activity 870 00:40:16,167 --> 00:40:21,167 here against communism as early as late 1940s. 871 00:40:21,200 --> 00:40:25,300 In the 50s you had civil rights activities, for example 872 00:40:25,333 --> 00:40:29,000 the attempt to de-segregate city park swimming pools. 873 00:40:29,033 --> 00:40:30,500 And you had not only African Americans, 874 00:40:30,533 --> 00:40:32,500 but you had Jews working with them. 875 00:40:32,533 --> 00:40:34,533 Which was really interesting. Really great. 876 00:40:34,567 --> 00:40:39,567 You had lunch counter sit ins in late 59, 877 00:40:39,600 --> 00:40:42,133 leading to the de-segregation of the DeCriox lunch counter 878 00:40:42,167 --> 00:40:44,600 in 59, a year before Greens-borough Carolina. 879 00:40:44,633 --> 00:40:46,467 And it was a combination of African American leaders 880 00:40:46,500 --> 00:40:49,233 like Dr. John Brown, but also some Jewish people. 881 00:40:49,267 --> 00:40:52,533 Jewish women, some Jewish men but mainly Jewish women. 882 00:40:52,567 --> 00:40:54,567 There were a lot of black ministers involved with that. 883 00:40:54,600 --> 00:40:59,267 Martin Luther King was here on way more than one occasion 884 00:40:59,300 --> 00:41:02,900 with civil rights stuff. So I see Miami as quite progressive 885 00:41:02,933 --> 00:41:05,367 in terms of the civil rights movements. 886 00:41:05,400 --> 00:41:07,333 One of the reasons people don't recognize Miami 887 00:41:07,367 --> 00:41:09,067 as having that civil rights movement is because 888 00:41:09,100 --> 00:41:10,967 Miami is this tourism town that's always been 889 00:41:11,000 --> 00:41:12,467 a tourism town... 890 00:41:12,500 --> 00:41:13,933 since the beginning of its period in time. 891 00:41:13,967 --> 00:41:15,933 So the leaders are very concerned 892 00:41:15,967 --> 00:41:17,767 about its public image. 893 00:41:17,800 --> 00:41:21,533 So they don't want TV picking up news of blacks protesting 894 00:41:21,567 --> 00:41:24,600 and bringing up issues of racial discrimination 895 00:41:24,633 --> 00:41:26,567 because that's going to but your tourism down. 896 00:41:26,600 --> 00:41:29,433 People aren't' going to come if there's a bad image if Miami. 897 00:41:29,467 --> 00:41:31,333 So what's different about Miami from other places 898 00:41:31,367 --> 00:41:34,333 is that at that point in time where blacks are protesting 899 00:41:34,367 --> 00:41:36,233 when they would bring up a point like that 900 00:41:36,267 --> 00:41:38,033 that lunch counters needed to be de-segregated 901 00:41:38,067 --> 00:41:39,500 or beaches be de-segregated, 902 00:41:39,533 --> 00:41:41,633 you see all these back room meetings 903 00:41:41,667 --> 00:41:43,300 where white leaders are meeting with black leaders 904 00:41:43,333 --> 00:41:45,167 and they're talking about what they can do 905 00:41:45,200 --> 00:41:48,600 to get things changed and done together. 906 00:41:48,633 --> 00:41:50,467 So they're working on a more cooperative level 907 00:41:50,500 --> 00:41:52,967 than you would see in other states because they're 908 00:41:53,000 --> 00:41:56,667 very concerned about making sure that tourism doesn't die 909 00:41:56,700 --> 00:41:58,400 and it's to the advantage of blacks here. 910 00:41:58,433 --> 00:42:01,000 So I think it's done faster or at least 911 00:42:01,033 --> 00:42:03,633 a little more cooperatively than you see 912 00:42:03,667 --> 00:42:08,567 in other cities. 913 00:42:10,067 --> 00:42:11,533 There were a number of riots in Miami history 914 00:42:11,567 --> 00:42:15,367 including a very significant one in 1968. 915 00:42:15,400 --> 00:42:19,233 but the darkest day in Miami history started here 916 00:42:19,267 --> 00:42:24,033 in 1979 at this spot, where Arthur McDuffie, 917 00:42:24,067 --> 00:42:25,800 a young black insurance man, 918 00:42:25,833 --> 00:42:29,233 was set upon by at least a half dozen white Miami-Dade 919 00:42:29,267 --> 00:42:32,233 police officers and beaten to death. 920 00:42:32,267 --> 00:42:35,667 That was the start of the great riot of 1980. 921 00:42:35,700 --> 00:42:40,167 McDuffie was speeding, coming up North Miami Ave. 922 00:42:40,200 --> 00:42:44,300 and here at North East 38 st. came to a halt. 923 00:42:44,333 --> 00:42:46,933 Several police officers were chasing him, 924 00:42:46,967 --> 00:42:49,267 and once he stopped they set upon him, 925 00:42:49,300 --> 00:42:52,533 handcuffed him, hands behind his back. 926 00:42:52,567 --> 00:42:56,000 And with McDuffie on the ground started to beat him. 927 00:42:56,033 --> 00:42:59,633 One of the officers, a man named Alex Marrero, 928 00:42:59,667 --> 00:43:02,700 took his flashlight, one of these long flashlights 929 00:43:02,733 --> 00:43:07,200 the police carry, straddled McDuffie's body 930 00:43:07,233 --> 00:43:09,000 as he was prone on the ground 931 00:43:09,033 --> 00:43:12,033 face down with his head against the curb 932 00:43:12,067 --> 00:43:14,633 and struck the back of his head. 933 00:43:14,667 --> 00:43:17,067 That split McDuffie's skull. 934 00:43:17,100 --> 00:43:19,667 It took him another day or 2 to die, 935 00:43:19,700 --> 00:43:22,567 but Alex Marrero, one of those officers on the scene, 936 00:43:22,600 --> 00:43:23,833 struck the killing blow. 937 00:43:23,867 --> 00:43:25,800 They did some things to try to cover up what they had done. 938 00:43:25,833 --> 00:43:29,067 One of the things they did was to get some of the 939 00:43:29,100 --> 00:43:31,667 police cars to roll up onto the motorcycle 940 00:43:31,700 --> 00:43:36,167 to try to make tend to the idea that McDuffie lost control 941 00:43:36,200 --> 00:43:39,433 of the motorcycle, slipped over and died 942 00:43:39,467 --> 00:43:42,400 when his head hit the pavement. 943 00:43:42,433 --> 00:43:45,667 Unfortunately, the medical examiner, wondered why- 944 00:43:45,700 --> 00:43:48,233 and they took their flashlights and nightsticks 945 00:43:48,267 --> 00:43:53,433 and they broke the gas tank on the motorcycle on both sides. 946 00:43:53,467 --> 00:43:55,433 Big mistake because the medical examiner wanted to know 947 00:43:55,467 --> 00:43:58,300 if the motorcycle fell on one side, 948 00:43:58,333 --> 00:44:03,300 why were the gauges on the motorcycle on both sides busted. 949 00:44:05,533 --> 00:44:08,400 And that began the official investigation into this murder. 950 00:44:08,433 --> 00:44:11,100 The trail of these officers was moved to Tampa 951 00:44:11,133 --> 00:44:13,900 because of concerns about tensions in the community 952 00:44:13,933 --> 00:44:16,367 and these men getting a fair trial. 953 00:44:16,400 --> 00:44:21,367 On May 17, 1980, this all white all male jury in Tampa 954 00:44:23,233 --> 00:44:25,567 heard this case and came back with a not guilty verdict 955 00:44:25,600 --> 00:44:28,167 for all of the officers involved. 956 00:44:28,200 --> 00:44:30,633 And that sparked this riot. 957 00:44:30,667 --> 00:44:32,867 Blacks in Miami-Dade County did not riot 958 00:44:32,900 --> 00:44:35,533 because McDuffie was beaten to death by the officers. 959 00:44:35,567 --> 00:44:38,633 The beating death itself and the riot 960 00:44:38,667 --> 00:44:40,267 were several months apart. 961 00:44:40,300 --> 00:44:44,033 The riots happened because the people who committed that murder 962 00:44:44,067 --> 00:44:46,067 got away with it by the law. 963 00:44:46,100 --> 00:44:48,233 And the blacks were simply outraged. 964 00:44:48,267 --> 00:44:50,400 McDuffie was a young insurance man, 965 00:44:50,433 --> 00:44:53,667 a former corporal in the United States Marine Corps, 966 00:44:53,700 --> 00:44:55,600 father of at least 2 children, 967 00:44:55,633 --> 00:44:59,700 no police record. 968 00:44:59,733 --> 00:45:03,267 And he left a very large family of McDuffles 969 00:45:03,300 --> 00:45:05,600 living in Dade County today. 970 00:45:05,633 --> 00:45:08,033 Family members of McDuffie did eventually receive 971 00:45:08,067 --> 00:45:10,600 a settlement from the county for his murder, 972 00:45:10,633 --> 00:45:14,533 but the scar on the community never left. 973 00:45:14,567 --> 00:45:16,233 I think the riots hurt the city terribly. 974 00:45:16,267 --> 00:45:19,133 And it really complicated them that you 975 00:45:19,167 --> 00:45:22,000 had the whole Marrero issue, the cocaine cowboy issue, 976 00:45:22,033 --> 00:45:24,633 so you had all these counter-veiling problems. 977 00:45:24,667 --> 00:45:26,967 A girlfriend of mine at the time said 978 00:45:27,000 --> 00:45:27,867 "that's gotta be the worse city to live in" 979 00:45:27,900 --> 00:45:29,467 She came from Nebraska. 980 00:45:29,500 --> 00:45:31,367 And then some friends of mine at Tallahassee said 981 00:45:31,400 --> 00:45:33,367 "How can you go back to that place?" 982 00:45:33,400 --> 00:45:35,367 (MARVIN) When Mr. McDuffie was killed 983 00:45:35,400 --> 00:45:39,533 and the trial happened, that saturday I got a phone call 984 00:45:39,567 --> 00:45:41,667 from an associated press reporter 985 00:45:41,700 --> 00:45:43,167 asking me if I knew of trouble 986 00:45:43,200 --> 00:45:46,100 up on 62nd street in Liberty City. 987 00:45:46,133 --> 00:45:48,467 I was at home still reeling from this verdict. 988 00:45:48,500 --> 00:45:50,800 I couldn't believe, most of Dade County couldn't believe 989 00:45:50,833 --> 00:45:52,167 that these people were innocent. 990 00:45:52,200 --> 00:45:55,300 They had been found innocent. 991 00:45:55,333 --> 00:46:00,167 I came up 62nd street to the Liberty City 992 00:46:00,200 --> 00:46:03,333 housing project that afternoon 993 00:46:03,367 --> 00:46:06,433 and the riot was in full force by the time I got here. 994 00:46:06,467 --> 00:46:10,133 Hundreds of young men, mostly men, on the streets 995 00:46:10,167 --> 00:46:13,067 pouring out of the housing projects 996 00:46:13,100 --> 00:46:18,200 and they set upon a car load of 3 white people. 997 00:46:18,233 --> 00:46:20,867 The Colt brothers and a young girl 998 00:46:20,900 --> 00:46:23,333 who was in the car with them. 999 00:46:23,367 --> 00:46:27,167 They were stoned, the car was attacked, the car hit a wall 1000 00:46:27,200 --> 00:46:29,700 a little girl was standing there, she was 8 years old. 1001 00:46:29,733 --> 00:46:31,433 Her name was Shanrika Perry, 1002 00:46:31,467 --> 00:46:34,467 and the impact of the vehicle severed her leg. 1003 00:46:34,500 --> 00:46:37,467 That really set off the riot in a big way. 1004 00:46:37,500 --> 00:46:40,733 well that day I was outside playing baseball 1005 00:46:40,767 --> 00:46:44,900 with my friends, and I say my Aunt and my sister 1006 00:46:44,933 --> 00:46:46,567 going to the store. 1007 00:46:46,600 --> 00:46:48,300 So instead of me running to 2nd base, 1008 00:46:48,333 --> 00:46:51,767 cause I was standing on 1st base, 1009 00:46:51,800 --> 00:46:56,467 I ran the other way to tell my aunt and my sister 1010 00:46:56,500 --> 00:46:58,967 to bring me something from the store. 1011 00:46:59,000 --> 00:47:00,800 And I saw people on the street 1012 00:47:00,833 --> 00:47:02,333 but I didn't know what a riot was. 1013 00:47:02,367 --> 00:47:05,000 And the riots, I guess they was just starting. 1014 00:47:05,033 --> 00:47:06,567 There was people on the streets but there was 1015 00:47:06,600 --> 00:47:08,767 no violence going on at the time. 1016 00:47:08,800 --> 00:47:12,600 And that's the last thing I remember of that day. 1017 00:47:12,633 --> 00:47:16,000 The police had a difficult time responding to this. 1018 00:47:16,033 --> 00:47:18,000 They had blocked off north west 7th ave. 1019 00:47:18,033 --> 00:47:20,300 and north west 17th ave. 1020 00:47:20,333 --> 00:47:23,500 to prevent white people from coming into Liberty City. 1021 00:47:23,533 --> 00:47:26,467 But somehow a car slipped though with these 2 brothers 1022 00:47:26,500 --> 00:47:29,333 the Colt brothers driving with the girl, 1023 00:47:29,367 --> 00:47:32,700 and they got caught in this. 1024 00:47:32,733 --> 00:47:34,067 And the amount of anger 1025 00:47:34,100 --> 00:47:38,900 the amount of absolute rage was incredible. 1026 00:47:41,000 --> 00:47:45,567 I saw a group of 20, maybe 30 black men 1027 00:47:45,600 --> 00:47:48,067 around these 2 boys, they were on the ground 1028 00:47:48,100 --> 00:47:51,533 and they were using a Miami Herald newspaper box 1029 00:47:51,567 --> 00:47:56,000 that you get the paper in, to crash down on this boys head. 1030 00:47:56,033 --> 00:47:57,633 Repeatedly. 1031 00:47:57,667 --> 00:47:59,967 And then there were hundreds of people watching. 1032 00:48:00,000 --> 00:48:02,167 Including me. 1033 00:48:02,200 --> 00:48:04,633 It was as horrible as any lynching in Mississippi 1034 00:48:04,667 --> 00:48:09,433 because it was purely motivated by rage and race. 1035 00:48:09,467 --> 00:48:12,267 I called the police department to tell them 1036 00:48:12,300 --> 00:48:16,667 that there were people being killed on 62nd st. 1037 00:48:16,700 --> 00:48:19,067 They told me they weren't' ready to come up yet. 1038 00:48:19,100 --> 00:48:21,200 It was late that night that they finally got 1039 00:48:21,233 --> 00:48:23,667 an armoured vehicle to come up into Liberty City 1040 00:48:23,700 --> 00:48:26,533 and get these boys who were now almost dead 1041 00:48:26,567 --> 00:48:30,067 and this young girl rescued from this riot. 1042 00:48:30,100 --> 00:48:31,667 I know one named Michael Colt. 1043 00:48:31,700 --> 00:48:33,533 That's the one that survived. 1044 00:48:33,567 --> 00:48:36,367 And I forgot the girlfriend's name, she was in the car. 1045 00:48:36,400 --> 00:48:37,967 And the other Colt brother, 1046 00:48:38,000 --> 00:48:39,300 I don't remember his 1st name 1047 00:48:39,333 --> 00:48:41,067 but I remember they killed him. 1048 00:48:41,100 --> 00:48:43,800 I think initially when they threw the rock 1049 00:48:43,833 --> 00:48:45,400 it was because he was white. 1050 00:48:45,433 --> 00:48:48,767 But once they pinned me to the wall 1051 00:48:48,800 --> 00:48:53,600 I think it just lead to a worse situation for them. 1052 00:48:53,633 --> 00:48:55,967 I have a lot of mixed feelings about it. 1053 00:48:56,000 --> 00:48:58,633 Yes I think that the people in my community 1054 00:48:58,667 --> 00:49:02,967 caused the people to hit me, 1055 00:49:03,000 --> 00:49:06,100 I don't really blame them, I don't blame 1056 00:49:06,133 --> 00:49:08,333 the people that hit me either. 1057 00:49:08,367 --> 00:49:12,367 I just think that the police is the real cause 1058 00:49:12,400 --> 00:49:14,600 of the accident because of what they did 1059 00:49:14,633 --> 00:49:16,567 to Mr. McDuffie. 1060 00:49:16,600 --> 00:49:18,533 I guess the black people, because of 1061 00:49:18,567 --> 00:49:22,767 past history of police doing them wrong, 1062 00:49:22,800 --> 00:49:26,533 this was their way of retaliating against them. 1063 00:49:26,567 --> 00:49:29,733 Unfortunately we do it in our own neighbourhood 1064 00:49:29,767 --> 00:49:34,633 instead of peaceful protest. 1065 00:49:39,233 --> 00:49:40,533 (THELMA)I would tell that this is one of 1066 00:49:40,567 --> 00:49:43,000 the best places in the world to live. 1067 00:49:43,033 --> 00:49:45,200 You come here and you want to be- 1068 00:49:45,233 --> 00:49:47,367 I come here and I say "Hi" "How are you?" 1069 00:49:47,400 --> 00:49:49,067 "good afternoon, how you doing?" 1070 00:49:49,100 --> 00:49:50,967 to everybody out there. 1071 00:49:51,000 --> 00:49:52,700 And just be- you know, everybody out there 1072 00:49:52,733 --> 00:49:54,767 we've all got children. 1073 00:49:54,800 --> 00:49:56,467 And somebody's just waiting for someone to say 1074 00:49:56,500 --> 00:49:58,467 good morning to them or good afternoon or hi 1075 00:49:58,500 --> 00:50:02,233 or how's it going? Or how are you today? 1076 00:50:02,267 --> 00:50:03,967 I think if we could just get along 1077 00:50:04,000 --> 00:50:07,367 and live in communities, and speak to people 1078 00:50:07,400 --> 00:50:09,867 everyone would understand that non of us 1079 00:50:09,900 --> 00:50:14,233 are so powerful that we can't relate. 1080 00:50:14,267 --> 00:50:16,133 And I don't care how much money they've got out there 1081 00:50:16,167 --> 00:50:18,067 it's not going to do you any good if you don't 1082 00:50:18,100 --> 00:50:20,233 help somebody else with it. 1083 00:50:20,267 --> 00:50:23,500 And so I want all the athletes to know 1084 00:50:23,533 --> 00:50:25,200 that I want them to get it together 1085 00:50:25,233 --> 00:50:29,200 into communities and help in communities 1086 00:50:29,233 --> 00:50:32,100 especially in black communities where the help is needed. 1087 00:50:32,133 --> 00:50:34,367 Everybody wants to do something on Miami Beach 1088 00:50:34,400 --> 00:50:36,167 or they want to do something on Bellhop 1089 00:50:36,200 --> 00:50:37,733 or they want to do something where other people 1090 00:50:37,767 --> 00:50:40,867 are doing it already in areas like Coconut Grove 1091 00:50:40,900 --> 00:50:43,367 and Overtown and Liberty City 1092 00:50:43,400 --> 00:50:46,300 where all those blacks with all that money, 1093 00:50:46,333 --> 00:50:48,400 all those athletes that come to this town, 1094 00:50:48,433 --> 00:50:50,067 they talk about South Beach 1095 00:50:50,100 --> 00:50:54,467 they don't even know they live in Miami. 1096 00:50:54,500 --> 00:50:56,133 they think they live on Miami Beach 1097 00:50:56,167 --> 00:50:57,967 and you hear them talk about coming to 1098 00:50:58,000 --> 00:51:01,467 South Beach, they coming to Miami. 1099 00:51:01,500 --> 00:51:04,500 So Miami is the place they ought to help see change. 1100 00:51:04,533 --> 00:51:05,833 Study the origins. 1101 00:51:05,867 --> 00:51:09,300 Study the origins of the black community in Miami. 1102 00:51:09,333 --> 00:51:11,900 Why were they living where they lived, 1103 00:51:11,933 --> 00:51:15,400 why were they confined to certain jobs, 1104 00:51:15,433 --> 00:51:17,300 why were they disempowered, 1105 00:51:17,333 --> 00:51:19,200 how have they fought that, 1106 00:51:19,233 --> 00:51:21,600 how have things changed? 1107 00:51:21,633 --> 00:51:25,567 I'd study the origins then compare today with that. 1108 00:51:25,600 --> 00:51:28,600 For example little things like we've had a black police chief. 1109 00:51:28,633 --> 00:51:30,933 We didn't have a black policeman until 1944 1110 00:51:30,967 --> 00:51:33,100 and he had limited powers. 1111 00:51:33,133 --> 00:51:35,133 We've had a black school superintendent. 1112 00:51:35,167 --> 00:51:36,567 Black communities didn't even have a high school 1113 00:51:36,600 --> 00:51:38,000 until 1927. 1114 00:51:38,033 --> 00:51:39,567 So there's been a lot of improvement. 1115 00:51:39,600 --> 00:51:41,467 But I think in order to appreciate the changes, 1116 00:51:41,500 --> 00:51:43,000 both good and bad, you need to know that happened 1117 00:51:43,033 --> 00:51:44,300 in the beginning. 1118 00:51:44,333 --> 00:51:46,400 So I'd say study its origins to understand 1119 00:51:46,433 --> 00:51:49,433 what it was like then and what has changed today. 1120 00:51:49,467 --> 00:51:52,500 I think that I wish the thing I wish 1121 00:51:52,533 --> 00:51:54,467 people realized the most with blacks in Miami 1122 00:51:54,500 --> 00:51:56,500 is that were there from the beginning 1123 00:51:56,533 --> 00:51:59,067 of Miami's incorporation and we play 1124 00:51:59,100 --> 00:52:02,267 a fundamental role in the development of the city. 1125 00:52:02,300 --> 00:52:05,000 Through labour, through building of communities, 1126 00:52:05,033 --> 00:52:08,400 through fighting for change. 1127 00:52:08,433 --> 00:52:10,333 There was discrimination here and through fighting 1128 00:52:10,367 --> 00:52:12,233 for change from the early periods of time 1129 00:52:12,267 --> 00:52:17,233 from the 1900s all the way through the 1960s. 1130 00:52:20,900 --> 00:52:24,833 I think in 10 to 20 years the black population of Miami 1131 00:52:24,867 --> 00:52:30,033 will be and ethnic mix of primarily Caribbean blacks 1132 00:52:30,067 --> 00:52:32,767 and African Americans. 1133 00:52:32,800 --> 00:52:36,767 I think we will have far more blacks in Miami who are 1134 00:52:36,800 --> 00:52:40,300 descendant from people who came from the Islands, 1135 00:52:40,333 --> 00:52:43,100 from other parts of the hemisphere and not from the 1136 00:52:43,133 --> 00:52:45,567 North American continent. 1137 00:52:45,600 --> 00:52:47,233 It is inevitable. 1138 00:52:47,267 --> 00:52:51,133 It's not bad, it's the nature of change we can expect 1139 00:52:51,167 --> 00:52:53,667 given the geography of where we are. 1140 00:52:53,700 --> 00:52:54,700 This is going to happen. 1141 00:52:54,733 --> 00:52:57,400 Today, unless a black person opens their mouth, 1142 00:52:57,433 --> 00:52:59,900 you don't really know who you're dealing with. 1143 00:52:59,933 --> 00:53:04,100 But certainly 20 years form now it will be very difficult 1144 00:53:04,133 --> 00:53:07,367 to pick out an African, Haitian or Jamaican- 1145 00:53:07,400 --> 00:53:09,200 well, the Jamaicans stand out a little bit. 1146 00:53:09,233 --> 00:53:12,100 But all the others you can recognize immediately. 1147 00:53:12,133 --> 00:53:14,067 I should stop joking about the Jamaicans. 1148 00:53:14,100 --> 00:53:15,600 I think blacks in Miami today 1149 00:53:15,633 --> 00:53:17,367 are in the best position they've ever been in. 1150 00:53:17,400 --> 00:53:19,267 I think that this era when the hispanics 1151 00:53:19,300 --> 00:53:25,833 made them 3rd class citizens is somewhat passing 1152 00:53:25,867 --> 00:53:26,967 that if anyone is threatened today 1153 00:53:27,000 --> 00:53:29,700 it may be the Anglos! But not really, 1154 00:53:29,733 --> 00:53:31,300 I'm just joking about that. 1155 00:53:31,333 --> 00:53:35,033 I think that today, a lot of people 1156 00:53:35,067 --> 00:53:38,200 really respect people for who they are. 1157 00:53:38,233 --> 00:53:40,667 If you're a jerk you're a jerk, you know? 1158 00:53:40,700 --> 00:53:42,033 You're a jerk 1st 1159 00:53:42,067 --> 00:53:45,767 then maybe the colour of you comes 2nd. 1160 00:53:45,800 --> 00:53:50,800 Well I think that we need to become more powerful 1161 00:53:55,967 --> 00:53:58,100 in the positions that we have. 1162 00:53:58,133 --> 00:54:02,267 We have some black people in strategic positions 1163 00:54:02,300 --> 00:54:05,267 but they're not using those positions 1164 00:54:05,300 --> 00:54:09,933 to benefit the black people. 1165 00:54:09,967 --> 00:54:13,933 It's almost as if they're afraid that if they do something 1166 00:54:13,967 --> 00:54:17,567 if they turn around, they'll be gone. 1167 00:54:17,600 --> 00:54:22,967 And this has not been my experience. 1168 00:54:23,000 --> 00:54:25,433 My experience has been that you stand up 1169 00:54:25,467 --> 00:54:28,333 for what you believe is right. 1170 00:54:28,367 --> 00:54:33,367 And so as far as helping the black community 1171 00:54:35,133 --> 00:54:39,100 I don't see people who are in positions 1172 00:54:39,133 --> 00:54:41,667 doing that. 1173 00:54:41,700 --> 00:54:43,767 They got the position, 1174 00:54:43,800 --> 00:54:45,000 but what's going on? 1175 00:54:45,033 --> 00:54:48,533 How are they helping the people who are 1176 00:54:48,567 --> 00:54:50,267 in need of help? 1177 00:54:50,300 --> 00:54:53,333 How are they helping the institutions, 1178 00:54:53,367 --> 00:54:56,600 how are they helping to push the black institutions 1179 00:54:56,633 --> 00:54:59,433 that are struggling? Where are they? 1180 00:54:59,467 --> 00:55:01,633 I think we've come a mighty long way. 1181 00:55:01,667 --> 00:55:03,400 I think that we've made some in-roads, 1182 00:55:03,433 --> 00:55:05,367 I think that we've made a lot of progress. 1183 00:55:05,400 --> 00:55:08,067 But I also think we've got a whole long way to go. 1184 00:55:08,100 --> 00:55:11,333 I'm not happy with everything that's happening 1185 00:55:11,367 --> 00:55:13,633 but I am happy to see that things are changing 1186 00:55:13,667 --> 00:55:15,933 and that people are begining to see the importance 1187 00:55:15,967 --> 00:55:19,933 more and more of why it is that we have to be out there 1188 00:55:19,967 --> 00:55:22,567 and be a part of what's going on. 1189 00:55:22,600 --> 00:55:24,767 And having people understand that we need 1190 00:55:24,800 --> 00:55:26,600 to do more volunteer stuff 1191 00:55:26,633 --> 00:55:28,133 and that we don't always need to be paid 1192 00:55:28,167 --> 00:55:30,800 for what we do, cause there's not that much 1193 00:55:30,833 --> 00:55:33,167 money out there to just give away 1194 00:55:33,200 --> 00:55:35,267 so we gotta work for it. 1195 00:55:35,300 --> 00:55:36,967 And I say to young blacks all the time 1196 00:55:37,000 --> 00:55:38,233 don't wait for them to give it to you, 1197 00:55:38,267 --> 00:55:40,367 they're not giving it to you. 1198 00:55:40,400 --> 00:55:42,467 You gotta work for it if you want out of this life. 1199 00:55:42,500 --> 00:55:44,567 But I think a new day is arriving 1200 00:55:44,600 --> 00:55:45,767 and has arrived. 1201 00:55:45,800 --> 00:55:47,267 And I see it in the tours I do, 1202 00:55:47,300 --> 00:55:50,000 the talks I give, especially like the chamber 1203 00:55:50,033 --> 00:55:51,600 of commerce leadership in Miami, 1204 00:55:51,633 --> 00:55:54,200 I see so many fantastic young African Americans. 1205 00:55:54,233 --> 00:55:55,900 I think a new day is arriving. 1206 00:55:55,933 --> 00:55:57,333 I think the problem is that we have to 1207 00:55:57,367 --> 00:55:59,067 take care of yesterday. 1208 00:55:59,100 --> 00:56:00,467 What are you going to do with Overtown? 1209 00:56:00,500 --> 00:56:02,400 What are you going to do with Liberty City? 1210 00:56:02,433 --> 00:56:05,267 But I see so many sharp young people. 1211 00:56:05,300 --> 00:56:07,233 I think Marvin will tell you the same thing, 1212 00:56:07,267 --> 00:56:08,633 but he taught at FYU and he saw a lot 1213 00:56:08,667 --> 00:56:10,067 of young people coming up, 1214 00:56:10,100 --> 00:56:11,533 I just see a new day already here. 1215 00:56:11,567 --> 00:56:14,700 But what are we going to do with yesterday? 1216 00:56:14,733 --> 00:56:16,100 See that's the problem. 1217 00:56:16,133 --> 00:56:18,267 the struggle is not over, the struggle is still here 1218 00:56:18,300 --> 00:56:24,133 because you have now a different culture 1219 00:56:24,167 --> 00:56:27,733 becoming the majority 1220 00:56:27,767 --> 00:56:31,600 and everybody else is becoming the minority. 1221 00:56:31,633 --> 00:56:33,700 Therefore you've got this struggle.