Miami Times article about Crandon Beach wade-in
Such fond memories could come from only one place in the world, and indeed only one place in the segregated South during the Jim Crow era, when Miami’s uniquely thriving African American community turned racism on its head and prospered despite, and because of racist restrictions, due to a combination of savvy political consciousness, professional and business achievement, and raw confidence and courage to “speak truth to power.”
This was certainly the case in 1945 as World War II was winding down. The African American national “Double V” campaign — for victory over fascism abroad and victory over discrimination at home — energized renewed demands around the country for social justice and equality. This was especially true for Colored soldiers and sailors returning home after suffering countless bitter indignities during the war despite their patriotism and heroism.
Miami’s African American community leaders targeted the glaring absence of any place among the miles of sandy beaches where white people from around the world were being welcomed. On May 9, 1945, a full decade before peaceful civil disobedience protests would become the primary strategy of the Civil Rights movement, an intrepid group of Colored bathers, including two women, Ms. May Dell Braynon and Ms. Mary Hayes Sweeting, and two sailors who eagerly joined the effort, left Overtown and dared to “wade in the water” at the site of present-day Haulover Beach. The group, having alerted the sheriff to their presence, intending to be arrested. Attorney Lawson E. Thomas was on hand with cash to immediately pay their bail, for their case would come before the courts and possibly lead to more sweeping legal changes.
Their bold action successfully forced the County leaders to avoid any such embarrassment and commit to the opening of 80+ acres and a half-mile of shoreline on Virginia Key as a Dade County Park “for the exclusive use of Negroes” as early as August 1.
Family on historic merry-go-round
On that date “more than 100 Negroes” according to the *Miami Herald,* arrived by boat, making use of the temporary buildings that had been built for the occasion, with the promise of future improvements that would make the park very nearly equal in its amenities to the much larger White-only beach on neighboring Key Biscayne.
That promise would be kept, especially after the completion of Rickenbacker Causeway in 1947 made the park accessible by automobile, with the construction of a permanent park superintendent’s residence, rental “cottages” and cabanas, popular concession stand, small park office and first-aid station, picnic pavilions, and most notably, a merry-go-round and Mini Train amusement rides, features unheard of in typical segregated Colored parks of the South.
Read More: The Miami Times
