“This is what human rights means in the United States! This is the American way of life.” — Andrei Vishinsky — onetime Soviet foreign minister talking about the Groveland Four case
Well, almost seven decades later, the state of Florida took a step to correct a historic wrong. Gov. Ron DeSantis and the three other elected officials who make up the state’s clemency board unanimously granted pardons to Samuel Shepherd, Walter Irvin, Charles Greenlee and Ernest Thomas, four men who were falsely accused of a raping a white woman.
The Groveland Four are all dead now, but their story lives on as one of Florida’s great miscarriages of justice. Evidence collected showed inconsistencies in the “victim’s’ testimony and raised questions about the rape itself. One of the men was nowhere near the scene where the alleged crime took place. Three years after the arrest, two of the men were shot by the then Lake County sheriff before they were set to stand trial for a second time.
It’s not the first time the clemency board pardoned someone posthumously. In 2010, the board pardoned Jim Morrison of The Doors for a conviction of indecent exposure. Not quite the best example of “equal justice,” but we’ll take it.
On May 10, Betsy DeVos and I went to the graduation ceremony at Bethune Cookman University, a historically black college in Daytona Beach, Fla. Betsy got up on stage to give her speech and was immediately, loudly booed by the entire audience. Graduating students and their families stood up and turned their backs to her. I was seated onstage and watching this travesty unfold. When the booing started, she should have wrapped it up, but she went on for twenty minutes, talking over the booing. I was thinking, It’s not about you. Abandon your full speech! Adjust woman! I love HBCUs so much, and to be on stage with her to see the entire auditorium of students and parents booing her, in effect, booing Trump and the administration, was painful to experience.
I asked her later on how she felt about what happened. She said, “I did great!” I must have looked stunned. She said, “They don’t get it. They don’t have the capacity to understand what we’ve accomplished.” Meaning, all those black students were too stupid to understand her agenda. I said, “Oh, no, Madam Secretary. They get it. They get it, and they’re not happy with you or your goals.”
Fort Lauderdale’s “colored beach” wasn’t exactly a tourist attraction. It was accessible only by boat, leaving black beachgoers at the mercy of an inconvenient ferry service. There were no restrooms, and what the beach lacked in amenities, it made up for in mosquitoes.
Still, for the powers-that-be, the “colored beach” was far enough from the city’s “whites-only” strand of public beach near Las Olas Boulevard. For black residents seeking a day at the beach, the desolate island between Whiskey Creek and the Atlantic Ocean would have to do.
Much has changed since 1954. The Jim Crow laws are history, and public beaches are open to everyone. The site of the old “colored beach” is now a state park, with a unique distinction: It’s the only state park in Florida named for African Americans. The one-time John U. Lloyd Beach State Park is now known as the Dr. Von D. Mizell and Eula Johnson Beach State Park.
The renaming brings statewide recognition to leaders of Fort Lauderdale’s black community who fought to dismantle the laws and mores that kept blacks and white legally separated in public places.
The park’s boat ramp is being renamed the Alphonso Giles Boat Ramp in honor of the man who ferried black residents to the beach back in the days of segregation.
Three park pavilions will also be renamed to honor attorney W. George Allen, the late Dr. Calvin Shirley and George and Agnes Burrows, whose electrician’s business has spanned five decades.
Commemorative marker
Located just south of Port Everglades Inlet, the park itself is 310 acres of recreational diversity. The Atlantic still beckons swimmers. As a public beach, the park’s shoreline is three miles long and a tranquil alternative to its more congested counterpart to the north. The only interruption to the sounds of the wind and waves is the occasional jet flying overhead from Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport or the horn from a cruise ship departing Port Everglades.
The public bathrooms, boat ramps changing facilities, nature pavilions, picnic areas and in-park cafe are amenities that patrons of the “colored beach” could hardly imagine for themselves.
For boaters, there is easy access to the inlet, the Intracoastal Waterway and the ocean. Whiskey Creek provides an ideal venue for observing wildlife by canoe or kayak, which can be rented at the Loggerhead Cafe at the north end of the creek. For the nature lover, the park is an ideal setting and even offers a spot to watch manatees playing near the inlet.
NAACP leader Eula Johnson speaking at a rally.
Dr. Von Mizell
The park’s renaming is the latest change and honors a pair that have been called “Martin Luther King Jr. and Rosa Parks” of South Florida. Von D. Mizell was a prominent black physician and founder of the Broward NAACP, which petitioned for the “colored beach” in 1946. It took seven years before authorities directed then-county attorney John U. Lloyd to find a location.
In 1951, blacks in the area had their beach, but they had to depend on ferries to get there. Black leaders asked for a road to gain access to the beach. County officials agreed but it took another 10 years before they began construction, and it took a civil rights demonstration to get that.
By then, Eula Johnson, a businesswoman who operated gas stations in Fort Lauderdale’s black community, had become president of the local NAACP chapter. She had worked with Mizell in integrating the beaches and the public schools in the area. Tired of the county’s stalling, she led a protest on July 4, 1961, in which black beachgoers waded into the waters of the city’s segregated public beach near Las Olas Boulevard.
The “wade-ins” prompted the county to build a bridge to connect the “colored beach” to the mainland and sparked several lawsuits to stop Mizell and Johnson from bringing black patrons to the “whites-only” beaches. Those efforts failed and the beaches were soon desegregated.
The old John U. Lloyd Beach State Park remains a jewel for family recreation and outdoor activities. The new Von D. Mizell/Eula Johnson Beach State Park is a testimony to the park’s rich history and an opportunity to appeal to a much wider and diverse audience.
The beach at Von D. Mizell/Eula Johnson Beach State Park
Greatest asset: When it comes to beaches, this is the closest you can get to natural and authentic in Broward County. The park offers 2.5 miles of beach, lined with sea grass, sea grapes and other vegetation rather than the more typical hotel/highrise scene you find elsewhere.
Mizell/Johnson Park offers much more than a beach, however.
You can rent paddleboards and kayaks and explore beautiful Whiskey Creek. You can get lunch and a beer at the cafe overlooking the water. You can fish from or walk out along the jetty that forms one side of the Port Everglades entrance.
In late afternoon on Saturdays and Sundays, people gather on the jetty, some with lawn chairs, to watch as many as six humongous cruise ships head out to sea. It’s like watching a 12-story building float past.
Parking: There are several large parking lots, but the park can fill up on holiday weekends.
Fees: Admission is $6 per car. (Single occupant $4.) Boat launch fee is $9 but does not apply to kayaks and canoes.
Alcohol: Not permitted
Pets: Pets are permitted on a handheld leash in the park but not at the beach. (It’s not clear if this includes Whiskey Creek, where we’ve seen dogs cavorting in the water along the sandy shore. This must not quality as a beach.)
Location and directions: The park is on A1A in Dania Beach, just north of where Dania Beach Boulevard ends at A1A.
A year ago today, Florida lawmakers issued a formal apology to the descendants of The Groveland Boys, four young black men who were falsely accused of raping a white woman in 1949. The arrests, forced confessions, their abusive treatment as prisoners — three died at the hands of the police — and subsequent trial garnered national attention and brought shame to Lake County, Florida, particularly its then-sheriff Willis V. McCall. As the saying goes, “Better late …”
The formal apology is a good thing for the state of Florida. It helps ease the wounds of a racist past and also recognizes a history that often passes unnoticed.
Douglas C. Lyons is the founder of www.blackinfla.
“While [Thurgood] Marshall and [Franklin] Williams attempted to put together a preliminary legal strategy, the New York office of the NAACP advised Harry T. Moore in Florida that the Legal Defense Fund would vigorously defend the Groveland Boys and requested that Moore rouse local public support for the case. Moore immediately sprang into action. He had already sent telegrams to [Florida] Gov. Fuller Warren on July 20 and July 22 calling for punishment of the parties responsible for the rioting in Groveland, and now, in a letter to the governor on July 30, he demanded a special investigation and a special session of the grand jury “to indict the guilty mobsters.”
Source:Devil in the Grove by Gilbert King Harper Perennial, 2012 Pages 134-135
Photo Credit: Courtesy of the Florida Memory Project/State Library and Archives of Florida
Civil Rights Leaders Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. (r) and Rev. Ralph David Abernathy Address Media in St. Augustine, Fla.
Fifty years ago today, the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was struck down by an assassin’s bullet. The world lost a true leader, a leader and an American icon.
Let us not forget King’s time in Florida. In 1964, he organized a protest in America’s oldest city — St. Augustine — during the city’s celebration of its 400 anniversary. What they found, as described in the book, To the Mountaintop by W. Roger Witherspoon, was a battle zone.
“St. Augustine was worse than Mississippi in many ways,” said Rev. C.T. Vivian, a King lieutenant. “They used guns, chains, lead pipes — the whole works — on black people there.”
A series of night marches by blacks to the city’s Slave Market in downtown St. Augustine ended in violence. Not only did the police decline to help the marchers, many of them participated in the attacks.
“The police force and the Klan were the same thing,” Vivian said. “Guys who would be beating you in the morning, you would see over at the jail later as deputies.”
Fortunately, the campaign had a happier ending. A federal judge ultimately ruled in favor of the black demonstrators, and the protest ultimately helped move the 1964 Civil Rights Act closer to passage. Today, tourists can celebrate the efforts of the civil rights foot soldiers at a memorial in the city’s famed historic district.
Douglas C. Lyons is the founder of www.blackinfla.
Photo Credit: Courtesy of Florida Memory State Libraries and Archives of Florida
Think you know something about black history in Florida. Well, take this quiz, and let’s see what you’ve got under the cap. It’s only 10 questions, and the chance to learn more.
— Douglas C. Lyons, founder of www.blackinfla.com.
1.) Name the first black man to step foot on Florida soil?
a.) Juan Carolos
b.) Juan Garrido
c.) Juan de la Santadimingo
d.) Juan Ortega
2.) What was an early destination on the Underground Railroad?
a.) Fort Mose
b.) Fort Myers
c.) Key West
d.) Negro Fort
3.) Zora Neale Hurston lied about her age to get an education?
a.) True
b.) False
4.) Name the Floridian who would earn the nickname ‘The Admiral.’
a.) Guion Buford
b.) David “Chappie” James
c.) James Perry
d.) David Robinson
5.) What black Oscar winner was born in Florida?
a.) Cuba Gooding Jr.
b.) Hattie McDaniel
c.) Butterfly McQueen
d.) Sidney Poitier
6.) Name the city that boasts Florida’s first black man and woman to state Legislature in the modern era.
a.) Jacksonville
b.) Key West
c.) Miami
d.) Orlando
7.) Who was called the ‘first martyr’ of the Civil Rights Movement?
a.) Medgar Evers
b.) Martin Luther King
c.) Harry T. Moore
d.) Juliette Hampton Morgan
8.) What was the name of the school that would become Bethune Cookman University?
a.) Bethune Cookman College
b.) Cookman Institute
c.) Daytona Educational and Industrial Training School for Negro Girls
d.) Daytona Normal & Industrial Institute
9.) Who are the Mascogos?
a.) Front line of the 1984 Florida State University football team
b.) Descendants of the Black Seminoles
c.) Name of inhabitants of the Negro Fort
d.) Nickname for black soldiers in the Battle of Olustee
10.) In what Florida city did Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. wage a campaign against states rights?
a.) Jacksonville
b.) Miami
c.) St. Augustine
d.) Tallahassee
THE ANSWERS:
1.) B. — Juan Garrido, a conquistador born in Africa, is the first black man to set foot in Florida and the New World in 1513 when and an expedition that included Juan Ponce de Leon first set foot on what would be the Sunshine State.
2.) A. — Fort Mose, just outside of St. Augustine, became a destination for runaway slaves from the American colonies when Florida was Spanish territory.
3.) A. — True. Zora dropped 10 years off her age as a young woman in Baltimore to qualify for a scholarship and a chance to pay for a college education.
4.) D. — David Robinson, a graduate of the U.S. Naval Academy and star in the National Basketball Association with the San Antonio Spurs, was born in Key West.
5.) D. — Sidney Poitier who won an Oscar for his role in Lillies of the Field, was born in Miami.
6.) C. — Miami residents elected Joe Lang Kershaw in 1968 and Gwen Sawyer Cherry two years later in 1970.
7.) C — If there were a title of “First Civil Rights Movement Martyr,” it would belong to Harry T. Moore, a schoolteacher who founded the NAACP Florida State Conference and among other things organized campaigns to register black voters and raise black teacher salaries during the 1940s.
8.) C. — In 1904, Mary McLeod Bethune opened the Daytona Educational and Industrial Training School for Girls. Subsequent growth and mergers would lead to university status and the 2007 re-naming, Bethune Cookman University.
9.) B — These Seminole Indians descendants live in Mexico and remain in close contact with Black Seminoles in Texas.
10.) C — Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. launched a campaign in St. Augustine to draw attention to opponents of civil rights.
So, how did you do? If you scored:
8 to 10 — You know your stuff! Congratulations.
6 to 8 — You obviously cracked a book or two.
4 to 6 — Need more black history in Florida schools.
0 to 3 — ‘Flori-duh!’ C’mon. You can do better.
To learn more history, check out www.blackinfla.com.
“As a youth Chappie James was told repeatedly, at home and in school, that he would succeed if he were able to drive whites of their negative stereotypes of blacks. He also learned that it was important that he demonstrate personal reliability in supporting the society’s paramount values, like patriotism. Young James also was taught to have confidence in authority and to believe that if he passed society’s tests by developing personal qualifications he would be generously rewarded.”
Mary McLeod Bethune made this day a red-letter date in American history for black women. On December 5, 1935, she founded the National Council of Negro Women (NCNW) as an “organization of organizations” to represent the concerns of Black women, here in America and abroad.
The NCNW gave black women the chance to realize their aspirations for social justice and human rights as the organization took on job discrimination, barriers to voting rights and fought for anti-lynching laws. Today, the NCNW consists of roughly 36 national African American women’s organizations and more than 230 community and campus based sections. It’s mission remains to advocate, empower and lead nearly three million women , their families and communities.
Bethune, of course, was a noted educator, founder of Bethune Cookman College, and perhaps the most influential black woman of her time. The NCNW is just one of the many accomplishments that are part of Bethune’s rich legacy.
“As racists rewrote Florida’s history as well as its constitution, it was forgotten how well black people in Florida had taken to electoral politics. According to Carter Brown’s study, Florida’s Black Public Officials 1867-1924, nearly 1,000 black people, the great majority of them Florida-born ex-slaves, held office following the Civil War. By profession, they ranged from farmers and laborers to craftsmen and preachers.”
