DR. DOROTHY JENKINS FIELDS: Founder of the Black Archives History and Research Foundation in 1977. Dr Fields restored the Lyric Theater built in 1913, and the D.A. Dorsey House built in 1915. PHOTOS COURTESY OF THE SOUTH FLORIDA ARCHIVES RESEARCH FOUNDATION

iami – When Miami native Dr. Dorothy Jenkins Fields founded the Black Archives History and Research Foundation in 1977, her vision was inspired by the lack of books in school and public libraries on Black history in Miami.

One story she thought should be told was the journey of Fields’ maternal grandparents who immigrated from the Bahamas in the late 1890s and settled in Miami’s Overtown and were forced to send seven of their children to finish college outside of Florida at the end of World War II.

At that time, by law, Black children in Miami weren’t allowed to finish high school and had to go to work after finishing the eighth grade.

The children, including Fields’ mother, returned to Miami as professionals: two board certified medical doctors, one in family medicine and one in radiology; a lawyer who became the second black judge in Miami and the fourth black judge in the State of Florida; and four teachers.

And other Black accomplishments in Miami weren’t chronicled in the libraries as well including African Americans’ role in the 1896 incorporation of the city of Miami and Black laborers erecting monumental buildings in Coral Gables, Miami Beach, and Miami Shores.

Black laborers also build historic hotels and Black churches in Overtown like Greater Bethel A.M.E. Church and Mount Zion Missionary Baptist Church.

Jenkins, who was a librarian at Myrtle Grove Elementary School in 1974, was shocked when she discovered there was not one book about Blacks in the facility as she was preparing for festivities for America’s bicentennial.

Jenkins, who graduated from Booker T. Washington High School in Overtown and Spelman College, put in an order for books from a clerk at the Miami-Dade County library on Blacks but only had obituaries. “I was stunned when she said that,” said Fields.

“Once I collected myself and asked her why, the answer she gave me changed my life. She said ‘I guess those people didn’t think enough of themselves to write their own history.’ I was enraged that anyone didn’t think we didn’t care. I thought it was wrong to say that then and they would be wrong to say that today.”

Through countless and rigorous research, and being the mother of two young children and a husband in law school at the University of Miami, Jenkins collected miles of data on Blacks’ struggles and accomplishments in MiamiDade including Dana Dorsey, who was the first Black millionaire in Miami who owned Fisher Island, the Hampton House Hotel, which hosted guests Muhammad Ali, Martin Luther King Jr. and other Black celebrities who were consistently banned from hotels in the Magic City and Miami Beach.

And through her efforts, Jenkins saved the Lyric Theatre, a historic performing arts center in Overtown built in 1913, from being demolished and preserved the building as a historic landmark.

The Black Archives acquired the Lyric Theater, 819 Northwest Second Avenue, in 1988 and it was restored in different phases over the years before it reopened in 2014.

Geder Walker from Georgia built the Lyric Theatre 110 years ago, which became the crown jewel of the Black community, but when he died, his wife took over operations of the theater and used it as a community auditorium and later a movie theater.

In 1959, it became a church of the General Assembly of the Church of the Lord Jesus Christ of the Apostolic Faith and when Overtown began to deteriorate in the 1960s the Lyric Theater closed and remained shuttered for years.

Jenkins said the riot-ravaged building was set for demolition by the City of Miami but her uncle, a doctor, urged her to save the structure because it was part of his childhood.

She said it didn’t have a roof, birds were flying in and out of the facility, and homeless people took up residency at the Lyric Theatre.

“I saw a sign from the city saying it was set to demolish it,” Jenkins said. “When I got home and mentioned it to my uncle, he said ‘no, don’t let them tear it down. Walker built the theatre for Black people, so you can’t let them tear it down.'” Jenkins’ journey to recognize Blacks’ accomplishments in Miami also started at the Historical Museum of South Florida in Vizcaya.

She said there, students learned about the history of Florida and Miami, and she called Dr. Thelma Peters, a retired teacher earning a Ph.D in history, who was writing a book on the history of the Black section of Coconut Grove and Lemon City which is now Little Haiti.

Jenkins said the president of the Historical Museum collected photos but no one was interested beyond that. “I said that I was interested,” Jenkins recalls. “I told her my mother came from the Bahamas with a family of seven at the end of World War I and all the children graduated college. She didn’t believe it because children in Miami-Dade and the southern part of Florida had to go to work after they finished the 8th grade.”

Due to segregation, Jenkins said her medical doctor uncle wasn’t allowed to go into the hospital with his patients or receive their X-rays.

She said he decided to work a year and save up enough money to work at Cook County Hospital in Chicago for two years to be certified and returned to Overtown where he started his own clinic which is still there today.

Fields was introduced to Ruth Braddock, who’s the wife of former MiamiDade County School Board Chair G. Holmes Braddock, who was penning a book on the accomplishments of women in Miami-Dade County with the first novel on Ruth’s Daughters.

Braddock asked Fields for her assistance and in exchange she helped her collect materials on Black people’s struggles and accomplishments in Miami-Dade for a novel.

Recognizing her efforts, the school district reassigned Fields to the social studies department to help with the book on women’s accomplishments and collect information for writing a book on Blacks.

But the school board didn’t have enough space for Fields but allowed her to take up office at the Historical Museum of South Florida.

“I was blown away,” she said. “They said will you accept, and I said yes. I was fascinated. I couldn’t wait to get to work. I thought I had died and gone to Heaven.”

But Fields said her uncle writing one book on Black history isn’t enough. “My uncle said what happened to the other stories about Blacks?” Fields said. “There were more stories to be told.”

Fields said after she earned another degree, she decided to start the Black Archives but needed a board of directors and volunteers to help run it.

She said she started with 50 members, mostly retired people, and incorporated in 1977.

One of her biggest challenges was locating a copy of the City of Miami charter to determine how many Blacks played a role in the incorporation movement.

She said she drove to Miami City Hall but officials there didn’t have a copy of the document.

Her uncle, who was a judge suggested the clerk of the courts and two-weeks later Jenkins obtained a copy of the charter and placed it in the Black Archives.

“The stories I heard over and over again, I hate hearing those stories,” she said. “But I had no idea those stories were preparing me for my life’s work. All those photos, memorabilia, all of that involves the community institution of the Black Archives.”

Jenkins said she retired from the school district in 2004 but her mission to research and collect data about Black history in Miami continues.

“I collect, identify, process and make it available to readers, scholars, students and historians,” she said. “That’s my mission.”

As a result of Jenkins’ research and scholarship six buildings are currently listed on the US Secretary of Interior’s National Register of Historic Places and many more are locally designated.

To honor her dedication to the community, Fields was awarded honorary degrees from Florida International University, the University of Miami and Barry University.

She has received many other prestigious awards including the H. T. Smith Lifetime Achievement Award from the Miami Dade Chamber of Commerce, the Knight Foundation’s Arts Champion Award and membership on the University of Miami’s Dean’s Advisory Committee.