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Important Black Contributions To Miami and American Culture, Life Chronicled In Unique Collections
Preserving (Black) History
02/14/20
By: I. S.
Since the Miami-Dade Public Library System’s Digital Collections website went live in 2018, we have been able to provide scans and high quality photographs of many important documents, photographs and artwork by and featuring Black people and their history. These collections include artwork by Elizabeth Catlett and Purvis Young, photography series by Gary Monroe and David Spitzer showing life in Miami-Dade County’s Little Haiti neighbourhood in the 1980s, and portraits of jazz and blues musicians spanning the 1970s to the 1990s, respectively. Important examples of African American presence in Miami can also be seen in our larger collections such as the Agnew Welsh Scrapbooks.
Scrapbooking Black Miami
Two of the scrapbooks, Miami Volumes 40A and 40B in the Agnew Welsh Scrapbook collection, mentioned in a previous blog post, documents newspaper articles about the Black population in Miami from the 1920s to the 1950s. They feature articles from the Miami Herald and most often, the Miami Times, a newspaper started in 1923 to serve Miami’s Black community. The newspaper was instrumental in the fight for civil rights of the Black community and shining a light on voter suppression, police brutality and other forms of injustice and discrimination. The newspaper was instrumental in the desegregation of Miami golf courses in the late 40s and 50s. Welsh clipped heavily from this newspaper to give an idea about the lives of those in the Black community at the time.
Miami, v. 040 A; or, the Negro in Miami
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Miami, v. 040 A; or, the Negro in Miami
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Miami, v. 040 B; or, Negro in Miami, 1947
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Black Visual Artists
MDPLS’s Digital Collections website is host to the artworks of Elizabeth Catlett and Miami artist Purvis Young.
“I want public art to have meaning for Black people so that they will have some art they can identify with . . .” – Elizabeth Catlett
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Elizabeth Catlett (1915 – 2012) was an African American artist who used her art platforms to raise awareness of the social and political issues surrounding gender, history and culture with particular reference to the Black experience. Catlett was known for “her imposing stature and . . . forthrightness” and she participated heavily in civil rights and labour movements. In 1946, Catlett began living in Mexico continuing her art and teaching at the Taller de Gráfica Popular in Mexico City. In the 1960s, assumed involvement with the Communist Party (though she was not a member) meant she was forced to give up her American citizenship for Mexican citizenship and she was declared an “undesirable alien” by the State Department. She was refused a visa to visit her ill mother in 1962 and was only able to enter the United States again in 1971 for the opening of her show in Harlem at the Studio Museum. She continued to teach until 1976, when she retired and began to focus on creating her own art. Catlett died in 2012 at her home in Cuernavaca, Mexico at the age of 96.
In Harriet Tubman, I helped hundreds to freedom...
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I have always worked hard in America
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I am the black woman
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My right is a future of equality with other Americans
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Purvis Young (1943 – 2010) was a Miami native born in Liberty City. While incarcerated during his teens, he began to draw. When he was released, he continued to draw and produced thousands of drawings. He was never formally trained, but Young spent hours dedicated to learning about art by reading and studying other artists. Young created his art on any surface he could find, from cardboard and old books to plywood and carpet. He initially became known after nailing his artwork to storefronts in Overtown’s Goodbread Alley on N.W. 14th Street. Young remained in Overtown for most of his life and until his death in 2010. Young’s murals can still be seen in Overtown, including outside MDPLS’s Culmer/Overtown Branch Library.
Saint, CA
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Untitled [The mind has come true]
700.92 YOUNG R VAULT
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Photography of the Black Experience in Little Haiti
In the 1950s through the 1980s, thousands of Haitian refugees came to Miami with many settling in Lemon City. In the 1970s, the area became known as Little Haiti and in 2016 it became the official name of the area. Today, residents of Little Haiti are largely of Haitian descent. In 1985, white photographer Gary Monroe photographed the day-to-day life of the community and its residents.
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Developing from Black American folksong, blues music developed in the second half of the 19th century and continued to be extremely popular into the 1960s. Early blues music was characterized by a melancholy that was felt in the Black community. Jazz was heavily influenced by the blues and other forms of Black music in the United States such as ragtime and spirituals. By 1900, it had its own distinct flavour and was becoming very popular as social music, reaching greatness in the 1920s. Today both jazz and blues continue to have a large fan base. Though less wildly popular than before, they remain essential in understanding the history of Black America.
Throughout the 70s, 80s and 90s, white photographer David Spitzer took photographic portraits of many jazz and blues artists. These are some of his photographs.
Etta James
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Born in 1938 as Jamesetta Hawkins, Etta James was a powerful blues singer from Los Angeles, CA. Her first hit “The Wallflower” came when she was only a teenager.
James toured and performed with other famed artists such as Little Richard and Marvin Gaye and was the singer of many hits including “At Last” (1961) and "Something's Got a Hold on Me" (1962). James died in 2012.
B.B. King
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On September 16, 1925, the legendary blues musician B.B. King was born as Riley King in Itta Bena, MS. In the late 1940s and the 1950s, B.B. King gained huge success in the Black community with hits like “B.B. Boogie” and "3 O'Clock Blues."
By the 1960s, white audiences had begun to take notice of blues and King became popular with both audiences. King continued performing until his death in 2015.
Miles Davis
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In 1926, Miles Dewey Davis III was born in Alton, IL. He was a talented trumpeter, gaining admission into the Julliard School in 1944 then dropping out to pursue his music career.
He recorded his first record in 1945 with Charlie Parker for Savoy Records and continued to record and play music from the 1940s until his death in 1991. Even now, his trumpet playing is considered legendary and a model for many.
Dizzy Gillespie
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John Birks “Dizzy” Gillespie was born in Cheraw, SC, in 1917. Self-taught, Gillespie was considered a revolutionary musician who transformed the jazz genre, gaining accolades such as a Kennedy Center Honor and 18 honorary degrees.
He worked humor into his performances, making his audiences laugh as they enjoyed his music. Gillespie died in 1993.
References
Brown, D. C. (2006). The Story of Little Haiti : featuring its pioneers. Sustain-a-village.
Dean, J., & James, B. (2002). Blues; Jazz. In A. Latham (Ed.), The Oxford Companion to Music (pp. 146, 627-631). Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press.
Kostelanetz, R. (2005). The B.B. King Reader: 6 decades of commentary. Milwaukee, WI: Hal Leonard Corporation.
Lewis, S. S. (1984). The art of Elizabeth Catlett. Claremont, CA: Hancraft Studios.
Maggin, D. L. (2005). The Life and Times of John Birks Gillespie. New York: HarperEntertainment.
McLeod, Y. G. (2019). The Miami Times and the fight for equality. Lanham, MD: Lexington Books.
Purvis Young. (2015). In Linkages & legacies : historical profiles depicting notable Greater Miami, Florida pioneers of African decent. (Vol. II, pp. 120-121). Miami, Florida: Linkages and Legacies, Incorporated.
Rosenberg, K. (2012, 04 03). Elizabeth Catlett, Sculptor With Eye on Social Issues, Is Dead at 96. The New York Times, p. 19. Retrieved 01 27, 2020.
Szwed, J. (2002). So what: the life of Miles Davis. New York: Simon & Schuster.