Eufaula Frazier was born into a family of 11 children in Eastman, Ga., where their farm was among the few black-owned homesteads. She was accepted to Howard University but couldn’t afford to go. She went to Washington anyway, attending cosmetology school. Frazier moved to Miami in 1950, raised four children and opened a beauty shop, […]
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Elizabeth Landsberg Virrick was Miami’s champion slum fighter. Born in Winchester, Ky., Elizabeth Virrick was educated at the University of Wisconsin and Columbia University, studying interior design and architecture. She treasured Blue Vanda orchids and designed her own house as a showplace for her collection of antiques. Such was the unexpected background and interests of […]
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In 1973, Angela Davis, who had recently been acquitted of murder charges stemming from a Marin County Courthouse shootout in 1970, came to speak at the Jewish Cultural Center in Miami Beach and the New Covenant Presbyterian Church. She came to speak about racism and political repression and more importantly to organize a local chapter […]
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In the late 60’s long-haired, beaded, and tie-dyed flower children brought their drugs, incense, guitars and peace symbols to the South Florida surf. The Hippie movement had finally reached Miami. Coconut Grove, known for its laid-back attitude, became the gathering place for the counterculture. On any given day one could find Hippies smoking pot in Bayfront Park, […]
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Seminole and Calusa Indians were the first occupants of Key West. Sixteenth-century Spanish settlers found the beaches littered with the detritus of Indian battles and thus named the place Cayo Hueso (Island of Bones). In the 1830s, Key West was the wealthiest city per capita in the country. First, islanders made money by salvaging cargoes […]
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The battle of the billboards started in 1965 when Lady Bird Johnson championed a law aimed at banning billboards “to preserve (the) natural beauty” of the nation’s open roads. Not only did the Highway Beautification Act of 1965 not work — it hasn’t been cheap. Taxpayers paid about $214 million to billboard owners as compensation […]
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The saga of Veteran’s Village began in February 1946 when a Miami American Legion Post tried to address the housing shortage for military families by re-opening World War II buildings on Miami Army air field, today Miami International Airport. For $20 a month, families got wooden huts, 16 feet by 16 feet, with no running […]
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Space shuttle Challenger detonated 73 seconds after liftoff at 11:38 a.m. Jan. 28, 1986, killing all seven astronauts aboard. Among the dead: teacher Christa McAuliffe, NASA’s first — and last — “citizen in space.” The last known words from the flight deck were recorded at the moment Challenger exploded. “Uh-oh,” pilot Michael Smith said. From […]
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Miami City Ballet’s inaugural opening was at the Gusman Center for the Performing Arts in October 1986. The sold-out audience delighted in two works of George Balanchine, ”Allegro Brillante” and the ”Tchaikovsky Pas de Deux”, as well as two world premieres, ”El Amor Brujo” and “Transtango”. Philanthropist Toby Ansin and NYC ballet superstar Edward Villella […]
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Parrot Jungle, symbol of all that was exotic and tropical in Miami, opened in 1936 in what is now Pinecrest. Austrian-born Franz Scherr rented 20 acres of cypress and oak hammock and opened the tourist attraction, charging 25 cents admission to see the brightly colored birds and eventually the lush gardens. Generations of children grew […]
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