Dorothy Fields Awarded Honorary
Doctor of Humanities
A lyric voice for the black history of South Florida, Dorothy Jenkins Fields has
devoted her life to preserving the heritage of the African-American community and
raising awareness of African-American history to a national level. A Miami native,
she is responsible for the establishment of Miami's Black Archives, the designation
and restoration of the landmark Lyric Theater and other historic sites, the creation
of the Black Heritage Trail, and the designation of the Historic Overtown Folklife
Village as a National Trust "Main Street" community. Fields is being awarded
the honorary degree of Doctor of Humanities for her unprecedented research and documentation
of African-American history.
Fields' maternal family moved to Overtown from the Bahamas in 1903 and immediately
became an integral part of the fabric of South Florida's history themselves. Fields'
grandfather, in fact, was one of the gardeners who planted the original gardens
at the Deering Estate, Villa Vizcaya, in 1914. The Fields lineage came full circle
in 1999 when Fields was appointed to the Vizcaya Trust by Miami-Dade County Mayor
Alex Penelas.
A teacher and educator for Miami-Dade County Public Schools for more than 30 years,
Fields began her career in 1964 after graduating from Spelman College. Then, in
1974, in preparation for the nation's bicentennial, she began a search for curriculum
materials on the black experience in South Florida. When she was unable to find
any information about South Florida's black history in any school or public library,
she embarked on a journey that would become her lifelong professional mission.
The first step in her journey was to establish The Black Archives, a nonprofit manuscript
and photographic repository for the legacies of Miami's black community. She was
assisted in her effort by University of Miami history professor Gregory Bush, who
introduced her to the field of public history. Later she earned her certification
in archives administration at Emory University, a master's degree in curriculum
and instruction at the University of Northern Colorado, and a Ph.D. in 20th-century
African-American history, historic preservation, and public history from The Union
Institute in Cincinnati, Ohio.
Today, The Black Archives, History & Research Foundation of South Florida, Inc.,
serves as a national resource for this history of the 19th and 20th centuries. It
also has been the catalyst for Fields' campaign to preserve the Lyric Theater and
other historic sites in Overtown. The theater underwent a major restoration and
grand reopening in 1999, recalling the splendor and exuberance of its days as one
of the only black-owned and -operated theaters in America.
Fields' research is also helping transform the neighborhood of Overtown, once a
thriving African-American community, into a two-block, mixed-use marketplace and
cultural district. Her efforts have been called "the Harlem Renaissance of
the South," and her goal is to attract scholars and others engaged in documenting
the black experience to live, study, create art, and work in Overtown as they did
nearly 100 years ago.
In recognition of her legacy as a true Florida pioneer, exploring routes through
unmapped territories so that future generations may find their way, we honor Dorothy
Jenkins Fields today.
Dorothy Fields Awarded Honorary