1655-21 African American/Blacks Ordinance wasn't directed at blacks
- but its enforcement was
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LATELASTspr'ng, whenlbegafl
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research for a book I am writing ' - x
on the history of Miami Beach, ' ,r ""
one of the first documents that 1 sought _, • m i- \
..• •••••••••••••• was the often cited , , ;* •
g., ordinance banning 7x . ,lt
Jo4.;' blacks from being x
in that city after �- (I�R —4'4;
nightfall without a w; �- • c t� I
! pass. , x .i .
� �
'''+'.**Al I discussed the ' a $,,,,p `; ''
' issue with Dorothy .,a. ; •
k .k'. Fields, founder of *-• ' %.$ -`` '` .
•
the Black Archives "" ;' {{ • _ _— ._ ____..__3aj
HOWARD Foundation of z�
Southern Florida, 4 REpnai _ANY CHANGE 0- :Mr�ork.er.'
KLEINBERG with other histori- ire OAItEStDENCE GOJacss
SPECIAL ans, and with
Miami Beach city ', ,/ '
CONTRIBUTOR ,
ii
officials. Upper 9 , f
most in my mind x-.�.-:. ._ X --C \ `z'i `fe..J/ c'
was finding one of those identification ea SIG`:ATUki.
cards that blacks were required to carry e r
while in Miami Beach. I had no luck y4 fz .w .,,.. . •
Working with the city clerk's office,I - —
searched transcripts of Miami Beach
E' City Commission meetings for wording • I,essie Ross's ID card
of the alleged ordinance. I went as far
back as the handwritten record of the . .. allowed her to work in Miami Beach
first meeting in 1915. Eventually, and
1 after many visits, I found what I was included practically everyone working the age of seventeen,special police offs-
looking for.Covetously,I kept it tucked in Miami Beach. But its enforcement cers and domestic servants, taxi-cab
r, away in my research papers to be was applied principally to blacks. drivers,vending machine operators,and
revealed with publication of the book, According to longtime Miami Beach res- charter-boat operators, in the City of
hopefully early this winter. idents and officials whom I talked with, Miami Beach, Florida, be and they are
Pollee challenged few whites police challenged few whites for being hereby required to register within forty-
on the streets after darkBut blacks reg- eight(48)hours from the time of their
But current events have flushed it out ularly were targeted. employment, or after passage of this
earlier.In an article last month,Herald This was the time-wornpractice of Ordinance, in a book of registration to
reporter Olympia Duhart wrote about selective enforcement,a di nation be kept by the Chief of Police of said.
her aunt,Lessie Ross,who worked as a se evil as anyordinance that might actu- city, and to be also finger-printed and
domestic in Miami Beach for 40 years. . hoographed.
Part of that article contained the allega- ally have required only blacks to have an p "Section 2:
tions about the pass for blacks,and her ID card. For the record,however,let it
aunt was photographed showing one(at not be said any more that Miami Beach "Identification cards shall be issued
last!) passed a law targeting blacks. to each such person so registering,which
Several days later, former Miami Miami Beach Ordinance 457 was said identification card shall be renewed
Beach Councilman Burnett Roth signed Nov.4, 1936 by Mayor Louis F. by the holder thereof each twelve (12)
retorted with a letter to The Herald's Snedigar.This is what it said: months thereafter by re-registration as
Readers'Forum claiming that the ordi- "Be it ordained by the City Council above set forth."
nance did not discriminate against in the City of Miami Beach,Florida: Sections 3 and 4 dealt with a 25-cent
blacks but included anyone working ins "Section 1: annual.charge for registration,and pen-
Miami Beach in tourism-allied trades. "That from and after passage of this allies for violators (a fine of no more
I That's what I had known since late Ordinance, every person [italics mine] than$100 or 60 days in jail or both.)
I last spring.The ordinance didn't single employed in any night-club, any place So let us put to rest in newspaper and
out blacks. It doesn't mention blacks, handling liquor, beer or wine in any magazine articles,in speeches and over-
Negroes, coloreds, or any such racial form, places of amusement, hotels, the-fence conversation, that Miami
description. rooming-houses, apartment houses, Beach ever passed such a racially
But that is not how things worked delivery services, restaurants, bath- inspired ordinance.But let us never for-
out.Conceived ostensibly for health and clubs, bath-houses, solariums; and all get how selective was the enforcement of
crime orevention reasons,the ordinance caddies, newspaper delivery boys over the ordinance that was passed.