South Florida will come collectively to have a good time the life and enduring legacy of Dr. Enid Curtis Pinkney on August 9, 10, and 11. Dr. Pinkney, an esteemed educator, preservationist, and historian of African American and Bahamian heritage, handed away on July 18th in Miami, FL, on the age of 92.
Dr. Pinkney devoted her life to preserving and restoring important group landmarks reminiscent of Lemon Metropolis Cemetery, the Historic Hampton Home, and the Miami Circle at Brickell Level. Her relentless efforts have left an indelible mark on the cultural and historic panorama of Miami.
Born on October 15, 1931, to Lenora and Henry Curtis, Enid Curtis was educated within the Miami Public College System. She attended the Historic Booker T. Washington Junior/Senior Excessive College in Overtown, the place she spent her adolescence.
After graduating in 1949, she pursued greater training at Talladega Faculty, Alabama’s first non-public traditionally black liberal arts faculty, and graduated in 1953 with a Bachelor of Arts in Social Sciences. She furthered her training by incomes a Grasp of Science in Steering and Counseling from Barry College in 1967 and acquired honorary doctorates in Humane Letters from St. Thomas College and Talladega Faculty.
1991: A milestone yr for Dr. Pinkey
The yr 1991 was pivotal for Dr. Pinkney. After an extended profession with the Miami-Dade County Public College System, she retired as assistant principal at South Miami Center College. That very same yr, she married Frank Pinkney, marking the start of a brand new chapter in her private life.
– Commercial –
Regardless of her petite stature, Dr. Pinkney was a formidable drive in preservation. Her dedication to preserving Black and Native American historical past in Miami was evident in her intensive work. She joined Dade Heritage Belief (DHT) within the Nineteen Eighties and have become the group’s first Black president in 1998.
Throughout her tenure, she found that Black People had been buried within the Miami Metropolis Cemetery and championed the preservation of quite a few historic websites, together with Lemon Metropolis Cemetery, the Miami Circle Nationwide Historic Landmark, the Historic Hampton Home, and Historic Virginia Key Seaside Park. She additionally served as a founding board member for the Virginia Key Seaside Park Belief.
Even in her closing month, Enid Curtis Pinkney remained lively in sharing and preserving historical past. She engaged with the group on the Black Police Precinct and Courthouse Museum exhibit “Anything But A Slum: Overtown Before I-95 and 395” and interacted with graduate college students from Florida Worldwide College on the Historic Hampton Home. Her ardour for historical past and training touched all who knew her.
Keep within the Loop. Get the most recent with our Publication
Dr. Pinkney’s legacy lives on via her adopted son and nephew, Gary Allen, in addition to a number of household, associates, colleagues, and numerous others who will proceed to discover, protect, and honor the historical past of African People, Bahamians, Bahamian People, and Native People.
For individuals who want to contribute, letters and pictures might be submitted to [email protected].
