Enid Pinkney, hero of black preservation, passes at 92 (includes video story)

By
Duvasana Bisoondial
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Dr. Enid Curtis Pinkney, a Miami historian and activist, passed away at age 92 on Thursday. A trailblazer in the community, she was dedicated to preserving the history of Miami’s Black landmarks and pioneers.

“She didn’t want to leave this earth until she fully let people know that we were important to Miami-Dade, from Coconut Grove to down south in Richmond Heights all the way up to County Line Road,” said Bea Hines, a longtime friend of Pinkney’s and a Miami Herald columnist.

Pinkney was born on Oct. 15, 1931 to Bahamian parents in Overtown. The third of four children, she attended Booker T. Washington High School, where she served as student council president and participated in an Intergroup Youth Council with both black and white students to talk monthly about Miami’s future.

“It was in that group, I think, that she really learned about working with others and being able to understand the needs of the community,” said Dr. Dorothy Jenkins Fields, founder of The Black Archives. 

Our sister publication, ArtSpeak, produced the video above. To see more, click here.

Pinkney graduated from Booker T. in 1949 and received a B.A. degree at Alabama’s Talladega College in 1953. She worked as a social worker, then earned her master’s degree from Barry University in 1967 and later, honorary Doctorates from both Talladega College and St. Thomas University. 

She worked in the Miami-Dade Public School System until her retirement as an assistant principal at South Miami Middle School in 1991. That same year, she married Frank Pinkney, who joined her in preserving the history of Overtown and Liberty City. He passed away on July 20, 2018.

“I knew Frank when I was about 12 years old,” Hines reminisced. “When I got my first car, Frank taught me how to drive it. And [Enid] was just so thrilled that I could tell her stories about Frank even after he died.”

Joyce Moore, whose husband, renowned rhythm and blues singer Sam Moore, sang with Frank in the junior choir at Israel Bethel Primitive Baptist Church, explained how intertwined Pinkney and Frank’s work in the community was.

“Enid was absolutely a champion and a shepherd in trying to make sure that [Black] legacies were fully protected and were known,” Joyce Moore said. “Meanwhile, Frank grew up here. He was immersed in the community. He lived it. He lived through it. He was part of it.”

Her preservation efforts officially began when she joined the Dade Heritage Trust in the mid-1980s. There, she pushed for preserving Black and Native American landmarks. In 1998, she became the first Black president of the organization. 

Her most notable achievement was the restoration of the Hampton House hotel, which hosted the likes of Martin Luther King Jr., Muhammad Ali and Ella Fitzgerald after its 1954 opening in Brownsville, a historically Black community. After its closure in the 1970s, the hotel building deteriorated and was on the verge of demolition until Pinkney sought to save it in the early 2000s. In 2004, the county purchased the building. It reopened as a nonprofit cultural center in 2015 and is now a museum.

“I went with [Enid] to many of the county meetings to help them understand the importance of the Hampton House to not just the Black community, but to Miami-Dade County,” said Dr. Jenkins. “And she was successful in saving the Hampton House and getting it rehabilitated and up and running. Now it is a wonderful venue for the entire community.”

Another of Pinkney’s successful preservation projects was the Lemon City Cemetery, a Black and Bahamian burial ground filled with homemade markers and wooden caskets. The land was sold by the City of Miami to developers who planned to build houses and condos. After she clashed with elected officials, Pinkney convinced the developers to reduce the size of their project and erect a monument containing 523 names of the people who were deceased and forgotten.

Towards the end, Pinkney continued her fight to preserve historically Black communities. Her most recent endeavor was fighting Hialeah’s attempt to annex Brownsville, the neighborhood she had lived in since 1968. That attempt failed.

Friends and family also remember her as full of life. She danced to traditional Bahamian music at her 90th birthday party even after she had just started to use a walker. She pushed others into the spotlight, highlighted their work and lifted them up with her words and actions.

“What you would love about Enid, if you got to know her, was that she never met a stranger,” Hines recalled. “She would greet you with a big laugh and smile like she had known you all her life.”

Local politicians and luminaries released statements on X and echoed the sentiments of many touched by Pinkney’s preservation efforts in the South Florida community. 

“Dr. Pinkney was a trailblazer for Black people and Bahamians in Miami and her legacy will forever be remembered in our community,” wrote Rep. Frederica Wilson of Florida’s 24th Congressional District.


Former Florida Rep. Debbie Mucarsel-Powell also commended Pinkney’s work, stating, “She dedicated her career to preserving Black history, and we’re all better because of it.”


Duvasana Bisoondial is a junior majoring in Digital Journalism, minoring in History and getting a certificate in Women's and Gender Studies at Florida International University. She aspires to become an investigative journalist and hopes to highlight contributions made by Caribbean immigrants globally. Currently, she enjoys adding on to her list of books to be read and watching Indian movies, both old and new.

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