CONTACT:
Cammy Richards
Director Communications
WPBT2
305-424-4013
cammy_richards@wpbt.org
Natalia Villegas
Communications and Outreach Supervisor
WPBT2
305-424-4190
natalia_villegas@wpbt.org
Miami, August 4, 2010 –The real life story of two women, both born and raised in Miami Florida, and both pursued careers as historians, close in age they watched a city grow from a sleepy town to a major urban center. Their lives might be identical save for one major difference – one woman was black and one white, each lived different yet amazingly parallel lives.
Parallel Lives is an Original Production of WPBT2. The 30 minute documentary is narrated by Julia Yarbough and will be broadcast on WPBT2 at 7:30 p.m. on Tuesday, September 28, 2010. It is the story of two women Dr. Dorothy Jenkins Fields and Arva Moore Parks both grew up in a segregated Miami. Though separated by only a few miles, their upbringings could not have been more different. Their lives nearly touched on many occasions yet each was unaware of the other. In their journey to discover the past, it was history that finally brought them together.
In May of 1980 Liberty City was on fire. In the flames of a once segregated community, two unlikely friends forged an enduring relationship. Fields and Parks share their lifetime experiences in Miami since the 1940s, a time when segregation laws divided the races into separate communities. It is a first hand account of Miami’s social evolution and a story of a lasting friendship.
BIOGRAPHIES:
Dorothy Jenkins Fields is a native Miamian. She was raised an only child in the African American neighborhood of Overtown. Her maternal grandparents, Sam D. and Ida Ellen Roberts Johnson emigrated from Harbor Island, Bahamas, to Key West, Florida then settled in Miami’s Colored Town in 1903. This community is now known as Overtown.
In the 1940s when Overtown was threatened by the impending expressway the family purchased property and relocated to Brownsville, a suburb of Miami. Fields attended Phyllis Wheatley Elementary School and Booker T. Washington High School. In high school, Fields was a member of the concert and marching band, and excelled in journalism. In the summer she travelled with her mother Dorothy J. McKellar, a physical education teacher, to Jacob’s Pillow dance festival and Tanglewood Music Festival.
In 1960 Fields graduated m. from Booker T. Washington High School. The following year, she enrolled at Spelman College in Atlanta, Georgia as an art major. As a freshman, Fields participated in the 1960 march with Dr. King to desegregate Rich’s department store in downtown Atlanta. Upon completion in a student exchange program at Smith College in Northampton, Massachusetts, Fields earned her B.F.A degree in art from Spelman College in 1964. She then accepted a librarian and reading teacher position in her hometown of Miami.
As part of the federal government’s efforts to desegregate schools, Fields was transferred to Myrtle Grove Elementary School in 1966. In the same year, she married Eddie Fields until 1994. In 1970, their first child, Katherine was born. Their second child, Edda, was born in 1972. Fields then received her M.A. degree in Curriculum and Instruction in 1974 through a local outreach program out of the University of Northern Colorado. She was later awarded a Woodrow Wilson Teacher’s Fellowship and studied at Princeton University (1994); and earned a PhD in Public History (1996) at The Union Institute & University in Cincinnati, Ohio.
While working as a school librarian at Myrtle Grove Elementary, Fields became aware that written materials on African Americans in Miami had not been collected. In 1976 preparing for the celebration of Bi Centennial, 200th birthday of the United States, she was transferred to the downtown headquarters of Miami-Dade County Public Schools. She was given two years to research and develop curriculum about black history and women’s history and present in classrooms countywide. She also volunteered with the Miami Branch of the American Association of University Women as the principal black history researcher for their book Julia’s Daughters, Women In Dade’s History).
The school system assigned her to the Historical Museum of Southern Florida. She became the museum’s first Education Coordinator and she learned the daily operations of a history museum. In 1977, Fields earned a certificate from Emory University/Georgia State Archives Program in Archives Administration and Historic Preservation. Upon finishing the summer program, she returned to Miami and founded The Black Archives, History & Research Foundation of South Florida.
Fields’ vision was to establish a manuscript and photographic repository for the African American community of Miami. She initially began collecting oral histories from older African American residents living in her former communities of Overtown and Brownsville. She saved historic properties from further neglect and decay. Because of her efforts the State of Florida later designated the Overtown Historic Folklife Village a National Trust “Main Street” community. Fields also successfully restored the landmark Lyric Theater located in Overtown. Renowned artists such as Nat King Cole, Marion Anderson, Etta Moten Barnett once performed at the theater district.
Fields has received numerous honors and awards for her efforts in preserving African American history and culture. She serves a member of the Board of Directors of The Black Archives of South Florida and the advisory board for Community Partnership for the Homeless Museum. She is a member of Zeta Phi Beta Sorority and The Links, Incorporated. Former memberships include the Florida Endowment for the Humanities Board and the Vizcaya Museum and Gardens in Miami. She writes a bi-monthly column for The Miami Herald, Black InTime and occasional articles for The Miami Times.
Arva Moore Parks is a Miami native, historian, preservationist and community leader. She has studied Miami and its roots for more than four decades and has authored, co-authored, edited or contributed to more than 30 books and film documentaries. Her latest book, The New Miami the Magic City, a revised and updated version of her classic work, was just released.
She earned her undergraduate degree from the University of Florida in 1960 and her master’s in history from the University of Miami in 1971. Both institutions have named her an alumna of outstanding distinction.
More than an objective onlooker, Parks has taken an active role in improving her hometown and preserving its historic landmarks. She was a force for school integration and helped Miami’s diverse communities come together. Her leadership in racial, gender and ethnic relations has brought her many honors from such diverse groups as the Black Archives, Temple Israel, Florida Memorial College, the Cuban Women’s Club and the Theodore Gibson Fund.
She was inducted into the Florida Women’s Hall of Fame in 1986 and the Miami Women’s Hall of Fame in 1996. Most recently, in 2008, Parks received the Florida Historical Society’s Caroline B. Rossiter Woman in Florida History Award and the first Coral Gables Chamber of Commerce George E. Merrick Spirit of Excellence Award.
She has served on numerous boards and commissions, and currently chairs the City of Miami Planning Advisory Board. Nationally, she held a presidential appointment to the Federal Advisory Council on Historic Preservation and chaired the Southern Region of the National Trust for Historic Preservation’s Board of Advisors.
ABOUT WPBT2
South Florida’s premier public broadcaster, WPBT2, is a community-licensed, not-for-profit media enterprise serving communities from the Treasure Coast to the Florida Keys. WPBT2 provides high quality content from PBS, independent acquisitions and its own original productions. WPBT2’s digital media platform, offers: 2HD, a 24-hour high definition channel; Digital 2.2, a mix of Science & Nature Channel, Culturas, The Florida Channel and Create; Digital 2.3, V-me, a 24-hour national Spanish-language network; and www.wpbt2.org, the WPBT2 website including, Impromp2 (a community blog), the WPBT2 Video Player and uVu, a video sharing website. Based in Miami, WPBT2 is also home of the Emmy award-winning national PBS series, Nightly Business Report (pbs.org/nbr).
VIDEO:
PHOTOS:
01.
Arva Moore Parks and Dr. Dorothy Jenkins Fields
02.
Arva Moore Parks and Dr. Dorothy Jenkins Fields
03.
Arva Moore Parks and Dr. Dorothy Jenkins Fields
04.
Dr. Dorothy Jenkins Fields
05.
Arva Moore Parks
06.
Mark Baker, WPBT2 Senior Producer
07.
Mark Baker, Arva Moore Parks and Dr. Dorothy Jenkins Fields behind the scenes.
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Arva Moore Parks and Dr. Dorothy Jenkins Fields behind the scenes.
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