Editing Virginia Key (section)

===Virginia Key Beach Park===
In May 1945, seven civil rights activists supported by the local [[NAACP]] chapter staged a "wade-in" at the whites’ only Baker's [[Haulover Park|Haulover Beach]] in Dade County Florida. Five men and two women protested Jim Crow era laws that denied access to recreation based on race. In a Miami emerging from World War II this meant "colored" people could not share with whites the legendary beaches along and in the waters of [[Biscayne Bay]] and the [[Atlantic Ocean]].<ref>Virginia Key Beach Park Trust. "Master Plan", 13; Bush, Gregory.  "Virginia Key Beach Park Natural Resource Study", 2007; page 13; Dunn, Marvin ''Black Miami in the Twentieth Century'' Gainesville; University Press of Florida, 1997: page 160; National Park Service, Florida, National Register of Historic Places, Virginia Key Beach Park, 2007, section 8 pages 9-10.</ref>

The struggle for a "colored-only" beach in [[Miami]], which was part of the civil rights movement of the 1950s and 1960s, fueled the anger of patriotic black servicemen who fought the racism of Nazi Germany only to return to a segregated America. Among the protesters was Attorney [[Lawson Thomas]] who later became the first Black appointed to Judge in the post-Reconstruction South.  Lawyer Thomas remained on the beach, holding bail money for those who anticipated arrest. The NAACP had notified the local press and police of the time and place, hoping for arrests that would be central to a court challenge of local discrimination laws and policies. On instruction from local government representatives, police refused to cite the protestors, telling Thomas to contact County Commissioner Charles H. Crandon.<ref>Bush, 8-9, 16-17; Virginia Key Beach Park Trust, Master Plan, 10; Dunn, 16; National Park Service, section 8 page 10; ''Miami Herald'', "No Arrests: Negroes Test Beach Rights at Haulover", May 10, 1945.</ref>

Local businessmen and government officials had privately conceded something had to be done about the race problem. The economy was – and is – heavily reliant upon its good reputation with tourists.  A decision was made to compromise race restrictions on recreation by designating a "colored-only" beach on Virginia Key. Crandon and Thomas negotiated the establishment of the "Virginia Key Beach, a Dade County Park for the exclusive use of Negroes," (today, the Historic Virginia Key Beach Park). It opened on August 1, 1945.<ref>Virginia Key Beach Park, Master Plan, pp. 12-13; National Park Service, section 8, page 11.</ref>

There are several urban myths about the selection of Virginia Key by county officials, each with a kernel of truth – but there was an historic connection of at least several decades’ standing. A 1918 survey map of the "Abandoned Military Reservation" on Virginia Key located a "Negro Dancing Pavilion" on the island's southeastern shore of the "colored-only" beach. From 1945 to 1947, Miami's Blacks traveled to the beach exclusively by boat – public and private. The opening of the Rickenbacker Causeway in 1947 connected Virginia Key and Key Biscayne with the mainland and vehicular travel began.<ref>Oral history interview with Willie C. Dyons, Dorothy Graham, Harold Braynon Jr., and Alpha Mashak, by Anthony E. Dixon, Ph.D. and Robert Blount, 2008; National Park Service, section 8, pages 11-13.</ref>

The new Park enjoyed instant popularity. For a time, county government honored the "separate but equal" status of Virginia Key Beach with its white counterpart, Crandon Park on Key Biscayne. The original temporary buildings were replaced by permanent construction, a miniature railroad carried beachgoers around the park, and a seaside merry-go-round whirled riders of all ages. Still, Crandon Park was over {{convert|800|acre|km2}} with two miles (3&nbsp;km) of beachfront and Virginia Key {{convert|82|acre|m2}} with a half-mile of beach.<ref>National Park Service, section 8, pages 12-13.</ref>

When Crandon Park got a zoo, Virginia Key Beach got a pond with ornamental plants and so things began to change. When residents of Key Biscayne needed a place to dump their garbage and pump their sewage, the breezes on Virginia Key Beach turned sour, the water clouded with effluents. The long-term environmental impact has yet to be fully determined. Still, Virginia Key Beach remained a popular, even sacred place within Miami's Black community.<ref>Oral history interview with Mr. Kenneth Williams conducted by Chanelle Rose, 2005; National Park Service, section 8, page 12.</ref>