Nov 10, 2008 7:12 pm US/Eastern
Miami Institution Apologizes for Racist Past
MIAMI (CBS4) ―
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President Noreen Timoney read a public apology on behalf of the Women's Club to the black community.
CBS
At the Miami Woman's Club Monday, black women and white women laughed and talked together over
hors d'oeuvre's, as the August organization apologized for its racist history.
The club, on the bayfront on North Bayshore Drive, specifically prohibited black members until its bylaws were modified in 1974, and the first blacks were admitted to the group only in recent years.
Club president Noreen Timoney read a proclamation saying, "The 108-year-old Miami Woman's Club expresses profound regret for this shameful chapter of discrimination."
The Woman's Club went more than a hundred years without a black member. The closest a black person got to the place was the kitchen. Clarence Clear worked in there.
"I think we've come a long ways from the days back then. I think we've come a long ways," Clear told
CBS4 reporter Gary Nelson.
Josie Poitier, a black member who joined the club in 2005, said, "At one time, a black person couldn't come on this side of the street. Now everyone can come and be a member."
The Woman's Club was not alone in its racist ways in the "Jim Crow" era. Miami had "colored only" beaches, "white only" restrooms and drinking fountains and, as in every town across the south, blacks had to sit in the back of the bus.
When Noreen Timoney became club president in 2006, she made diversity a priority.
"We found some pretty dislikeable things about the past history of the Miami Woman's Club," Timoney said. "I can admit that."
Former
Miami Herald reporter Bea Hines said, "We have come full circle."
Hines, who is now a member, recalled a day in 1974 when she was asked to fill in for a colleague who was scheduled to make a speech at the club.
"They didn't know that I was black," Hines said. "I walked in and, of course, jaws dropped, and I got such a cold reception."
Of the apology and ceremony at the club, Hines said, "This is a perfect day."
Dorothy Fields' father worked as caretaker at the club for 50 years, from 1925 to 1975. Fields, a welll known local historian, was asked to join the club in 2001 after addressing the modern membership about the organization's discriminatory past.
"Life goes on," Fields said, "and you can either be a part of the problem or you can help be a part of the solution."
"This apology today begins to bring closure to the festering wound of discrimination," Fields said.
The club plans to hold forums on cultural diversity in connection with what President Timoney called "a new day."
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