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PRO M L m I F a gr RY h Pro MENTA c r u U h ck C RY DOC a l B ric TO Histo RAL HIS O
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y Y: r E o t K s O Hi M y t S i OLD ommun AC MIAMILAW UNIVERSITY OF MIAMI SCHOOL OF LAW
“In the middle of it all, a run-down city incinerator from which the Negro people had no service whatsoever, day and night spewed out its reeking smoke and sooty ash into all open windows and its flaming, blowing, half-consumed rubbish over the near-by frame houses constantly in danger of fire. No one paid much attention to the proper enforcement of city ordinances. There were no colored policemen.� ~Marjory Stoneman Douglas Environmentalist, Activist, and Journalist Author of The Everglades: River of Grass
Contents Historic Black Church Program Oral History Documentary Film Project
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Ransom Everglades School Partnership
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History of Old Smokey
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Featured 10 Delores Patterson Baine
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Francina Hopkins Berry
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Dr. George Gonzalez
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Jimmie Ingraham
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Theodore W. Johnson
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Dr. Steven E. Lipshultz
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Arva Moore Parks
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Antoniette Blanche Price
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Dr. Joyce M. Price
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Arlyne Schockett Tobin
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Michael Tobin
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Linda Williams
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Screening of OLD SMOKEY: A Community History 20 Special Thanks
Select photos provided by Bob Mack, photographer, Miami News Collection, HistoryMiami, 1989-011-8576, and Bob Simms Collection, Special Collections, University of Miami Libraries, Coral Gables, Florida. All rights reserved. Used with permission.
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With an estimated one ton of smoke and ash spewing from Old Smokey’s stack each day (Miami Area Air Pollutant Emission Inventory, 1970), the West Grove quickly garnered comparisons to heavily polluted and industrialized cities like Pittsburgh and Chicago. Newspaper accounts from the 1960s reported instances where the smoke from the incinerator was so thick that it obstructed airplanes flying into Miami International Airport, requiring them to resort to instrument landings.
Historic Black Church Program Oral History Documentary Film Project The Historic Black Church Program Oral History Documentary Film Project signals an unprecedented campus-community partnership intended to preserve the rich cultural and social history of faithbased communities of color in South Florida, support universitywide interdisciplinary collaboration, and educate a new generation of high school, college, and graduate students about the crucial leadership role of Historic Black Churches in Afro-CaribbeanAmerican communities.
In the 2013-2014 academic year, law student fellows, Ariel Mitchell, Chris Ivory, and Zach Lipshultz, led a research team comprised of Ransom Everglades High School students and community leaders and volunteers in an effort to document the history of Old Smokey, the former City of Miami trash incinerator that operated from 1926-1970. The incinerator was labeled Old Smokey by residents because of its excessive ash, smell, and smoke. This film explores the Environmental Justice movement in the West Grove and chronicles the experiences of living, working, and attending school and church just yards away from Old Smokey.
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“...[O]ften, our teachers wouldn’t even want us to be out there in it because it wasn’t good... [T]he smell was as bad as the ash itself that came out of Old Smokey because...even when it wasn’t burning... the odor was still there, and we knew it. But it was a way of life. What were we going to do? We had to go to school.” ~Delores Patterson Baine West Grove resident
During the academic year the Oral History Fellows along with high school students from Ransom Everglades researched the project, interviewed community members and professionals, and produced a written report for forthcoming publication. In addition, the Project team worked closely with the University of Miami Special Collections librarians to create an archival exhibit. The Project team gives special thanks to its partners—Ransom Everglades School, Special Collections, University of Miami Libraries, HistoryMiami, George Washington Carver High School Alumni Association, and the Coconut Grove Ministerial Alliance—for their assistance and enthusiasm. Fellows Chris Ivory Zach Lipshultz Ariel Mitchell Project Coordinators Catherine Millas Kaiman Cindy McKenzie
Ransom Everglades School Partnership The Oral History Documentary Film Project highlights the importance of community while sharing and protecting the remarkable stories of many members of Coconut Grove, particularly the West Grove residents. One of the most unique aspects of this project is the partnership with Ransom Everglades School. Our students feel humbled to have handson experience interviewing and working closely with such a diverse group of people. Ransom Everglades students feel privileged to form bonds and build relationships with our neighbors. While student learn of injustices and prejudice parts of our local area, they feel moved to create change and raise awareness. This is a gift and for that we feel grateful. We have seen how new Bahamian families found a better life, how the Civil Rights movement created both hardship and opportunity, how Old Smokey left a toxic legacy, and most importantly how a community can come together to make a difference. When Paul Ransom arrived here in 1897, it is well documented that he knew of the significant Bahamian culture and the pioneering people who called this area home. As neighbors, we have the utmost respect for the culture and community that surround us. It is our goal to make sure that we work together and continue to support this project. We home to enrich the lives of those around us and support the greater Miami community in becoming a place of inclusivity and understanding. Not only is it an honor to be a part of this effort, but it is 4
our duty to serve this community and make sure that the vibrant and strong history is never forgotten. Erin Housiaux Assistant Dean of Students Ransom Everglades School
The Students’ Perspective As Ransom Everglades students, we daily attend school only hundreds of feet from the community of the West Grove, and yet, for most of us, interaction with that community has been limited. The Oral History Documentary Film Project has opened us up to this community so close to us. It is now strange to consider how foreign the West Grove seemed to us before we started working on this project. The project has given us the opportunity to match unique identities and stories with the men and women we see daily as we commute to school. The project gives us a sense of what it means to be part of the West Grove. Being able to interact with Grove residents, to hear their stories, and to see their passion for the community allows us to have a strong grasp of the West Grove culture. The West Grove has a rich and interesting history, and we as students are incredibly fortunate to help preserve it. Carter Shoer Class of 2014 Ransom Everglades School
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History of Old Smokey In 1926, the City of Miami constructed a municipal waste incinerator in West Coconut Grove at 3425 Jefferson Street.1 Infamously dubbed “Old Smokey,” the incinerator burnt the City’s garbage night and day, blanketing the surrounding segregated community in its ashes. Throughout the first half of the 20th century, Southern racial segregation under the Jim Crow laws relegated black Coconut Grove and Coral Gables residents to an area known as the West Grove, or East Gables. Living conditions in the community during Jim Crow segregation were dire. Basic services such as sewage and municipal drinking water were not provided until long after they were received by neighboring white communities.2 Old Smokey was significant detriment to quality of life in the West Grove.3 Ashes and embers emanating from the incinerator’s smokestack lit fire to surrounding wood-frame houses, blackened air-dried laundry, and disrupted the lives of residents and students at nearby schools, Carver High and Tucker Elementary. Indeed, the smoke that billowed from Old Smokey was so dense at times that it forced planes landing at Miami International Airport to resort to instrument landings.4 Referred to by some as “Little Pittsburgh” due to the pollution Old Smokey dispersed throughout the community,5 the low quality of life in the West Grove drew the attention of environmental and civil rights visionaries Marjory Stoneman Douglas and Bill Baggs.6 Despite persistent protests from West Grove residents, the City of Miami expanded Old Smokey in 1960, increasing its garbage burning capacity to 300 tons per day.7 While the City promised a new smokeless incinerator, the so-called “Cadillac” of its kind, the facility was far from it.8 Design flaws contributed to the incinerator spewing an estimated 1-ton of ash into the West Grove community daily,9 and eventually the City of Coral Gables and 22 of their residents sued Miami to permanently stop operation of Old Smokey.10 In 1970 Judge Raymond Nathan deemed Old Smokey a public and private nuisance and ordered the 1 2 3
Nick Madigan, In the Shadow of ‘Old Smokey,’ a Toxic Legacy, N.Y. Times, Sept. 22, 2013. Marjory Stoneman Douglas, Coconut Grove, Florida, Faces its Slums, Ladies’ Home Journal, Oct. 1950. Planning Board of the City of Miami, The Slum Clearance Committee of Dade County Health Dep’t, Dwelling Conditions in the Two Principal Blighted Areas, Miami, Florida, 1949, available at University of Miami Richter Library, Special Collections—Florida. 4 Editorial, Finally a Legal Lid on Top of Old Smoky, Miami Herald, Jan. 29, 1970. 5 Charles R. Jacobson, Letter to the Editor: Coconut Grove Has Problems, Miami News, May 29, 1961. 6 Marjory Stoneman Douglas, supra note 2; Bill Baggs, Smoke Screen, Miami News, Mar. 30, 1962. 7 Miami’s New Renewal Bond May Get Pollution Rider, Miami News, Jan. 28, 1970. 8 Dick Nellius, Grovites Cast Black Looks at Old Smoky, Miami News, Mar. 9, 1963. 9 Michael McGraw, Miami—Ft. Lauderdale—West Palm Beach Metropolitan Area Air Pollutant Emission Inventory, United States Division of Health, Education, and Welfare; Environmental Health Service, Office of Air Programs Publication No. APTD-0821, April 1970. 10 Morton Lucoff, Sparks Fly as Gables Asks Court to Shut Down Grove Incinerator, Miami News, Oct. 13, 1969.
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incinerator permanently closed.11 In 1983 the Old Smokey was renovated and repurposed as the City of Miami’s Fire College.12 Shut down before the passage of modern environmental laws, no formal environmental testing or remediation occurred at the site of Old Smokey until 2011.13 At the request of concerned West Grove residents, an area-wide study was conducted in 2013 to assess the environmental quality in the 1-mile area surrounding the former incinerator.14 The results of this study revealed contamination at two parks near the site of the Old Smokey that were previously used as dumps for incinerator ash.15 Subsequently, all City of Miami parks were ordered to be tested, leading to the closure of 7 parks in total: Blanche Park, Merrie Christmas Park, Curtis Park, Southside Park, Billy Rolle Domino Park, Douglas Park, Bayfront Park.16 To date, only one, Blanche Park, is completely remediated. The extent to which Old Smokey contaminated the areas immediately surrounding the former incinerator is still unknown, and testing and remediation efforts at the site are ongoing.17
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City of Coral Gables v. City of Miami, Docket No. 67-7593 (Fla. Cir. Ct. Oct. 27, 1969). Jenny Staletovich, City Inaction on Polluted Soil Angers Residents, Miami Herald, Sept. 7, 2013. Id. SCS ES Consultants, Regional Site Assessment Report Coconut Grove Fire Rescue Training Center (UT-3786/File-9598) 3425 Jefferson Street City of Miami, Miami-Dade County, Florida (Oct. 3, 2013) (available at derm.miamidade.gov). Jenny Staletovich, Contaminated Soil Found in Blanche Park, Miami Herald, Sept. 9, 2013; Jenny Staletovich, Toxic Soil Closes Second Miami Park; More Tests Ordered, Miami Herald, Sept. 24, 2013. Jenny Staletovich, Lead is Found in Soil at Bayfront Park, Miami Herald, Feb. 5, 2014. Letter from Wilbur Mayorga, Department of Environmental Resource Management, Miami-Dade County, to Daniel J. Alfonso, City of Miami, Regarding Completion of Onsite & Offsite Corrective Actions for the City of Miami Fire Training Center facility (DERM File#9598/UT-3786) Located at, Near, or In The Vicinity Of 3425 Jefferson Street, Miami, Miami-Dade County, Florida, (Oct. 21, 2014)(available at derm.miamidade.gov).
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“Old Smokey belched down smoke and ashes on us. Somehow we survived as a community. Hopefully it made us better as people. Hopefully it will cast light on the administrations and governments around here to realize this was something wrong that shouldn't have been done. And to address it and hopefully not hide from it, Do something about it, Clean it up.� ~Theodore W. Johnson West Grove resident
FEATURED DELORES PATTERSON BAINE Delores Baine was born in South Miami but grew up in The Grove and attended Carver for middle school and high school. She loved her experience at Carver. She describes her teaches as “amazing” and “just like family.” Her teachers “genuinely cared about her” about her, and she loved the tight knit community that The Grove was. She spent much of her working life as a bank officer in South Miami but later became a language art teacher at Coral Gables senior in order to spend more time with her family. She remembers often being “bathed in ash and ashes from whenever they fired Old Smokey.” Even though “the smell was as bad as the ash itself,” she recalls the community dealing as “it was just part of our lives.” Dealing with Old Smokey was simply a “way of life” Today Ms. Baine has many deceased family members who have passed away due to various types cancer. And although she is no longer susceptible to attacks, she has many family members who suffer from very
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severe asthma. She definitely believes there is a strong chance Old Smokey is in part to blame. She currently is very concerned about the health of many of the children who continue to play in the parks around Old Smokey. She is very critical of the City of Miami’s role throughout all this. “They need to stop making too little of this and think of how many lives have been impacted.” She also wonders why the city of Miami acted so quickly with Old Smokey contamination in Coral Gables (Merrie Christmas Park) compared to their hesitancy to do much of anything in the West Grove, “It’s just the same old, same old all over again. Am in not as valuable as any other human being? Are my Children any less valuable than the kids living in the affluent areas around Merrie Christmas park? n
FRANCINA HOPKINS BERRY By Carter Shoer
Francina Hopkins has been a Coconut Grove resident her entire life. Her family moved into the house she has lived in since her birth in 1918. Francina’s father worked
at Old Smokey as a truck driver. He would transport garbage from around the city and bring/unload it at the incinerator. Francina remembers spending a lot of time playing at Old Smokey with her siblings during the off hours. She also remembers her father bringing home toys that were thrown out and sent to the incinerator. Francina attended Carver from 1st to 12th grade, and has vivid memories of the terrible odor of Old Smokey. Many of her family members and friends have unfortunately died of an assortment of cancers, possibly as a result of spending time in the proximity of Old Smokey. n
incinerators from several decades ago and states that there are many environmental and health issues that come with these devices. Further, he brings up the point that race and class play major roles in where incinerators were placed, specifically Old Smokey. The lack of regulations also bring major issues in terms of the safety of Old Smokey. On top of that much of the issues regarding Old Smokey, the incinerator come from just how old it is. Professor Gonzalez states that the biggest environmental concern of South Florida is the Everglades and that is a problem when bringing issues like Old Smokey to light. n
DR. GEORGE GONZALEZ
JIMMIE INGRAHAM
By Sofia Butnaru
George Gonzalez is an associate professor of political science at the University of Miami. At the University of Miami he specifically teaches and researches environmental politics and policy. Professor Gonzalez was born in Chicago but was raised in Miami. Professor Gonzalez discusses in details the conditions of landfills and
Jimmie Ingraham has lived in the Coconut Grove area for 70 years. He has spent brief time in Alabama and Georgia but kept coming back to the grove. He attended Carver for both elementary school and high school. He remembers Old Smokey as being very detrimental to the community but “we had no alternative, we had to take it.� He describes the effect of Old Smokey on
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Carver’s classroom experience as “terrible,” and although he loved Carver he believed that without Old Smokey present, he would have had a “better education.” He recites instances where the smoke and ash got so bad that the teacher would have to stop teaching and his class would have to leave their classrooms and “lock up” in the cafeteria just to “make the day through.” Additionally houses around the incinerator used to always catch fire but calling the fire department was “just like calling nobody.” At Carver Jimmie ran track and played basketball, football and tennis. He remembers simple things like breathing and seeing being a struggle due smoke being all over the courts and fields. But throughout all this time Jimmie asserts that he and his neighbors loved living in Coconut Grove. He is fully aware of the health implications that old Smokey had on his community and he thinks “they should compensate those people for their illness for all those years.” n
THEODORE W. JOHNSON By Carter Shoer
Theodore Johnson is a graphic designer from Coconut Grove. He attended George Washington Carver for high school, and graduated in 1964 as president of his class. He noted that Carver was extremely important for the Coconut Grove community because it was the center of almost all social life, and it brought people together. Theodore remembers the days when Old Smokey was burning the trash, and he noted that the smell was quite prominent and soot would fall down. He also remembers that he and his friends used to play in
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the lot where the trucks that brought the trash to the incinerator were parked, and acknowledged that they sometimes played under the smoke and would get soot on their clothes. Mr. Johnson said that everyone became accustomed to the smoke, and that it was just a regular part of a normal day. Looking back on his past, Theodore Johnson is amazed that the Coconut Grove community continued to thrive despite the terrible environmental conditions. n
DR. STEVEN E. LIPSHULTZ By Adrian Grant-Alfieri
Dr. Steven Lipshultz is a pediatric cardiologist and the Physician in Chief of the Children’s Hospital in Michigan. Dr. Lipshultz lived in Miami much of his life and previously worked at the University of Miami’s School of Medicine. He has been studying the long-term health consequences of environmental exposures during childhood for more than thirty years. In his view, to truly understand the health effects of an environmental exposure, one must find a balance between the “benefit and the risks associated with it” and “follow those that have been exposed over time and see what happens in terms of their health.” When there is community concern about the health consequences of an exposure, he believes the first step is to document that agents exist that have increased risks of cancer. Once these agents are confirmed through scientific testing, they should be tracked over long periods of time through multiple generations to determine the health consequences. Dr. Lipshultz has worked in a number of
these exact situations, for example studying and documenting the long-term health effects on Japanese children and adults who lived where the atomic bombs were dropped in Japan sixty-five years ago. Dr. Lipshultz worked with both the United States government and the Japanese government to follow the affected persons over their lifespan, examining early effects along with multiple later stage health effects. This specific process of analysis can also be used in the West Grove following the effects of the Old Smokey incinerator on the community, according to Dr. Lipshultz. He believes that by determining that soil toxins are present in local Coconut Grove parks through soil sample testing, decades after the incinerator was closed, people living nearby during the time of its operation could still demonstrate harmful health effects. The second step in this process would be to put together a panel of various health experts to examine findings and put together a database of the health effects across several West Grove generations, with Dr. Lipshultz himself having a background in the development of cardiovascular problems. According to Dr. Lipshultz, this could be the “right approach for this community to gather data…and data is powerful.” In a situation like the one in the West Grove, the community must come together and “work with local agencies for public health,” then design and implement a strategy to successfully fix the issue. Dr. Lipshultz stresses that above all, it is extremely important to “listen, interact… and get the community involved because it is their community.” n
ARVA MOORE PARKS By Jackson Mihm
Mrs. Arva Parks is a renowned South Floridian historian, with a particular interest for the West Grove neighborhood. She graduated from the University of Florida in 1960, and later went on to earn her master’s degree from the University of Miami in 1971. She has authored several books and films on Miami and Coconut Grove. Among her most important publication is the book “Miami, the Magic City.” Her films have received several honors, including an Emmy from the Florida Academy of Television Arts and Sciences. She was honored as Coral Gables Citizen of the year and inducted into the Florida Women’s Hall of Fame in 1986. She has worked to help preserve the Truman Little White House in Key West and the Biltmore Hotel in Coral Gables. She has run both HistoryMiami and the Coral Gables Museum. Mrs. Parks’ knowledge of the area, especially the West Grove, is unparalleled. Her passion for the neighborhood is evident through her actions to preserve the rich history of the West Grove. She is an invaluable resource when talking about the neighborhood because of her extensive insight. n
ANTONIETTE BLANCHE PRICE By Sofia Butnaru and Jackson Mihm
Antoniette Blanche Price was raised in Coconut Grove, Florida is one of four siblings. Her family has lived in the Coconut Grove area since the 1920s. Old Smokey, the trash incinerator, was just two blocks
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“I think they owe more than an apology. Ethically and spiritually they need to come together and do something for that community because those people that have lived through that, they need to make sure that their health status is not compromised. That's my biggest problem, the health status of the people and the people that are still going— they're playing on those fields. Even though they put dirt on top of dirt, it is still there within, in a good supply around the incinerator.� ~Dr. Joyce Price West Grove resident
from Ms. Price’s house; and she has mixed memories of Old Smokey. When she was young, Price would often play on the hill of Old Smokey. She recalls fond memories of going to the Old Smokey facilities and looking directly into the incinerator. She had a neighbor who worked at the plant and she remembers how he would give her family toys from the garbage lot and also remembers how she would skate down the hill where Old Smokey stood. At the time she says that the only downside about Old Smokey was that there were certain days where people who lived near could not go outside because of the stench. Ms. Price says that Monday was typically the worst day because all of the rotting food from the weekend would be burnt off them. Aside from the so called “stink days” though, at the time she thought that Old Smokey was “fun”. When discussing the various health issues in her family (which include cancer and respiratory issues) she stated that her family never thought that they related to Old Smokey. Now that Old Smokey has been connected to respiratory Ms. Price thinks that the City should reimburse victims rather than give an apology. To her, an apology does nothing for the victims because it will not bring back those who have died or cure those who are sick. Ms. Price attended George Washington Carver and graduated in 1954. After graduating Price went into Nursing and became an LPN. During this time she lived in California and gave birth to her son. Further, she also travelled extensively. Antoniette Price, now in her seventies, retired eight years ago due to her sister’s illness. n
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DR. JOYCE M. PRICE By Jackson Mihm
Dr. Joyce Price attended George Washington Carver High School, and was a part of the graduating class of 1959. She is a currently a registered nurse and has a PhD in psychology and Christian counseling. During her high school career she was bused to Carver from South Miami because that was the only black high school in the area. Carver High School lied just across the street from Old Smokey, an incinerator that was active from the 1925 all the way up to 1970. Old Smokey operated from about 12-3 every school day, during which it sprayed hazardous smoke, ash, and soot into the air. Dr. Price remembers that she could not have Physical Education twice a week because of the potency of the soot and the smoke. She also says that many people missed school because of frequent Asthma attacks that might be linked to Old Smokey. Many people in Coconut Grove, not just Carver suffered from health issues that might stem from Old Smokey. Dr. Price recalls that there were many early deaths relating to overexposure to smoke including: cancer, heart disease, and repertory diseases. Dr. Joyce says there were no known health effects regarding Old Smokey, at the time, but that it was no coincidence that an annoyance like that was but in a Black neighborhood. She says that the city probably thought Coconut Grove was land they could use and nobody would object to it; that no blacks would speak up for themselves. Dr. Price says that the City of Miami has a moral responsibility to help comfort those
affected by Old Smokey, and still thinks that there might be some lingering health effects from Old Smokey. She thinks that there is probably still toxic waste from Old Smokey in the soil of Coconut Grove. She says that it is the city of Miami’s duty to test the soil of Carver, Francis Tucker Elementary, and St. Alban’s Nursery because she is sure that there is still lead and arsenic in those fields, where children play. n
ARLYNE SCHOCKETT TOBIN By Adrian Grant-Alfieri
Arlene Schokett Tobin, married to Michael Tobin, has been a Miami resident and public school teacher all of her life. She has taught, beginning in 1955, at Central Beach Elementary, Sunset, Citrus Grove, Ponce de Leon, Coral Gables High, and G.W. Carver Elementary, among others. While teaching physical education at Carver Elementary, she first encountered the effects of the Old Smokey incinerator sitting next door, at the time still in operation. A result of the school’s proximity to the incinerator, ash was spewn across the playing field every day. Fumes from the incinerator also drifted across the campus before hitting Coral Gables. According to Mrs. Tobin and other teachers at the school, it was “almost impossible to breathe.” To simply go out onto the field and play, Mrs. Tobin noted, kids “really had to cover [their] faces.” Family friends with Judge Nathan, a presiding judge in the district court system in Miami-Dade Country, Mrs. Tobin could not bear the ash and the smell emanating from Old Smokey. Mrs. Tobin asked Judge Nathan to come
inspect the incinerator’s effects and try to shut it down as soon as possible. Soon after, the incinerator was closed by court order, the result of a suit by Coral Gables residents complaining about ash intruding into their upper scale neighborhood. Even in Coral Gables, ash was being deposited onto cars and roofs of citizens. By alerting Judge Nathan, Mrs. Tobin unknowingly played a essential role in ending the immediate effects of the incinerator in the West Grove community, especially Carver. Now, thanks to the efforts of teachers like Mrs. Tobin and other community leaders, G.W. Carver Elementary has dramatically improved and is “now considered one of the best;” a school that Coconut Grove can once again take pride in. n
MICHAEL TOBIN By Adrian Grant-Alfieri
Michael M. Tobin was born and raised in Miami Beach by one of the pioneering Jewish families in the area. His father was the founder of Temple Beth Shalom on Miami Beach as well. Mr. Tobin is currently an attorney and is extremely active in Coral Gables through the Chamber of Commerce, as well as the head of the task force committee and a leading voice on the Blue Ribbon Citizens Committee. Mr. Tobin’s primary community work was on the free bus system in Coconut Grove, seeing as Coral Gables already had its own system, which was later integrated into the Metro System. Without a bus system in the Grove to pick up children to go to G.W. Carver Elementary, kids would have to be
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dropped off at US-1 and then walk down the street to Carver. The other problem Mr. Tobin was partially involved in was the issue of fly ash and the smell from the Old Smokey incinerator located directly next to Carver Elementary. According to Mr. Tobin, citizens of Coral Gables around Granada received a “deposit of soot from fly ash from Old Smokey that would blacken their roofs.” This practice continued to the point where residents of the Gables, in certain areas downwind of Old Smokey, “had to paint their roofs every year in order to keep them fresh.” Mr. Tobin became involved in the Old Smokey issue due to his previous involvement in the transportation of Carver students to and from the school, as well as work with his wife, Mrs. Tobin, who was heavily involved with the issue as a teacher at G.W. Carver Elementary. n
LINDA WILLIAMS By Andrew Geraghty
Rarely does one find a community that has been so affected by an experience such as Miami’s Coconut Grove neighborhood was by the presence of the Old Smokey incinerator. Linda Williams, born in 1953 and raised in the Grove, lived through some of the incinerator’s most active years. Growing up in the heart of town, along Grand Avenue, Miss Williams explains that she and her fellow neighbors learned to live with the many nuisances caused by the incinerator: “Old Smokey was like a playground for us… She smelled awful when she puffed, but it was a norm for us. We were familiar with the smoke stack… It was a way of life.” To her and many others, the incinerator played
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such a prominent role in their upbringing that its absence took some adjusting to. Furthermore, Miss Williams and the rest of the community lived unaware of the potential hazards that such an entity posed to the health of the local residents. Today, Linda Williams serves on the Old Smokey Steering Committee, working to compile information regarding the effects of Old Smokey in the Coconut Grove area. This job, Miss Williams explains, is geared towards “find[ing] the truth.” Having learned a great deal about how the Grove community was affected by the incinerator, Miss Williams now recognizes what she and her neighbors were once unconscious of—the impact on local health and damage on “the environment, worthiness of the land.” A caring woman, Miss Williams’ primary motivation in her new work is not to point fingers at anyone responsible for the incident, but rather to look out for her community saying that “it’s about helping one another.” This desire to serve the community today is in large part an upshot of an earlier sense of helplessness when it came to what Old Smokey has resulted in: “Could we have done anything about it had we known there were problems?” Miss Williams intends on furthering the committee’s studies with the intention of accruing more data about the effects of Old Smokey. Hopefully, these endeavors may result in preventing other injustices such as this one from occurring again elsewhere. n
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OLD SMOKEY: A Community History The 2014 Oral History Documentary Film Screening of OLD SMOKEY: A Community History took place on the evening
Featuring Delores Patterson Baine Francina Hopkins Berry Dr. George Gonzalez Jimmie Ingraham
of August 23, 2014 at
Theodore W. Johnson
Elizabeth Virrick Park in
Dr. Steven E. Lipshultz
Coconut Grove, Florida.
Arva Moore Parks Antionette Blanche Price Dr. Joyce M. Price Arlyne Schockett Tobin Michael M. Tobin
Select photo provided by Bob Simms Collection, Courtesy of Special Collections, University of Miami Libraries, Coral Gables, Florida.
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Program WELCOME & INTRODUCTIONS PROFESSOR ANTHONY V. ALFIERI Director, Center for Ethics & Public Service ERIN HOUSIAUX Assistant Dean of Students, Ransom Everglades School CHRIS IVORY ZACH LIPSHULTZ ARIEL MITCHELL Historic Black Church Fellows REVEREND JOHN H. CHAMBERS President, Coconut Grove Ministerial Alliance SCREENING OF OLD SMOKEY: A Community History AWARDS PRESENTATION PANEL DISCUSSION CLOSING REMARKS
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Special Thanks COCONUT GROVE MINISTERIAL ALLIANCE ELIZABETH VIRRICK PARK Vicky Covington Travis Swain
GEORGE WASHINGTON CARVER HIGH SCHOOL ALUMNI ASSOCIATION HEAVY AIR MEDIA GROUP Javier Carrion, Film Editor Gerald Tiangco
HISTORYMIAMI NEW WAVE DEPO Jan Correggio ARVA MOORE PARKS RANSOM EVERGLADES SCHOOL Dr. Donald Cramp, Jr., Dean of Students Erin Housiaux, Assistant Dean of Students Dr. John King, Director of Studies Sandra Montes, Administrative Assistant to Upper School Deans Angela Sellati, Director of Library Services
STUDENTS Sofia Butuaru, Class of 2014 Adrian Grant-Alfieri, Class of 2014 Jackson Mihm, Class of 2016 Carter Shoer, Class of 2015 Wesley T. Villano, Class of 2015
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SPECIAL COLLECTIONS, UNIVERSITY OF MIAMI LIBRARIES Cristina Favretto, Head of Special Collections Béatrice Colastin Skokan, Special Collections Librarian
UNIVERSITY OF MIAMI SCHOOL OF LAW Professor Anthony V. Alfieri, Director, CEPS, Founder, Historic Black Church Program Catherine Millas Kaiman, Lecturer/ Practitioner-in-Residence, CEPS Cindy McKenzie, Program Manager, CEPS Ebonie Carter, Administrative Assistant, CEPS Professor Charlton Copeland
Old Smokey has been a catalyst for on-going social justice movements in the West Grove community. The community continues to ask questions, demand comprehensive environmental testing, proper remediation for affected sites, public health assessments and the creation of a disease registry. As the Environmental Justice movement continues to provide recourse to low-income and minority communities fighting pollution and industry in their neighborhoods, residents of the West Grove will remain vigilant in protecting their community from adverse health and environmental effects.
To view online the film, OLD SMOKEY: A Community History, visit www.law.miami.edu/ceps/oralhistoryfilm or to request a free DVD contact CEPS.
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CEPS CENTER FOR ETHICS & PUBLIC SERVICE
University of Miami School of Law 1311 Miller Drive Suite G287 Coral Gables, Florida 33146-8087 Ph: 305.284.3934 Fax: 305.284.1588 www.law.miami.edu/ceps ceps@law.miami.edu
MIAMILAW CEPS UNIVERSITY OF MIAMI SCHOOL OF LAW
Center for Ethics and Public Service