Frosty's Flava Magazine 4th of July Edition _ June | July 2019 | Page 28

FLAVA IN MIAMI
Let’s Press Rewind & Recap The:
Wilkie D. Ferguson, Jr. Bar Association’s:
“Legacy Ball: A Celebration of Our Living Legends”
On Saturday, June 22nd, we gathered
to award scholarships and book
awards to deserving law students,
and paid tribute to H.T. Smith, Marilyn
Holifield, and Thomasina Williams, for
their leadership during the Boycott
Miami Movement.
A
LTHOUGH we celebrated these three
leaders, we also recognized there
were several crucial members of this
team who preferred to remain in the
background.
For their dedication to this Movement, we
saluted all of the players involved. On Saturday
night, we honored our Legends by exploring
the legacy they forged for us and by paying
homage to them for their sacrifice, courage,
and perseverance.
In 1990, black leaders took issue with Greater
Miami’s treatment of Nelson Mandela, and of
violence used against Haitian demonstrators.
These incidents were the catalyst for the
Boycott Miami Movement, an organized
collective effort that targeted the Miami
tourism industry, and debunked the
misconception that African-Americans were
“politically and economically impotent.”
Nearly twenty-nine years later, the lessons
gleaned from that Movement remain relevant
today.
By exploring this Movement, we hope to learn
from our Living Legends on how to effectively
organize, strategically plan, and successfully
implement targeted responses to the issues
that plague our community.
While we reflected on the past, we assessed