Residents launch fundraising push for a mosaic celebrating two influential community leaders
By Amelia Orjuela Da Silva
(Source The Miami Times)
Children at Charles Hadley Park often use the Olympic-size pool, unaware that the names etched onto it — Miller J. and Nancy S. Dawkins — belong to two people who significantly shaped Liberty City.
Now, a group of residents is working to make sure that story isn’t missed.
“The Dawkins exemplify servant leadership. Their advocacy focused on the needs of the community, and the empowerment and encouragement of others to grow and prosper,” said Mary Washington, chair of a committee formed to create a mural in the duo’s honor. The committee is hoping to raise $80,000 by New Year’s Day to support the project.
“I want our community to feel a sense of achievement knowing that we came together to support a project to gift an amazing work of art to the City of Miami that represents the legacy of two African American leaders of our community,” she said.
The artwork, designed by renowned artist and curator Marvin Weeks, will be installed on a city-owned building at the park, on the wall near the pool bearing the Dawkins’ names.
“It is an honor to be honest, to be recognized, and I feel as though someone else had to do it. Not just with me, but with others,” Nancy told The Miami Times. “They need to tell the story coming from us and not somebody else.”
The vision
Washington says the idea emerged during an “Arts and Entertainment Tour of Miami’s African American Footprint” in July 2024. Weeks and members of the City of Miami Arts & Entertainment Council led a tour featuring murals honoring local icons. The tour began and ended at the Dawkins pool.
“At the end of the tour, it dawned upon me that two of the people who have sacrificed and contributed so much to our community have not been honored with a mural,” Washington said. “At that moment, I decided to form a committee of community members to devote our time and efforts to raise funds to honor Mr. and Mrs. Dawkins with a mural.”
When Washington approached Weeks, he immediately agreed, proposing a durable, vibrant tile mosaic. Weeks, known for using unconventional materials, wanted the mural to honor the Dawkins’ lives and spotlight Liberty City’s richness and diversity.
“I think it illustrates the different kinds of materials that come out of our community. The idea is to incorporate all those things, the colors of their fraternities that they’re part of (Omega Psi Phi Fraternity, Inc. and Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc.), and try to incorporate flowers and plants because it’s about the environment to tell that story of those two iconic people,” he explained.
The mural project will also include a youth empowerment program. Weeks plans to host workshops for local students that will run alongside the mural’s design and installation, teaching them Liberty City history and allowing them to create their own tiles.
“I’m going to work with those students and try to engage them and have workshops and see how it’s not just a mural, but a community engagement,” Weeks said. “When they stand in front of the mural, I think they’re going to see the past, but they can also understand the projections of the future. Here’s to people who have endured through the ups and downs.”
“I am hopeful that younger generations will be inspired to achieve Mr. Dawkins’ vision of ‘every child in our community should learn to swim,’” she said. “That when they see the fabulous artwork in their community, they will be proud that it was created by a Black artist who lives in our community.”
The Olympic pool
Part of the mural’s purpose is to teach residents about the history behind Liberty City’s institutions, including the pool itself. Its existence is tied to a pivotal moment of advocacy by Miller, a former Miami city commissioner who died in 2010. When a colleague sought his vote to build a new pool in José Martí Park, Miller demanded equity.
“He asked them, if you give one to Jose Martí Park, give one to Hadley Park,” Nancy said. “They said the Black neighborhood had one already. He told them it was a hole in the ground.”
Miller refused to support the project unless both neighborhoods received pools, a stance that led to the construction of the one at Hadley Park.
“That whole track — Hadley Park — was once for Blacks. The people who worked on the railroad lived over there, and they called it Railroad Shop,” Nancy said.
Railroad Shop/Colored Addition in the 1920s was a tight-knit Black community stretching from Northwest 12th Avenue to Northwest 17th Avenue and Northwest 46th Street to Northwest 50th Street. Later, when white families moved nearby, Black residents were denied building permits and targeted for displacement. On Aug. 1, 1947, the Miami City Commission used eminent domain to immediately evict 35 Black families and build whites-only schools. The remaining families were later displaced to make way for a fire station and park.
The mural project includes a documentary that will incorporate memories of the Railroad Shop, featuring interviews with Nancy.
The senior center
T. Willard Fair (right). (issuu.com-Nikki Baker)
The Dawkins were also instrumental in securing the Carrie P. Meek Senior Center at Hadley Park. It began with a call from then–County Commissioner Barbara Carey-Shuler, who urged Miller to find someone who could start a local AARP chapter.
“They asked my husband first, and he didn’t find anybody, so he went to her, and she asked me,” Nancy recalled.
Nancy, founder and president emeritus of the Miami AARP chapter, led the group until its members were asked to leave their usual meeting place at the Caleb Center library.
Refusing to be deterred, Nancy found a vacant park building used for storage across the street. The group began meeting there and membership swelled from 100 to nearly 300, even though the elders had no air conditioning, no shelter from rain, and no real space of their own. Nancy pushed the city to act.
“The city said they didn’t have no money, so we told them to find some,” she said.
Grants secured by Congresswoman Carrie P. Meek eventually kick-started the project, and the city completed construction in 1989.
Transforming education
Nancy also spent 35 years teaching with Miami-Dade County Public Schools, beginning at Liberty City Elementary, where she was stunned to find many fifth graders lagging academically.
“They were not 5th graders. They were 1st graders. They did not know anything,” she recalled.
Instead of accepting the status quo, she redesigned her lessons, working with the principal and guidance counselor to teach students at the levels they were at.
“With doing different things that were not in the book, I was able to control the class, and I had a wonderful class.”
She recalled one student, Dorothy Bendross-Mindingall, now a school board member. Nancy says she risked her job for Bendross-Mindingall, whose stellar standardized test scores caused debate among the school’s leadership. After repeated testing, she jumped from fifth to seventh grade, later graduating from Tuskegee. Nancy also taught Congresswoman Frederica Wilson and Miami Mayor Francis Suarez.
“I would like very much for those that I touch to tell others that I didn’t just teach out of that book. I gave personal experiences that I encountered,” she said.
Dawkins went on to teach at several schools, serving as the first home and family teacher at C.O.P.E North, a school for pregnant girls. While at Booker T. Washington High, where she later retired from, she joined Father Theodore R. Gibson’s 1960 sit-ins that helped desegregate lunch counters.
“I’m not an activist to be fierce, but I do integrate quietly and without having an argument,” Nancy said.
Liberty City’s legacy
For Washington, honoring the Dawkins through public art is an act of preservation at a time when Black history is under attack.
“The Dawkins’ advocacy during the time of the Civil Rights Movement paved the way for me and others,” she said. “At the age of 102, Mrs. Nancy Dawkins continues to attend meetings and advocate for the greater good of all. I am inspired by her sacrifice and courage to continue to stand in the face of adversity at a time when there are those who are trying to cancel and erase our history and diversity.”
Even now, Nancy calls neighbors and encourages them to donate for the mural.
“I can do all I can while I can,” she said. “That’s how I want them to remember me.”
The committee seeks to raise $80,000 by Jan. 1, 2026, for artist fees, documentary production, and unveiling events. The unveiling and screening are scheduled for Black History Month 2026.
