Historic Virginia Key Beach 80th Reunion

Virginia Key Beach, founded in 1945 after a nonviolent protest against segregation, became the only beach in Miami legally accessible to Black residents during the Jim Crow era. Beyond being a cherished site for family gatherings, baptisms, and music festivals, it also served as a training and recreation base for Black servicemen stationed in South Florida during World War II. At a time when Black soldiers were risking their lives abroad but denied basic rights at home, Virginia Key offered a rare refuge—a place of dignity, rest, and resistance. The beach played a vital role in community organizing and civil rights activism, hosting rallies and building collective power in South Florida’s Black communities. Today, it remains sacred ground, where waves still carry the memory of joy, struggle, and a people’s refusal to be erased making is an ideal historic space to gather the CUZZINs.

The Poetry Potluck truly is a…