This Week in South Florida: N. Patrick Range II

PEMBROKE PARK, Fla. – A tug of war is underway over Virginia Key Beach, Miami’s historic Black beach, and decades’ worth of plans and promises to build a museum there to focus on Miami’s Black history.

The Miami City Commission replaced the Virginia Key Beach Trust volunteer board with themselves, of which, only the chair, Christine King, is a Black Miamian.

Then a few weeks ago, they added two others to the board.

Commissioner King declined Local 10′s invitation to be a guest on This Week in South Florida as her staff says she does not do interviews via Zoom.

But here is what she said at the recent meeting:

“It didn’t strip Black Miami of its voice, Black Miami still has a voice. I think now it is time to pass the baton. Let’s put some more life into trying to realize the dream of having a Black museum on Virginia Key Beach.”

Joining TWISF to discuss the issue was N. Patrick Range II, the former chair of the replaced trust board, who unloaded at the last meeting at the change in direction.

His conversation with TWISF host Glenna Milberg can be seen at the top of this page.