‘Her heritage was important to her.’ Miami preservationist, historian Enid Pinkney dead at 92

Miami historian and preservationist Enid Pinkney passed away Thursday at age 92, her nephew Gary Allen confirmed.

Pinkney’s passion for preserving the history of Miami’s Black pioneers, landmarks and distinguished citizens can be felt throughout the city.

“Her heritage was important to her so she carried herself in a dignified way,” her Allen said, calling her “the queen.” “Her heart was authentic when it came to historic preservation. Her work shows that. She did that tirelessly without expecting anything.”

Without Pinkney, landmarks like the Historic Hampton House would have been demolished. The same goes for the Miami Circle at Brickell Pointe and the Lemon City Cemetery. In the eyes of many Black Miamians, she personified the pride and diligence necessary to preserve their heritage.

“She didn’t want to leave this earth until she fully let people know that we were important to Miami-Dade, from Coconut Grove to down south in Richmond Heights all the way up to County Line Road,” said Bea Hines, a Miami Herald columnist and longtime friend of Pinkney.

Born Enid Curtis to Bahamian parents Lenora and Henry on Oct. 15, 1931, Pinkney was raised in Overtown along with her three siblings. Jim Crow ruled the land during her childhood yet her parents refused to let their children be intimidated.

In a 2021 interview, Pinkney told the Miami Herald about her father’s bravery and grace. One night after church, the police pulled over her family, she said. Two officers ordered Henry to step out of the car and take his hat off but her father, imbued with the knowledge of American law, refused and asked what law he had violated. Shocked, one officer slapped Henry’s hat off, packed him into the car and sped off.

The officer, however, returned Henry unharmed roughly 10 minutes later because, according to Pinkney, “he knew his rights.” Then the officer asked him if he had learned his lesson.

“’I always respect police,’” Pinkney recalled her father telling the officer. “’You the one disrespecting me because you slapped me. You knocked my hat off my head.’”

That moment — and her father in general — gave Pinkney the courage to fight for her people, no matter the opponent.

“I don’t take no crap,” Pinkney told the Herald.

As a high school senior, she served as student council president which afforded her many opportunities, including doing a radio broadcast with white students. A cross was later burned in the yard of one of the participating students, she told the Herald.

“Everybody got nervous then people started saying ‘I’ve been telling her to stop going around there with Ms. Roberts,’” Pinkney recalled, referring to her civics teacher Marie Roberts who pushed her students to do activities together. “They were telling my father that he needed to stop me from doing that because something worse could happen. But he said ‘no.’ He wasn’t going to stop me.”

Undeterred, Pinkney graduated from Booker T. Washington High School in 1949 and Talladega College in Alabama in 1953. For a short period, she worked as a social worker before eventually pursuing her M.S. from Barry University, where she graduated in 1967. Pinkney then worked as assistant principal of South Miami Middle School until her retirement in 1991.

That same year, she also married Frank Pinkney after the two had met at a wake for one of their deceased friends.

“He asked me for my phone number,” Enid told the Miami Herald in 2018. “Normally, I would give guys I didn’t know a false number. But I gave Frank my real number. I guess it was because he didn’t write it down and I thought he wouldn’t remember. To my surprise, he called me a couple of days later.”

Pinkney joined the Dade Heritage Trust, Miami-Dade County’s preservation organization, where she pushed the body to focus more on preserving Black and Native American landmarks, in the 1980s. She later became the first Black president of the trust in 1998. Under her leadership, she helped discover the Black Americans who were buried at the City of Miami Cemetery as well as worked to preserve many landmarks including the Lemon City Cemetery and the Miami Circle, the last of which brought her head to head with elected officials.

“I said ‘We got to try and preserve this because it’s the right thing to do,’” Pinkney recalled in 2021. “The City of Miami wanted to develop it so they could get money for the city. I said ‘No.’”

This story will be updated.