Identity elements
Name and location of repository
Level of description
Collection
Title
Dorothy J. Fields papers
Date(s)
- 1948-2020 (Creation)
Extent
2.50 linear feet (1 record storage carton, 1 flat box, and 1 flat item)
Name of creator
Biographical history
Dorothy Jenkins Fields is a historian and archivist who was born and raised in Miami-Dade. She was one of the major actors in the preservation of the historical archives of Black Miami-Dade. Her outstanding work was recognized by numerous awards. In 2024, she was named a 2024-2025 Creative Futures Fellow by the University of Miami’s Center for Global Black Studies.
Dr. Fields obtained her BFA from Spelman College in Atlanta, Georgia in 1964 and received her Master’s degree from the University of Northern Colorado in 1974. In 1977, she founded The Black Archives History and Research Foundation of South Florida, Inc., a nonprofit manuscript and photographic archival repository to preserve the history of African-American communities in Miami. She also contributed to the organization of Miami-Dade’s Women’s Park. One of her greatest achievements, though, was leading the efforts against the demise of buildings in the historic area of Overtown, especially the Lyric Theatre.
She served as an educator for the Miami-Dade County Public Schools for four decades as well as for five years as a chair of Miami-Dade’s Historic Preservation Board. She is also part of the advisory board for the Haitian Heritage Museum and a board member of the Vizcaya Museum. She has two daughters, the attorney Katherine Fields Kpehyee Marsh and the Pulitzer-winner historian Edda Fields-Black.
–Vanessa Rodrigues Barcelos da Silva
Graduate Student Assistant for Manuscripts and Archives Management, Summer 2025
Sources:
(1) Black Archives Historic Lyric Theater Welcome Center Complex - https://www.miamidadearts.org/supporters-partners/black-archives-history-and-research-foundation-south-florida
(2) UM News - https://news.miami.edu/as/stories/2024/08/archival-work-with-deep-miami-roots.html
Content and structure elements
Scope and content
This collection contains audio-visual materials, clippings, periodicals, certificates, oversized materials, and research materials compiled by Dr. Dorothy J. Fields.
System of arrangement
Conditions of access and use elements
Conditions governing access
The collection is unprocessed but open for research.
Physical access
Items from this collection are kept on-campus and may be requested from the first floor Kislak Center in the Otto G. Richter Library at University of Miami. Please contact asc.library@miami.edu to request materials from this collection.
Technical access
Conditions governing reproduction
University of Miami does not own copyright. It is incumbent on the user to obtain copyright from the original creator.
Languages of the material
- English
Scripts of the material
- Latin