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The Ralph E. Shikes papers consists primarily of letters to and from Camille Pissarro, a French-Danish Impressionist painter. In addition, the papers contain Mr. Pissarro's will.

This collection also contains papers and letters from other artisits, such as Vincent Van Gogh, as well as various photographs, negatives, postcards, and a thesis written by Alexander Seltzer covering the topics of anarchism, antisemitism, the press and the Dreyfus affair.

This collection contains the records from William Robert DuPriest, who worked as the Head of the Publications Department of Miami-Dade Public Schools from 1975-2003.

This collection contains documents related to the SAVE History Project, which documents the operations and activism efforts of Safeguarding American Values for Everyone (SAVE), a grassroots nonprofit political advocacy organization located in Miami, Florida. Founded in 1993, the organization's stated mission is to "promote, protect and defend equality for people in South Florida who are lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender."

This collection contains photographs, audiovisual materials, documents, meeting minutes, training materials, ephemera, and other records which document the evolution and activism of SAVE, including its predecessor organization, the SAVE Action PAC.

Dr. Josephine Johnson is Professor Emeritus of the University of Miami School of Communication, former Chair of the Department of Communications, and alumna of the University. Her scholarship extends from W. B. Yeats to post-modern British poets. She is a recognized solo performer throughout the country.

Josephine Johnson's papers contains documents pertaining to her work in organizing a number of poetry events in the Miami area, including the Richter Library Poetry Series and poetry recitals in Beaumont Hall presented by the University of Miami Chamber Theatre, as well as personal research materials.

The collection contains videocassettes, DVDs, film reels, clippings, letters, reports, certificates, sheet music, photos, programs, manuscripts.

This collection features an array of scrapbooks, many of which are homemade, from the 19th and 20th centuries. Subjects covered in these scrapbooks include fashion, advertising, history, Robert Louis Stevenson, Pat Cannon's congressional run, garden clubs, cruises, and more. These scrapbooks are comprised of portraits, photographs, postcards, newspaper clippings, programs, brochures, maps, drawings, telegrams, and more. Some of the creators are unknowns or names without renown, but these scrapbooks highlight their personal tastes and interests, offering some unique insight into their lives.

A growing collection of documents, photographs, and correspondence pertaining to the capture, purchase, bargaining, and freedom of enslaved people in Europe, Africa, and the Americas from the 18th to the 20th century. The collection contains a variety of petitions, contracts, estate settlements, and ephemera that record the activities of enslaved people during that era and illustrate the relationship between enslaved people and the people who enslaved them, as well as local government policy regarding enslavement and ownership in various parts of the Americas. Also included the collection are images and ephemera that feature racial caricatures, which were prevalent during their time of printing.

This collection documents the initiatives and issues surrounding local farmworkers in the United States, who are often comprised of migrant workers from the Caribbean, Mexico, Central, and South America. One of the topics covered within includes the ¡Que Calor! campaign organized by WeCount, which fights for the rights and health concerns of farmworkers who are often subject to dangerous heat levels in Florida.

Materials include periodicals, fliers, programs, pamphlets, buttons, clothing, and other ephemera pertaining to various local organizations, such as the aforementioned WeCount, the Coalition of Immokalee Workers, the Farmworker Association of Florida, and the Student/Farmworker Alliance.

This collection houses archival materials pertaining to the history of fashion on a global level and currently features 65 issues of the popular French publication, Art-Goût-Beauté, from the years 1921 to 1932 and assorted French clippings and pamphlets.

Henry Reich, Jr. was a poet and author, member of the American Literary League, a previous New York secretary of the Rebel Poets, and a frequent contributor to newspapers and magazines. The collection predominantly consists of Reich's correspondence, and his poetry and articles. The form of these poems and articles range include manuscripts, typescripts, clippings, scrapbook compilations, and periodicals and books in which Reich's poetry appeared. Notably, four issues of The Jewish Forum from 1927 in which Reich was published are included.

Also included are several photographs of Reich.

This collection consists of archival materials acquired that relate back to Marjory Stoneman Douglas, the well known environmentalist who was a major force in the fight to preserve the Everglades.

Power U for Social Change was founded in 1999 by renowned activists Denise Perry and Sheila O’Farrell. Perry has been a dedicated international labor and community organizer for over twenty-five years; she has organized health care workers into labor unions in the east and southeastern U.S. and worked throughout Africa and the Caribbean to train and work with women labor activists as a part of the Women’s Global Equity Project. Power U was originally based in the historic Black community of Miami, Overtown (1896), as the organization formed in order to fight for solutions to threats being faced by this area specifically, such as poor-quality, unaffordable housing, and gentrification. However, in latter years Power U has placed additional focus on working with schools to advocate for young students of color, as well as continuing to address issues of environmental justice and emerging challenges faced by vulnerable communities.

Being a historically Black neighborhood, Overtown – named “Colored” town in the Jim Crow Era – has been variously subject to state neglect and, in recent years, an excess of attention; however, the continuity between the discrepancies in how Overtown has been (dis)engaged with lie in the fact that at no point has the county championed the interests of the residents. Once a bustling center of Black industry, Overtown has been in decline since the early 1960s when the construction of the highway I-95 decimated the business district and led to the removal of 10,000 people¹. In the years leading up to the founding of Power U, Overtown became under threat again but for different reasons. Samara and Chang narrate, “Long neglected, the Overtown neighborhood has in recent years become an area of interest to the city and to developers. The ‘revitalization’ of Miami has made Overtown suddenly valuable again, but the proximity of a poor, Black neighborhood to downtown stands as a glaring obstacle to urban renewal. This combination of ‘bad’ people and good land could only mean one thing in the new Miami: the neighborhood had to be redeveloped” (14). The notion that Overtown is “suddenly valuable again” is a story that is having yet another revival in context of Black neighborhoods in Miami such as Little Haiti and parts of Allapattah where the pressures of rising sea levels have galvanized interest in these elevated areas². Therefore, both Power U’s initial and continued work in Overtown has proven to be vital in an area that is under consistent threat; for example, in 2003 they stopped the expansion of an I-95 ramp that would cause further destruction in addition to the initial damage wreaked by the highway. In addition, in 2008 Power U created the Renter Majority Project in response to the growing epidemic of substandard living conditions and illegal evictions in Overtown, the renters being at the mercy of “slumlords³.” With the assistance of the Community Justice Project and DataCenter, they undertook a huge survey of individual people in the neighborhoods of Liberty City, Little Haiti, Wynwood, Allapattah, Overtown, Coconut Grove, and Little Havana which evaluated housing costs, quality, and renter rights⁴. The report, “State of Miami Renters,” was subsequently published in June 2012⁵.

In 2007, in response to the violent repression of a peaceful student demonstration in a predominantly Black high school in Miami’s urban core, Power U became actively involved in the fight to dismantle the school-to-prison pipeline and promote restorative justice practices in schools. Their development of restorative justice practices, including the anti-criminalization of school children, was a focused extension of work they had already begun to revitalize Miami’s school system, such as obtaining one million dollars in funding for school improvements. In 2003, they provided certified graduation for more than one hundred and forty students who had met all graduation requirements but failed to graduate on the basis of the Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test (FCAT), which has already attracted huge criticism on the basis that the State set achievement goals on the basis of race and ethnicity, and set far higher and harder to achieve goals for Black and Hispanic students, for example, than it did for white and Asian students⁶. In the same year, they also established the People of Color Alliance for Public Schools. Throughout Power U’s various endeavors, the voices of the children actually affected by racist practices that have compromised their educational pathways are consistently centralized. In 2012 in association with Advancement Project⁷, Power U released a video documentary in which students of color discussed their personal experiences of the school discipline crisis in South Florida, explaining how they felt pushed out of the classroom and racially targeted by school staff through harsh disciplinary practices that were not commensurate with the codes of conduct they had supposedly broken⁸. Their efforts seemed to have paid off when, in 2015, Miami-Dade County Public Schools (MDCPS) announced that they would no longer suspend students from school, but rather send them to “Student Success Centers,” which would offer additional support to struggling students. However, as detailed in Power U’s 2017 report, Miami-Dade County Public Schools: The Hidden Truth, which was a result of interviews and surveys of over five hundred young people, these success centers are anything but successful and are actually serving to mask continuing systemic discriminatory practices in Miami’s schools.

Founded by feminist activists, unsurprisingly Power U has consistently advocated and developed programming specifically for women and Lesbian, Gay, Bi, Transgender, Queer, Intersex, and Asexual (LGBTQIA) youth. In 2009, they launched their first reproductive justice project, Powerful Women and Families (PWF). PWF worked towards developing Black mothers’ consciousness and organizing skills to increase their agency over their own birthing experiences. Through a variety of workshops, training, and campaigns Power U aimed to demystify the medicalization of birthing, expose community members to the tradition of midwifery, and extolled the benefits of breastfeeding. Because of resource constraints, Power U unfortunately had to discontinue the PWF program but stays committed to maintaining reproductive justice as a crucial element of their work. For example, Power U runs programs at a local alternative high school for young parents, which combines birth and political education to develop participants’ awareness of reproductive justice, criminalization, and restorative justice. More so, in The Hidden Truth Power U dedicated substantial space to specifically analyze Miami-Dade County public schools in terms of the experiences of young Black femmes and Transgender and Gender and Gender Non-Conforming (TGNC) students. In the report they argued, “If our schools continue to be environments where girls’ bodies, sexualities and identities are preyed upon and objectified, our schools will continue to be unsafe” (10).

Aside from their continued projects and advocacy, key to Power U as an organization is the sustained recruitment of new generations of Black and Brown working-class activists, who through social media and on-the-ground organizing, continue to safeguard Power U’s presence as a resource for some of the most vulnerable populations in Miami.

Written by:
Laura Bass
UGrow Fellow for the Department of Manuscripts and Archives Management, 2019-2020

Notes:

¹ See also N. B. D. Connolly. “Colored, Caribbean, and Condemned: Miami's Overtown District and the Cultural Expense Progress, 1940-1970.” Caribbean Studies, vol. 34, no. 1, 2006, pp. 3–60.
² See Jesse M. Keenan, Thomas Hill, and Anurag Gumber. “Climate gentrification: from theory to empiricism in Miami-Dade County, Florida.” Environmental Research Letters, vol. 13, no. 5, 2018, iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/1748-9326/aabb32.
³ See Roshan Nebhrajani. “Smashing the Slumlords in Liberty City.” The New Tropic, 26 Jan. 2017, thenewtropic.com/smashing
slumlords-liberty-city/. Also, see website for the organization Struggle for Miami’s Affordable and Sustainable Housing (SMASH), www.smash.miami/.
⁴ For more information about the Community Justice Project see: Community Justice Project Records, Special Collections, University of Miami Libraries.
⁵ Power U for Social Change, Community Justice Project, and DataCenter. “State of Miami Renters.” June 2012, pp. 1-23, static1.squarespace.com/static/54179ca4e4b0b0c7bc710d3d/t/54225611e4b097e05f75b895/1411536401877/State+of+Renter+Report.pdf
⁶ See John O’ Connor. “Explaining Florida’s New Race-Based Achievement Goals.” State Impact: NPR, 15 Oct. 2012, stateimpact.npr.org/florida/2012/10/15/explaining-floridas-new-race-based-achievement-goals/.
⁷ See advancementproject.org/ for details about the Advancement Project.
⁸ See video here: www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=159&v=sbkfdg84g8U&feature=emb_title.

Works Cited:

Power U and Advancement Project. Miami-Dade County Public Schools: The Hidden Truth. October 2017.

Samara, Tony Roshan, and Grace Chang. “Gentrifying Downtown Miami.” Race, Poverty & the Environment, vol. 15, no. 1, 2008, pp. 14–16.

Jason Handelsman is a writer/journalist based in Miami. This collection consists of zines and zine originals for his project, "Untitled Rough Manuscript for the President's Reality Show," his journals, personal notes, and other writings.

This collection contains various materials documenting the rich history of LGBTQ+ (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, questioning, queer, intersex, pansexual, two-spirit (2S), and asexual) culture in Florida and its many decades of political and social activism. Included within are periodicals, ephemera, political tracts, general documents, and advertisements pertaining to the LGBTQ+ lifestyle and hailing from both earlier and contemporary eras. The contents of this collection will continue to grow as more materials are purchased and collected.

"Collection of 208 Koreshan Unity Periodicals - The Guiding Star: Expositor of the Divine Science[together with] The Plowshare and Pruning Hook: Indicator of Commercial Equation[together with] The Flaming Sword[bound together with] The Salvator and Scientist: Evangel of Koreshanity, the Religion of Science and Life.

A substantial group of periodicals and newsletters edited and written by Dr. Cyrus R. Teed, a Utica, NY native and founder of the Koreshan Unity. 'Koreshanity,' as it was also known, was born in the wake of two related western movements: the millenial fervor that swept early-to-mid 19th century central and western New York State, and the utopian communalism that began attracting increasing numbers of adherents during the same period and into the later 19th century.' A graduate of Eclecitc Medical College of the City of New York, Teed's inerests went beyond medicine to encompass alchemy, botany, physics, and metaphysics, and he would regularly conduct experiments in these areas inside what would become known as Koreshanity after experiencing a late-night religious vision. During what he called his 'illumination,' he saw a beautiful woman who revealed to him a series of universal truths which formed foundamental principles of Koreshan belief. 'Among Teed's most interesting beliefs was cellular cosmogony, or the hollow earth - the notion that the earth was not a convex sphere but instead a hollow, concave cell, containing the entire universe with the sun at its center.

After failed attempts at founding communal settlements in Moravia, Syracuse, and New York City, Teed moved to Chicago, IL, where his persuasive oratory enabled him to assemble a firm core of followers in the late 1880's and form the commune called Beth-Ophra. Teed incorporated his organization there as the College of Life in 1886, and established a printing house that began producing three major publications: The Guiding Star, The Flaming Sword, The Plowshare and Pruning Hook. 'These publications began a long legacy of Koreshan publishing aimed at the public as well as their own members, intending to explain and promote their beliefs, relate and preserve their story, and discuss political, social, scientific, and religious ideas and issues.' The Salvator and Scientist, a short-lived publication publsihed concurrently with The Flaming Sword, focused primarily on aspects of Koreshan science, astronomy, and geodesy.

Believing himself to be a messiah who would lead his people in establishing a New Jerusalem, Teed assumed the name Koresh in 1891 (after Cyrus the Great, King of Persia). As with his previous locations, Teed's beliefs did not endear him or his followers to the general public, forcing him to relocate from Chicago to the quiet beach town of estero, FL. in 1894, the final home of the Koreshan Unity where Teed would establish his New Jerusalem. It was here that the Koreshan Unity established a growing, self-sustaining community, though at the height of the movement, their membership numbered no more than 250. Apparently, there were an additional 4,000 members scattered throught the country, including a small contingent who formed a short-lived Koreshan community in San Francisco, CA. Teed died in Florida in December 1908, nearly two years after a brawl with citizens of nearby Ft. Myers, during which he was struck in the head and face several times. " -Lorne Bair / http://www.lornebair.com/

The StoryCorps-Warmamas Community Archive (2013-2015) is a collection of interviews with enlisted men and women, veterans, their family and friends. The collaboration between StoryCorps and Warmamasis part of StoryCorps' Military Voices Initiative which serves as a platform to allow military families to share their experiences.  Warmamas also places a special emphasis on interviewing women whose children were deployed  to serve in the Iraq and Afghanistan wars. As a repository for personal reflections on the ramifications  of war, the collection includes individual testimonies and helps to document American history.

The Louinès Louinis Haitian Dance Theatre collection contains photographs, pamphlets, programs, ephemera, audio-visual materials (VHS and DVDs), clippings, correspondence, and other archival materials documenting the history of the theater and its founder, Louinès Louinis.

The James Merrick Smith and Hal F. B. Birchfield collection contains images, letters, news articles, DVDs and a CDs highlighting the stellar lives, careers and involvement of James Merrick Smith and Hal Birchfield in their personal, professional and civic activities.

With his vision of design becoming much more than the up-market selling of merchandise, James Merrick Smith set about the machinery of change that would make interior design a legitimate and accredited profession.   This progression would require the development of education, testing, administration and implementation and then onward to governmental accreditation. James Merrick Smith was the person that not only had the vision but the guts and the charisma and good fortune to find others to help fulfill this dream of professionalization of the field of interior design. Life partner Hal Birchfield would also be a part of this much involved process. And among other facets of their lives was the matter of the highly respected professional work the office of James Merrick Smith and Hal Birchfield achieved, setting high professional standards for interior design excellence.