Florida International University professor-emeritus and historian Dr. Marvin Dunn is bringing his lecture series of the Saltwater Underground Railroad and Good Trouble to Key Biscayne.
The author, and social justice advocate, will discuss the Saltwater Underground Railroad, which was a network of routes and people that assisted enslaved Africans to go free in the coastal areas of Florida.
The event, sponsored by Friends Cape Florida, is scheduled for 5:30-7:30 p.m., on Wednesday, Nov. 19, at Pavilion D-18 at Bill Baggs Cape Florida State Park.
According to Dunn, the route was used from 1821 to 1861, where fugitives from Southern slave states sought refuge on South Florida’s beaches and later traveled to the then-British-controlled Bahamas.
The Good Trouble was a specific historical event or narrative related to the Underground Railroad or the experiences of enslaved individuals in Florida.
Dunn has deep roots in DeLand, where he was born during the Jim Crow era.
In his book, “A History of Florida Through Black Eyes,” Dunn chronicles the events of the harsh mistreatment African Americans endured including imminent death at the hands of white supremacists.
The ordeal left a lasting impression for Blacks, even after the Jim Crow law was abolished.
“I was so used to seeing the signs that read, “Whites seat from front-Colored seat from rear” on public buses that, when they were finally removed in the 1960s, sometimes I thought I still saw them there,” Dunn said in his book. “Even after his death, Jim Crow was, for a while, omnipresent mentally and emotionally in our lives; such had been his reach. No black person I knew escaped the impact of the Jim Crow system or the possibility of being killed for no other reason than being black. A black person in Florida, during the time I grew up, lived with a pervasive awareness of the limitations a racist society imposed and of the impact those limitations imposed upon one’s life.”
Dunn was touched by the 1923 Rosewood massacre in rural Levy County, where six Blacks were killed. Other accounts suggested a higher death toll of 27 to 150.
The town of Rosewood was destroyed during a race riot.
Dunn purchased land near the Rosewood massacre and launched his “Teach the Truth” tour to take a busload of people to explore Black history in Florida and Miami, including the site of the killings.
His tour focuses on racial violence and history, and the Black Miami in the 20th Century tour, which delves into the contributions of American Americans to the development of Miami.
Recently, Dunn filed a lawsuit to block Miami Dade College’s land transfer to the state to build President Donald Trump Library adjacent to Miami Freedom Tower in downtown Miami.
A judge temporarily halted the deal after Dunn argued the land transfer was in violation of Florida’s Sunshine law when Miami Dade College Board of Trustees didn’t garner public input.
The board filed an appeal which is pending.
Dunn’s lecture series of the Saltwater Underground Railroad and Good Trouble is free for members and $10 for non-members.
Parking fee is required for all participants.
For more information, visit friendscapeflorida.org.