Ruth Shack in 2016, as she was honored with the Cultural Champion Award as a pioneering leader in foundations, philanthropy and the arts. Shack was among the forces behind Miami’s steady march to becoming a bonafide arts destination, sponsoring the county’s first historic preservation ordinance and serving as president of the Dade Community Foundation, now The Miami Foundation. Decades before, as a Dade County commissioner, Shack sponsored a human rights ordinance to prohibit discrimination on the basis of homosexuality.
Emily Michot
emichot@miamiherald.com
The city of Miami plans to name a portion of the street near downtown’s Bayfront Park after Ruth Shack, a champion of LGBTQ rights and former Dade County commissioner who died in May at the age of 94.
On Thursday, the Miami City Commission is voting on a resolution that would designate a portion of Southeast Third Street that runs from Biscayne Boulevard to Southeast Second Avenue as “Ruth Shack Way.”
In 1977, Shack sponsored an amendment to Miami-Dade’s Human Rights Ordinance that protected people from workplace, housing and other types of discrimination based on their sexual orientation. Those efforts were overturned after anti-gay activist Anita Bryant petitioned to put the ordinance on the ballot, but the protections were restored in a 1998 vote.
READ MORE: ‘A force to be reckoned with’: Miami community leader Ruth Shack dies at 94
The proposal to name a city street after Shack is being sponsored by Miami Commissioner Damian Pardo, who in 2023 became the city’s first openly gay commissioner.
“Ruth dedicated more than seven decades of her life to making Miami-Dade a better, more inclusive, and more culturally vibrant community,” Pardo said in a statement Monday. “Her legacy can be found in our commitment to human rights, historic preservation, the arts, philanthropy, and civic engagement.”
Ruth Shack in 1977. Miami Herald archives
Miami Herald staff writer Michael Butler contributed reporting.
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Tess Riski covers Miami City Hall. She joined the Miami Herald in 2022 and has covered local politics throughout Miami-Dade County. She is a graduate of Columbia Journalism School’s Toni Stabile Center for Investigative Journalism.