Two years after a $6 million federal grant was announced, the project remains shrouded in secrecy; some residents are miffed by the lack of community input.
More than two years ago, to much fanfare, Congresswoman Frederica S. Wilson presented a mock, oversized check for $6 million to Coconut Grove community leaders to fund a project that she promised would be a belated tribute to an overlooked group of early Miami settlers.
The Frederica Roberts Bahamian Museum of Arts and Culture, Wilson told the assembled crowd outside the late-19th century home of Coconut Grove pioneer E.W.F. Stirrup on Charles Avenue, would help unite a long-fractured neighborhood.
“I made a promise that we would not divide this community,” she said. “That it would be one community, one Coconut Grove, one Little Bahamas of Coconut Grove.”
Unfortunately, not everyone feels united.
Despite the Grove’s deep and rich Bahamian heritage, some community leaders take issue with the inherent exclusion of other groups’ contributions to Miami’s settlement. And at the very least, they say, a bit of community outreach – if not actual dialogue – from Wilson would bring in outside voices to what they say has, thus far, been an insular effort.
“If Congresswoman Wilson could come down to the community again and speak to the community and give her heartfelt reasons for why it is important to identify the museum as Bahamian, we could work together so it could be inclusive of all groups that came here,” says Linda Williams, a former vice chair of the Coconut Grove Village Council whose descendants arrived from both the Bahamas and parts of Georgia. “It’s a good idea, for the right reasons I’m sure, but there’s not enough information to satisfy a curious mind like me.”
Loretta Scipio-Whittle, a retired Miami-Dade school teacher and descendant of one of Miami’s first Black settlers, voiced similar sentiments, asserting that the museum should represent all who contributed to the community’s development.
“I think that all of our ancestors that were involved in building Coconut Grove and Miami should be a part of the museum. The migrants and the immigrants,” Scipio-Whittle says.
She emphasizes the need for unity, adding, “There should not be divisiveness among us.”
Multiple requests for comment – including a detailed list of emailed questions and an in-person visit to Wilson’s North Miami office by the Spotlight – were deflected by Wilson and her staff. No reason was given.
Wilson referenced the museum as recently as last spring at a news conference to promote this year’s Coconut Grove Goombay Festival, but she has not released any details about its location, construction or operating partners.
A spokesperson for Miami District 2 Commissioner Damian Pardo, who represents Coconut Grove, declined to comment. “Our office is not involved in the project, so unfortunately we will not be able to answer your questions.”
Wilson told city commissioners in 2022 that funding for the museum had been secured from a federal appropriations bill that year.
While members of Congress have long helped steer such grants to projects and programs within their districts, this project is unusual in that it falls outside of Wilson’s district, landing instead within that of U.S. Rep. Maria Salazar, a Republican. A Salazar spokesperson did not respond to a request for comment.
Wilson, a Democrat, says the museum will be named after her grandmother Frederica Roberts, an early Bahamian immigrant.
Coconut Grove’s history is deeply intertwined with Bahamian culture. When Miami was incorporated in 1896, almost half of the 368 voters in its first election were Black, reflecting the significant role of Bahamians and migrants from southern states in the city’s early development. Silas Austin, a Black man, was among the first names listed in Miami’s city charter.
Despite the paucity of details about the museum, other community leaders are thrilled by the prospect of a monument to the area’s Bahamian roots, particularly during a time when rising property values and new development pressures threaten to displace long-time residents and alter the neighborhood’s historic character.
Reynold Martin, chairman of GRACE (Grove Rights and Community Equity), a group working to ease the impact of neighborhood redevelopment pressures, views a museum as a step towards preserving the Bahamian legacy, even as the neighborhood changes.
“It’s certainly a concern of people from this area, and [Wilson] is of Bahamian descent, so she also is concerned that the story is told accurately,” Martin says.
Others say the hope of telling the Grove immigrant story is muted by the realities of a fast-changing community that many no longer recognize.
“I’m optimistic about preserving the history of it,” says Keith Moore, a historic researcher of Bahamian descent who grew up in Coconut Grove. “But how long will that last before it phases into nothingness?”
Moore says the sense of loss felt by many current and former residents may be beyond repair. “I’m pessimistic. I can never live in Coconut Grove again. My son can never live in Coconut Grove again. I don’t feel like I’m home there anymore. It’s nothing like I grew up with. It’s nothing like I was raised with through my grandparents and my parents. It’s gone.”
Former Miami District 2 Commissioner Ken Russell says recognizing culture and history is a necessary step in preserving what little is left. In 2022 Russell sponsored legislation to rename the historically Black section of Coconut Grove as Little Bahamas. He views the museum as a way to preserve the community’s heritage amid the pressures of gentrification. He applauds Wilson for spearheading the effort.
“What Congresswoman Wilson has done is politically selfless,” Russell says. “She’s doing this out of her love of the Bahamian culture and her desire to see a community recognized and regain its vibrance.”
VonCarol Kinchens-Williams, chairperson of the annual Coconut Grove Goombay Festival, echoed those sentiments, saying she hopes the museum will reflect the depth of Bahamian culture with exhibits on Bahamian contributions to Miami’s incorporation, traditional Junkanoo costumes, and cooking classes on authentic Bahamian cuisine.
“With the museum being there, hopefully folks will want to buy into coming back to Coconut Grove,” Kinchens-Williams says.
