| RIPTIDE | ▼ OVERTOWN PAYING RESPECT O THE OFFICE OF MIAMI’S FIRST BLACK JUDGE IS DECLARED A HISTORIC SITE. BY JOSHUA CEBALLOS n the southeast side of Over- town, between an empty grass lot and the Metrorail tracks, sits a small, nondescript white building that was nearly for- gotten. Graffiti covers its white walls, and tree branches obscure the only evidence of the structure’s significance, a name posted on the façade: “Thomas.” “You’re saying something when you let it go like this, when the tree is covering the sign so you can’t even see his name,” 90-year-old Black Miami historian and Over- town native Enid Pinkney tells New Times. “It means that somebody does not care, and they don’t respect the history.” Pinkney refers to the fact that this building was once the law office of Law- son E. Thomas, Miami- Dade County’s first Black judge and the first Black at- torney in Miami to stand before a white judge. In his day, Thomas was a civil-rights activist and a pillar of the com- munity in Overtown, one of Miami’s histori- cally Black neighborhoods. It might be in a sorry state now, but that should soon change: Earlier this month, the City of Miami’s Historic and Environmental GET MORE NEWS & COMMENTARY AT MIAMINEWTIMES.COM/NEWS ▼ FORT LAUDERDALE SENIOR MOMENT F 4 4 THE GUINNESS WORLD RECORD FOR LARGEST FREEZE DANCE GAME IS BROKEN AT THE NATIONAL SENIOR GAMES. BY JOSHUA CEBALLOS or more than 12 years, Finland held the Guinness World Record for the Largest Game of Musical Statues/Freeze Dance thanks to 1,079 participants who gathered at the annual child fair in Helsinki and played the popu- lar classroom game until every player but one was eliminated after they moved or fell out of their pose when the music was paused. But the record was broken when 1,308 play- ers gathered on May 16 at the Las Olas Intra- coastal Promenade Park in Fort Lauderdale to defeat the Finnish, playing what is now consid- ered the largest game of freeze dance in the world, according to Guinness World Records judges, who certified the results last month. Unfortunately for the Finnish, these weren’t regular competitors but senior athletes (and sand with $500 in his pocket to cover his com- panions’ bail. Though he fully expected they’d be carted off to jail, city leaders got word of the protest and agreed to meet. Within a few months, Virginia Key Beach was designated for Black people. “The result of that [protest] was giving Black people Virginia Key Beach as a segre- gated beach. It had a sign in front of it that said “Colored Only,” but back then that was an accomplishment,” Pinkney explains. “We were happy to have a beach here in Miami that we could go to.” Pinkney met Thomas as a girl when he was her family’s attorney and the lawyer for her father’s church in Ojus, a now-defunct municipality west of present-day Aventura. Pinkney describes him as a serious and aus- tere man, but one who was warm and cared deeply about Overtown. As a judge, she says, Thomas presided over Photo by Joshua Ceballos Enid Pinkney (above) and Lawson E. Thomas (left). Photo courtesy of The Black Archives Preservation Board voted unanimously to designate Thomas’ law practice as a historic site, ensuring the preservation of his legacy in the face of gentrification and developer-backed in- terests in the area. “We are working overall on more historic designations in Overtown. So much of the historic fabric there has been lost, but there are several remaining buildings that help tell the story of the neighborhood, and this was one of those,” says Christine Rupp, executive director of the Dade Heritage Trust, which petitioned for the structure’s historic designation. Thomas began practicing in 1937, when Miami was still mostly segregated, and a their families) in town for the 2022 biennial Na- tional Senior Games — considered the largest qualified multisport event in the world, with more than 11,000 athletes aged 50 to 103 com- peting in 21 sports, including pickleball, power walking, and shuffleboard. The adult gathering outdid the tykes by 229 players. “They’re competitive in everything they do, so they took it extremely seriously. They never do anything in half measures,” says John DeNovi, a manager for the National Senior Games Asso- ciation and emcee of the freeze dance game. “They were very intent on freezing every time the music stopped.” This was the first world record attempt by the National Senior Games Association, a nonprofit affiliate organization council member of the United States Olympic Paralympic Committee. It was organized to promote this year’s game part- ner Pacira BioSciences and its cryoanalgesic treatment, Iovera, which applies freezing tem- peratures to the site of pain to provide relief, es- pecially among people with knee pain. “Since their product is cold therapy, we bailiff once threatened to “throw [him] out a sixth-floor window.” Thomas worked to advance civil rights with strategic planning. Pinkney says Thomas worked with activist groups like the Congress of Racial Equality to organize sit-ins at segregated lunch counters and strategized ways to protest peacefully. In the 1940s, publicly owned beaches in Miami-Dade were reserved for white resi- dents. Thomas wanted to change that. “In Miami, Black people had to go up to Broward County when they wanted to go to the beach,” Pinkney says. “[Thomas] felt that that was wrong because Black property own- ers were paying taxes.” So in May of 1945, Thomas staged what he called a “wade-in” at Haulover Beach. Six Black Miamians walked into the water as Thomas waited in the wanted to play on the concept of ‘freeze’ or ‘cold,’” DeNovi explains. “We looked for world records related to those words and settled on the freeze dance.” According to the rule of freeze dance, players dance until the music stops and must hold their pose until the music re- sumes. Anyone who keeps dancing, moving, or fails to hold their pose when the music pauses is eliminated, until one person is crowned the winner. On Monday, May 16, at the Las Olas Photo by Albert Manduca/AP Images More than 1,300 competitors participated in what’s now considered the largest game of freeze dance. Promenade Park, the 1,308 players danced as if in sync to a stereo with a faulty Bluetooth connection as a Guinness World Records judge monitored the event and DeNovi hollered out poses such as “face the ocean” and “balance on your right foot.” It took 20 minutes for all contestants but one to be eliminated: 25-year-old Jesse Lee Falling from Broken Arrow, Oklahoma, who was attend- ing the Senior Games to support his mother, a track and field competitor. “The dance coincided with the celebration of the athletes, which brings in family members who supported them,” DeNovi notes. “It was very appropriate a family member came out on top.” Though a 25-year-old ended up winning the record-breaking dance-off, don’t discount the more mature athletes, who competed at the Na- tional Senior Games from May 10 to May 23, and can easily put their grandchildren to shame in their respective sports. Though Falling was the official winner, all 1,308 participants are considered record holders. [email protected] cases involving Black defendants in Miami’s Black police precinct and always sought to help defendants — not simply to penalize them. He died on September 14, 1989, when he was 91 years old. Now that his onetime office has been recog- nized as a historic site, Pinkney hopes the city will revitalize the building and continue to tell Lawson E. Thomas’ story so future generations might appreciate his considerable contribution to South Florida’s civil-rights movement. “I am elated that this building has been given local, historic designation for its preser- vation because we’re losing our history, and we’re not passing the history on to future generations,” she says. “When I look around and see all of the expressways and high-rises and all of the plans that they have, there’s no respect for what was here.” MONTH XX–MONTH XX, 2008 JUNE 9-JUNE 15, 2022 NEW TIMES | MUSIC | CAFE | CULTURE | NIGHT+DAY | NEWS | LETTERS | CONTENTS | miaminewtimes.com | browardpalmbeach.com miaminewtimes.com MIAMI NEW TIMES | MUSIC | CAFE | FILM | ART | STAGE | NIGHT+DAY | METRO | RIPTIDE | LETTERS | CONTENTS |
