Caption from poster__ 

 DAD COUNTY PARKS

VIRGINIA BEACH

COLORED ONLY

Historic Virginia Key Beach Park truly is one of the special places on Earth. It is located on one of the two southernmost barrier islands (with Key Biscayne) in the United States. Virginia Key is the only waterfront location within the Miami city limits where scenic views of nature and water are unspoiled by tall buildings. Its unique barrier-island ecology of animal and plant life has been largely preserved by an absence of large-scale residential or commercial development. The park also is a place with a remarkable history. During the Jim Crow era of segregation, it was a place that could not be visited or enjoyed by a large portion of the population, for no other reason than that they were white. Virginia Key Beach was strictly reserved for ''colored only.'' On the other hand, African Americans, the ''colored'' population, were restricted to this half-mile of beachfront, with the often dangerous currents of Bear Cut, the waterway separating Virginia Key from Key Biscayne, the island where ''White Only'' Crandon Park was located. Such was the South, including South Florida, in the 1940s and 1950s. But there was an important difference. In other cities throughout the South, segregation typically meant oppressive poverty and inequality for African Americans; in Miami it led to a prosperous and thriving black economy, with a high level of home ownership, businesses, professional offices and opportunities for education. Photographs of the beach in its heyday show numerous late-model cars, boats and trailers and the cabanas that were enjoyed by many visitors. Visitors included traveling celebrities, and even Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., who regularly mingled with locals from all neighborhoods and social classes. The beach became the hub of black life, the preferred location for church social gatherings, Easter sunrise services and baptisms and family gatherings. This beautiful location, with its a merry-go-round, a mini-train amusement ride and a lovers' lane, was comparable to those at Crandon Park. It did not come about by accident. To gain this segregated bathing beach required a heroic ''wade-in'' protest in 1945, a decade before such tactics became common in the civil-rights era. Another protest, in 1959, at Crandon Park, finally brought segregation to an end in Miami-Dade County. But Virginia Key Beach remained a favorite location, open for all to enjoy. In 1982, however, when the park was transferred from the county to the city of Miami, it soon closed. It would remain neglected until 1999, when a diverse group of concerned citizens, led by the late Athalie Range, challenged the city's plans to lease a portion of the site to developers. The City Commission established a trust to restore and reopen the park, with a museum and nature center. On Saturday, Historic Virginia Key Beach Park, opens to the public, and Range's dream will begin to be fulfilled.