When 7-year-old Brayden J. Floyd spotted the hateful white markings etched across the faces of Jackie Robinson and Minnie Miñoso at Dorsey Park, he didn't understand the racist and obscene slurs scrawled across the wall.
What he witnessed that day in early June was an act of vandalism and an attempt to deface a proud history in Miami’s historical Black and Afro-Latino community in Overtown.
On Wednesday afternoon, he and community members, city leaders, and artists gathered at the corner of NW First Avenue and 17th Street for the official unveiling of the murals — now fully restored to keep history alive.
Read more: 'You can't erase us': Miami marks Juneteenth amid widespread cultural censorship
“I felt threatened because I play baseball and those are famous baseball players and I don't like that because it's a threat to me in the community,” Brayden said recalling what he felt when he first saw the hateful slurs.
The mural, first painted in 2011 through the MLK Mural Project with Urgent, Inc. and community partners, honors Dorsey Park’s legacy as a home field for Negro League teams.
Robinson, the first Black player to break the color barrier in Major League Baseball, and Miñoso, the first Afro-Latino Cuban MLB player, anchor the wall as symbols of endurance and pride for the community.
For the project’s original initiator and Miami-based muralist Kyle Holbrook, this kind of defacement is something he’s seen before.
“Unfortunately in that area right across the street, I had a mural, the George Floyd mural that was vandalized in the past, so this particular area has been a problem area for that,” Holbrook told WLRN.
“When they vandalized the George Floyd mural it seemed as though it was racist. But this time, putting the swastikas and the racial slurs, that made it really overt that it was racist,” he said.
But Holbrook said he sees the brazenness of the vandalism as an act that pulled the neighborhood together.
“The community knew about it, they cared, it seemed to really bring everybody together …That negative evil action ended up being positive, I think, for the community in the long run,” Holbrook said.
He added that shared ownership of the art has always been central to his work and the mission of the MLK Mural Project.
Miami police said they are continuing their investigation but no arrests have been made.
The restoration of the murals was led by artist and educator Alex Douyon, who was part of the project from its inception in 2011.
“With the Negro Leagues, it wasn't just about baseball ... it brought the community together, families would come and gather to see these great players play,” Douyon said.
He explained that once the hateful speech appeared on the walls, he was quickly called in to help. Urgent, Inc., a nonprofit in Overtown, which helped lead the murals project a decade ago is again at the center of the effort.
“I was pretty paralyzed actually,” said Urgent, Inc. CEO Dr. Saliha Nelson when she first heard the murals had been vandalized.
“Fortunately, there were so many community members that jumped immediately into action and rallied behind not only the renewal of the murals but also helped elevate this conversation more broadly so that a reinvestment in the park could occur,” Nelson said in noting the larger plan for the park, including the Renewal Project that will take place over the next 18 months.
“It’s a community arts project where we welcome mentoring artists, teaching artists, folks that just wanna throw paint on the walls and have fun, but also learn about the history,” Nelson said. “We have a health and wellness component that will be integrating this go around and so there's so many opportunities for people to engage.”
READ MORE: Miami city officials, Miami Marlins team up to restore defaced Jackie Robinson, Minnie Miñoso murals
City leaders framed the restoration effort as a test of civic values.
“I think what [the community] should take away is that the city of Miami cares that we come together as a community,” Miami Mayor Francis Suarez told WLRN. “That when something like this happens, we don't just let it permeate … we take action immediately so that the community knows that we support them and we support their heroes.”
In July, the Miami commissioners approved $217,500 in funding from the Omni CRA to restore and reimagine the murals.
Urgent, Inc., a youth nonprofit in Overtown, Miami Commissioner Christine King and the City of Miami Parks and Recreation Department are leading the effort, which will include a community arts residency for local artists to restore and contribute new murals.
”What was to be a statement of hatred has been turned around, this community has always shown their resiliency," said Commissioner King at the event. "There is nothing or no one, no amount of hate or bigotry will come and infiltrate this community.”
King also credited the children from Urgent, Inc. who spent the day documenting the event and practicing their media skills.
She said their work represents the future of Overtown, as many of them will go on to college, study communications, and return to use those skills to uplift their neighborhood.
“The legacy and history we have in Miami [is that] we fight very hard to preserve, so having someone deface something like that, I mean look at how much money it took to bring it back and for what, what was gained for that? Nothing,” said Miami Commissioner Damien Pardo, who is chairman of the Omni Community Redevelopment Agency.
“We could have used those funds for direct services, and because this is so important, we prioritized it for this project, because it’s not just a mural, it goes way more than that,” Pardo said.
The unveiling also marked the launch of the Historic Dorsey Park Mural Restoration & Renewal Project, a community arts residency led by Urgent, Inc., with the Miami Marlins baseball team and other partners, to restore existing works and create new murals reflecting Overtown’s history — from Negro Leagues greats to the park’s namesake, D.A. Dorsey, Miami’s first Black millionaire.
Carolina O'Connor, chief operating officer for the Miami Marlins, and former Marlins catcher Charles Johnson, represented the team at the event.
O'Connor said that when Marlins owner Bruce Sherman heard the news of the vandalism, the team knew it had to be part of the solution.
“Dorsey Park holds a special place in Miami history, and for the Miami Marlins, it’s even more meaningful because the origins of baseball in South Florida have roots right here," O'Connor said. "The Miami Giants were a semi-pro baseball team in the 1930s and Dorsey Park was their home field."
Johnson, who spent 12 years in the Major Leagues — including six years with the Florida Marlins, a 1997 World Series championship, and four Gold Gloves — said he sees a direct connection between his career and the path laid by Negro Leagues players.
" I truly have to thank the Negro League for the platform, they offered me a game for me to be able to play," said Johnson. "I mean, you had thousands of fans coming out and watching these guys play baseball, doing something they truly loved and truly opening a door for a young man like me to be able to play in the major leagues.
For Floyd, the message is simple. “I want the world to love everybody, and I don’t kinda like when people are doing that because they're famous and the people who probably did that is jealous.”
