"Swim-in" protests spark desegregation of Fort Lauderdale beaches 1961

Fort Lauderdale Beach demonstration 1961
 State of Florida Archives/Florida Memory

By Jane Feehan

It wasn’t easy for all to enjoy Fort Lauderdale beaches before the 1960s. 

One beach north of today’s Oakland Park Boulevard was designated for African Americans, but was closed when Galt Ocean Mile underwent development. The only other beach they were permitted to visit was south of Port Everglades, now John U. Lloyd State Park. The recreation area was accessible only by ferry and lacked facilities. 

Broward County failed to build a road to this beach, galvanizing the African American community to desegregate Fort Lauderdale beach.

To paraphrase the news service on a summer day in 1961, Blacks swam at a crowded Fort Lauderdale beach while police watched. Officers on motorcycles and a paddy wagon were staged nearby.

Two girls and five boys were led to the beach by Dr. Von D. Mizell, Broward County secretary of the NAACP. But Mizell said the swim-in (also referred to as wade-in) was not sponsored by the group. It was the first of 200 swim-ins that summer that physician Mizell and president of the local NAACP, Eula Johnson, supported.

Fort Lauderdale filed suit in the Broward County Circuit Court against Mizell, Johnson, and the NAACP in 1961 to stop the wade-ins. Nearly a year later, Judge Ted Cabot denied the city’s request, essentially desegregating the beaches. Swim-ins proved to be a success, if not an immediate one.

Fort Lauderdale Mayor Jack Seiler commemorated the swim-ins during the city’s centennial in 2011, dedicating a plaque installed in the sand at Las Olas and A1A. Mizell and Johnson are lauded today as leaders in the city's civil rights movement. Copyright © 2020. All rights reserved. Jane Feehan.

*Freedom Rides to the South began May 14, 1961, a watershed year in the national civil rights movement.

Sources:

Miami News, July 5, 1961

Gillis, Susan. Fort Lauderdale: The Venice of America. Charleston: Arcadia (2004).

City of Fort Lauderdale: 

https://www.fortlauderdale.gov/home/showpublisheddocument/61222/637616958091070000


Tags: Fort Lauderdale history, Fort Lauderdale African American history, Fort Lauderdale desegregation, Fort Lauderdale civil rights movement, film industry research