Dr. Marvin Dunn

Dunn, Marvin. Black Miami in the Twentieth Century. University Press of Florida,

Dr. Marvin Dunn, an Associate Professor of Psychology at the Florida International University Dr. Marvin Dunn is the renowned author of This Land is your Land, The Miami Riot of 1980: Crossing the Bounds, and Black Miami in the Twentieth Century, which tells the story of African-Americans in the development of Miami. He is the founder of the Academy for Community Education, an alternative high school in Miami Dade. The Psychologist, over the years, has made his views known through the writing of many articles for the print media, and appearing on Major Network television talk shows, speaking to issues such as; Violence in America, Welfare Reform in Florida and The Status of African - Americans in Miami.

The contents of the book is about the life and times of what is now Miami- Dade County. It contains facts about the city well along before the American civilization began. It tells about how raiders or pirates used to come to the lands and explore the natives who lived here and what they would do in the attempt to get what they wanted. The book gave a great sense of knowledge of the subject matter, which tells me that there was a great variety of primary and secondary resources used in this book to tell the story of Dade County.

One of my favorite parts of the book was the Pre- Civil Rights Period. In this section, it explains how blacks wanted to be involved equally in the War effort with their white counterparts. Instead, most blacks were only given menial jobs such as waiters and mess hall cooks. This effort continued until some of the local officials fought for the rights of blacks until a few more were drafted to fight in the war. The content and the consistent evidence of such is so pure that one who reads the book can gain a vivid picture of what struggles blacks faced when it came to fighting in WWII.

Another one of my favorite parts of the book was the Riot of 1980. This section of the book tells the imaginative story of what went on in Miami during the 1980's when it came to race relations and police brutality in Miami-Dade County. Prior to the riots, there were small, mini riots that occurred in the city. Children were killed in arcade rooms, men were killed on motorcycles and blacks were just harassed all together. This is an important to know about because before reading this book, I never knew about the riots in Miami and I now I understand as to why many African Americans do not like the police in this area.

The intent of the author is to tell the contributions of blacks from pre-American civilization to the current status of America from a black perspective backed with first hand accounts and sources from books, articles etc. Another point I believe the author is trying to explain is that blacks do have