News Release Header
For Immediate Release:
November 06, 2019

Media Contact:
Griselle Marino
[email protected]
305-375-1585



Miami-Dade County Black Affairs Advisory Board to hold One Heritage: The State of Black Miami Forum 2019


MIAMI – The Black Affairs Advisory Board, under the Office of Community Advocacy, will hold “One Heritage: The State of Black Miami Forum 2019” from 10 a.m. until 2 p.m. on Thursday, Nov. 7, at the Stephen P. Clark Center, 111 NW 1st Street, Miami, FL 33128, Board of County Commissioners Chambers, 2nd Floor. 

Black Affairs Advisory Board Chairman Stephen Hunter Johnson will be the Master of Ceremonies. Chairwoman Audrey M. Edmonson and Commissioner Jean Monestime will offer remarks followed by other elected officials and Miami-Dade County Deputy Mayor Maurice Kemp. 

The first panel will be moderated by Sandy Sears and Cliff Thomas. The panelists will be Janet Nichols and Dr. Cheryl Holder. They will discuss mental health and the impact of climate change. The second panel will be on social justice and will be moderated by Dr. Tisa McGhee and Rodney Jacobs, Jr. The panelists will be Senator Dwight Bullard, Marleine Bastien and Edgar Wright. The third and last panel will cover the topics of housing and economics. The moderators will be J.S. Rashid and Pierre Rutledge. John Dixon, Gary Hartfield, T. Willard Fair, and Director Michael Liu will be on the panel.

Miami-Dade County is one of the country’s most culturally and ethnically diverse counties in the nation, with a Blacks making up 20 percent of the population. The Black Affairs Advisory Board aims to foster communication and develop strategies to address issues that impact Black constituents. In 2016 and 2017, Commissioner Jean Monestime, then Chair of the Miami-Dade County Board of County Commissioners, held the first of two forums entitled: “One Heritage: The State of Black Miami.”  The purpose of these forums was to identify and address critical ongoing issues impacting Black Miami today.

Due to its success, the Black Advisory Board hosted a Village Dialogue – The Wakanda Effect - State of Black Miami in 2018 and will continue the tradition this year. This conversation is a continuation of the discussions that began during those historic forums and an opportunity to look, with fresh eyes, at how we need to continue identifying and reporting the many critical and ongoing issues impacting Miami-Dade as a whole, particularly Black Miami.

For more information, please contact Black Affairs Advisory Board Director Retha Boone-Fye at 305-375-4606.

The Office of Community Advocacy, under the Board of County Commissioners, is charged with making Miami-Dade County "One Community" that embraces our diverse and unique population. Subscribe to AdvocacyMDC YouTube channel and follow the office on FacebookInstagram and Twitter.


 

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