Historian Dr. Enid Pinkney, who blocked bulldozers from tearing down Hampton House, dies at 92
MIAMI — South Florida is remembering a historian who made sure Miami never forgot its important history. Dr. Enid Pinkney died early this morning in a South Florida hospital where she was being treated. She was 92 years old.
Pinkney was born in Miami on October 15, 1931. She was a first-generation Miamian as her family was from The Bahamas. Pinkney graduated from Booker T. Washington High School and went on to Talladega College, where she got a master's degree from Barry University and an honorary doctorate from Florida International University.
Some of her more notable work came when she was in her 70s. She stood in front of bulldozers to save the Hampton House, where Dr. Martin Luther King practiced his speeches, where Malcolm X came to relax and Muhammad Ali freely celebrated. It was a Greenbook hotel to some of the greatest in history. She was a driving force in the movement that led the building to become a historic landmark in April 2002.
Back in February, she spoke with CBS News Miami's Hank Tester about the importance of preserving history, especially Black history.
" I think it's so important that people understand who they are, where they came from, how they got to wherever they are at this time and you have to respect your history," Pinkney said.
She also stressed the importance of teaching this history.
"This is a new generation, and they are thinking for themselves and if we have something to show them and to teach them that will help them to understand who we are and the contributions we have made to this community," she said.
Edwin Sheppard, the Hampton House's brand manager, had plans to have dinner with Pinkney on Monday. He said he last spoke to her a little more than a week ago.
"She was here just a, a week and a half ago with FIU," he said. "We were cleaning up and she was just here sitting on her walker and I asked her, 'Do you ever get tired of this?' And she said, 'No.' She said, 'I love it!'"
She told Tester about that love, saying "It's important to me that we preserve our history, the example as to where we are right now at the Hampton House."
There is talk of renaming a room in the Hampton House after Pinkney. For now, her funeral services have not been set, but we will bring them to you as soon as they are.