‘It is up to us.’ New tri-county effort seeks to end racial inequality in South Florida

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C. Isaiah Smalls II
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If not now, then when?

Those were the words from Miami-Dade Chamber of Commerce President Eric Knowles Thursday as he introduced a tri-county initiative to boost prosperity for South Florida’s Black residents.

To underscore the breadth of the initiative and the need it addresses, the South Florida Black Prosperity Alliance held three events across Broward, Miami-Dade and Palm Beach counties.

“When [elected officials] are not doing what they should be doing for our community, it is up to us to demand what is right,” Knowles said Thursday morning at Red Rooster Overtown.

SFBPA’s founding members consist of more than a dozen organizations including the local NAACP branches, the Urban League of Broward, the Circle of Brotherhood and Miami-Dade Chamber of Commerce. Through partnerships with Florida International and Florida Memorial universities, the coalition plans to study the source of South Florida’s racial inequalities in economics, education, health and justice. The research will inform what former Miami-Dade NAACP Branch President Ruban Roberts called a “manifesto” set to be released in 2022.

“We’re going to be advocating for policy changes,” Roberts said.

The Miami event drew Miami-Dade Mayor Daniella Levine Cava, city of Miami Mayor Francis Suarez and Miami-Dade County Public Schools superintendent Alberto Carvalho. Each lauded the separate organizations for unifying in an attempt to bring equity to South Florida.

“This is the year to get it right,” said Levine Cava, who on Wednesday unveiled an Office of Equity and Inclusion that will address opportunity gaps within the county. “Equity is not equality. Equity is making sure that we make the investments that are needed to bring up those who have been left behind.”

Added Suarez: “Equity and opportunity for all of our children, no matter where they’re born in our city, has to be the goal.”

In Fort Lauderdale, Broward commissioners Barbara Sharief and Dale Holness too praised SFBPA.

“What these organizations are doing here today by coming together is allowing an opportunity for us to grow as a community,” Sharief said.

Citing a new Citi Group study that found racism cost America $16 trillion over the last 20 years, Holness believes SFBPA will do more than just improve the lives of South Florida’s Black community.

“Prosperity for Blacks is prosperity for everyone,” Holness added.

The SFBPA marks one of the first multi-county efforts to address the racial inequality in South Florida. As 2020 continued to highlight disparities in health, education and policing, leaders from the various organizations discussed how to close these gaps. It was in these conversations that SFBA came to life.

“This is something that we’ve been working on for many years, but we’ve been working in silos. So what we’ve decided to do at the advent of the pandemic was to work together,” Roberts said.

The proximity of Miami-Dade, Broward and Palm Beach resulted in the tri-county approach, Knowles says.

“Half of us live in Miami and work in Broward or Palm Beach,” Knowles explained. “... We are one family.”

And in the SFBPA family, the focus will be on not just making change today but giving the next generation of Black and brown children a better shot.

“When we collectively come together and focus on economics, empowering and strengthening our communities and building legacies of wealth is how we truly make life better for our children,” Broward County School Board District 5 chair Rosalind Osgood said at the Fort Lauderdale event.

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