​​Dr. Pinkney was a tireless advocate for the preservation of Miami history. Her work has shed light on the role that Black people have played in the building of Miami. It’s her lifelong work that continues to highlight and memorialize the people and spaces occupied by the people who came before us.

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Dr. Enid Pinkney was born in Overtown on October 15, 1931. She resided at 1827 NW 5th Court with her family.

Pinkney attended Dunbar Elementary School then Booker T Washington high school where she graduated in 1949. Even at this young age, Pinkney was quietly pushing to integrate her community that was restricted by the Jim Crow laws of the South.

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Her work continued toward this push to integration when she attended Talladega College in Alabama. It was here that she took on the violators of the 1944 Interstate Transportation Law.

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After graduating, Pinkney worked as an educator in Miami Dade’s Public School System.

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Most of the narrative to preserve Miami’s heritage is due to Pinkney’s efforts. She is the retired founding President of the Historic Hampton Community Trust where she led a nine year effort to preserve the Historic Hampton Inn, a place so vital to Black Miami history.

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She also served as the only Black president of Dade Heritage Trust. It is through her work that we know of many of the Black pioneers buried in the Miami City Cemetery.

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Dr. Pinkney fought to preserve the oldest burial site for Blacks located in the former community of Lemon City now known today as Little Haiti.

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It is through her efforts that we now see markers where those communities once stood.

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And when there was a discovery of a Native American burial site at the mouth of the Miami River, Dr. Pinkney joined the fight to preserve it.

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Dr. Pinkney was a dedicated and treasured member of Sigma Gamma Rho Sorority, Inc., Gamma Delta Sigma Chapter, in Miami,Florida.

 

Dr. Pinkney died on July 18, 2024.​

 

Miami-Dade County honored Miami Historian and Preservationist Dr. Enid Curtis Pinkney with a street naming in recognition of her 93rd birthday.

 

Commissioner Keon Hardemon sponsored the legislation to honor Dr. Enid Curtis Pinkney at the recommendation of the history research organization Profiles in Black Miami and The Curtis Foundation.

The street naming ceremony took place on November 22nd at the Historic Hampton House; the area located at NW 42 Street and 27th Ave to 29th Avenue in front of the Historic Hampton House was renamed the Dr. Enid Curtis Pinkney Street.