VOTE FOR THE LEGACY, PART 2
Booker T. Washington opened in Overtown in 1927 as Miami's first high school for Black students. Miami Northwestern followed in Liberty City. Brothers William Aristide (Booker T. Washington) and Wallace Aristide (Miami Northwestern) led those schools. Linda Cothiere Aristide, a Carol City High graduate and Miami-Dade public school teacher, is running for School Board District 1 to protect that legacy. Vote #92 by Tuesday, Nov. 3.
Read the words in the video
- Why is Linda Cothiere Aristide running for School Board, District One?
- The answer starts in 1927.
- Back then, Black children in Miami could not go to school past the eighth grade.
- Then Booker T. Washington opened in Overtown. Miami's first high school for Black students. It became the pride of the Harlem of the South.
- In 1937, Dorsey High School opened in Liberty City, on land given by Dana Dorsey, Miami's first Black millionaire.
- In 1955, Miami Northwestern took its place as Liberty City's high school.
- For generations, Black families built these two schools, with their sweat and their sacrifice.
- But decades of redlining and systemic racism wore down these pillars of Black education.
- Then two brothers stepped up to revive that legacy. William Aristide, at Booker T. Washington. And Wallace Aristide, at Miami Northwestern.
- When William arrived in 2010, Booker T. had fallen on hard times. It had the lowest grade in the state, an F, and was facing a push to hand it over to a charter company.
- William took that challenge head on. He put academics first, and turned the campus into a refuge.
- Students stayed as late as nine at night, because it was the safest place they could be.
- Within two years, he raised the school's grade, and saved a cornerstone of Black Miami from the charter company.
- At Northwestern, Wallace led the school to the first A in its history, and raised its graduation rate from 55 to 82 percent.
- Today, that legacy is under threat once more.
- A new state law lets charter companies move into our public school buildings, rent free. Living off the sweat and sacrifice of the families who built them.
- But lucky for us, there is a third Aristide: Linda Cothiere Aristide.
- She grew up in Carol City, right here in District One, and graduated from Carol City High. She is a product of these schools.
- For more than thirty years, she has served in our classrooms. Today, she teaches first grade at Phyllis R. Miller Elementary.
- Now, she is stepping up, to protect the legacy.
- Overtown built it. Liberty City carried it. The Aristides fought for it.
- Vote for the legacy.
- Vote for Linda Cothiere Aristide, for School Board, District One.
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More to watch
Watch: Vote for the Legacy, Part 173-second film →
Watch: Meet LindaPlay video →
Watch: Linda's WhyPlay video →