Follow CBSMIAMI.COM: Facebook | Twitter
DANIA BEACH (CBSMiami/NSF) – An extremely popular Hollywood beach park is about to get a name change.
On Wednesday, Gov. Rick Scott signed a bill that will change the name of John U. Lloyd State Park to the Von D. Mizell and Eula Johnson State Park, according to the Sun-Sentinel.
African Americans were originally banned from all of Broward’s beaches.
Lloyd, who served as the county’s attorney, carried out the ordinance that prohibited blacks from the beach entirely. He also led the resistance to designating what became known for nearly 25 years as “the colored beach,” according to the Sun-Sentinel.
Mizell, the founding president of the Broward NAACP, petitioned for the creation of a beach for black residents in 1946 and continued pursuing the issue for years.
The county ultimately bought a site but didn’t build an access road or other facilities.
That led in 1961 to Johnson, who was then the president of the local NAACP, leading “wade-ins” with Mizell at white Fort Lauderdale beaches, according to House and Senate bill analyses. The city sought an injunction to end the wade-ins, but a court refused, effectively ending segregation of the county’s beaches, the analyses said.
The state bought the land from the county in 1973 and named it after Lloyd, who served as county attorney from 1945 to 1975.
The legislation to change the park’s name was sponsored by Sen. Christopher Smith, D-Fort Lauderdale, and House Rep. Evan Jenne, D-Hollywood. The name change will make the park the first in the state to be named for an African-American.
The News Service of Florida contributed to this report.
