During the mid-19th Century, paradise meant different things to the Anglo-American population than to African-Americans. In the Fifties, white visions might have neatly lined up with Leave It to Beaver’s depiction of a rose-color America – a big TV set in every living room, a tail-finned car in the driveway, and lots of burgers, sodas, and drive-in movies for all. Blacks may just have hoped to sit at any lunch counter or on any seat in a bus – or perhaps to be safe from lynching if they whistled at a pretty lady. Today at the Bass Museum of Art, the panel discussion Promises, in Black and White: The Mid-Century African-American Experience in “Paradise” will bring together scholars and historians to examine what Miami’s mid-century residents imagined when they daydreamed of a perfect world.

Moderator Keith Revell of Florida International University will join Raymond A. Mohl, distinguished professor of history at the University of Alabama at Birmingham, as well as historian and author Marvin Dunn and preservation leader Enid C. Pinkey. The discussion begins at 2:30 p.m. and is free with the $8 museum admission.
Sat., Jan. 12, 2:30 p.m., 2008