Dorothy Jenkins Fields

CTL-E-6258 · Person · other · Active from 1974; founded the Black Archives in 1977

VERIFIED evidence grade — build store (JSON graph)

Combined Graph record U-07449 · provenance: build store (JSON graph), record CTL-E-6258.

Dorothy Jenkins Fields is a historian, archivist, and preservationist who founded the Black Archives, History and Research Foundation of South Florida, Inc. in Miami in 1977. She began gathering the history of African Americans in Miami-Dade County in 1974, after finding the original city charter listing the Black and white men who voted to incorporate Miami on July 28, 1896, while searching for curriculum as a young teacher preparing for the United States Bicentennial. She went on to earn a certification in archives administration and a Ph.D. in twentieth-century African American history, historic preservation, and public history. The Black Archives she created is a nonprofit manuscript and photographic repository for the legacies of Miami's Black community, covering the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, and collecting photographs, documents, and oral histories from people who lived through the Jim Crow era and beyond. The foundation was also the catalyst for her campaign to preserve the Lyric Theater and other historic sites in Overtown; the theater was restored and reopened in 1999. In 2024 she was named a 2024–2025 Creative Futures Fellow by the University of Miami's Center for Global Black Studies, after fifty years of preservation work.

The record

• Also known as: Dr. Dorothy Jenkins Fields, Dorothy Fields

Notes

Staged 2026-10-16 under CTL-GOV-006 (Scan Tail Wave 7 — 747 Program, FINAL Wave 13; seventh Scan Tail packet at the founder's 40-record size). Gate A (2026-10-16): Gate A CLEAR (hand-checked 2026-10-16): no Dorothy Jenkins Fields entity, alias, or variant in the live graph (3,910 entities); the graph's Black Archives records (CTL-E-0797, CTL-E-0811) are different repositories. ID CTL-E-6258 free at staging. Supply: 747 Supply Ledger — Tier 4 corpus scan tail, corpus-gap-candidates-2026-10-15.json ranked #2793. The scan supplied the name string only; every fact is sourced under CTL-GOV-004. SCOPE GATE: Black historian and archivist who built a Black community archive from 1974 — a direct PRESERVE-001 subject: Black memory held by a Black-founded institution. Vital status: LIVING — the University of Miami's August 15, 2024 report (accessed 2026-10-16) documents her active fellowship, teaching, and research in 2024–2025, with no report of death. STATISTICS — Dates (accessed 2026-10-16): collecting began in 1974 (University of Miami); the foundation was founded and incorporated in 1977 (Miami-Dade County Department of Cultural Affairs). The 1974 start and the 1977 founding are distinct sourced facts, not a conflict: the collection preceded the incorporated foundation. Fifty years of work were marked in 2024 (University of Miami). MEDIA: photo HELD (named candidate only; no license claimed — PHOTO-001 verification deferred); chart staged in media_specs; video HELD (No matching-entity CTL Short in the Shorts Link Map (shorts-link-map-2026-10-15.json, 233 rows, checked by name and variants, 2026-10-16); no near-miss title found.); audio HELD (HELD: No CTL-owned or rights-cleared matching-entity audio exists at staging.); map N/A (person/work/event record). MEDIA LAYER (staged 2026-10-16; full per-asset PHOTO-001 records + embed specs in the packet's staged JSON, Drive packet folder): map = N/A (Person records carry no map slot; maps attach to places and institutions.) | visual_assets = HELD: | chart = FILLED (Created for this packet (CTL graphic, CTL-PHOTO-001 lane) from the record's sourced facts.) | video = HELD (No matching-entity CTL Short in the Shorts Link Map (shorts-link-map-2026-10-15.json, 233 rows, checked by nam) | audio = HELD (No rights-cleared matching-entity audio staged; audio slot held pending a CTL-PHOTO-001-consistent rights basi)

Sources

• Miami-Dade County Department of Cultural Affairs, Black Archives History and Research Foundation of South Florida (accessed 2026-10-16) — the foundation was founded in 1977 by Dr. Dorothy Jenkins Fields; a nonprofit manuscript and photographic repository for the legacies of Miami's Black community; a national resource for the history of the 19th and 20th centuries; catalyst for Fields' campaign to preserve the Lyric Theater and other Overtown sites; theater restored and reopened in 1999 — https://miamidadearts.org/node/13113 (primary source · build store)
• University of Miami News, Archival work with deep Miami roots (published August 15, 2024) (accessed 2026-10-16) — since 1974 Jenkins Fields has gathered the history of African Americans in Miami-Dade County, creating the Black Archives; the 1896 Miami incorporation charter discovery as a young teacher; certification in archives administration and a Ph.D. in 20th-century African American history, historic preservation and public history; photographs, documents and oral histories including Jim Crow-era experience; named a 2024-2025 Creative Futures Fellow after 50 years of work — https://news.miami.edu/as/stories/2024/08/archival-work-with-deep-miami-roots.html (primary source · build store)

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