Often called the first “Negro” beach, for several decades Virginia key was the only beach that blacks were allowed to use in Dade County. Prior to 1915, blacks found occasion to frolic and swim in Biscayne Bay. Some of the spots for this activities mentioned by pioneers included the docks near the Royal Palm Hotel, the area where Bayfront Park now stands and the old P.& O. Docks near the present site of Bicentennial Park.

At that time the City of Miami didn’t provide swimming facilities for any residents. In 1920, as the city grew and public swimming facilities were developed, blacks were prohibited from swimming at any of the public beaches. Around the same time that blacks were prohibited from public beaches, D.A. Dorsey purchased Fisher Island so blacks could have a beach of their own. There was a bath house on the island, and many blacks took boats over to the area for picnics and fun in the water. However, by 1925 Dorsey sold the property, due to booming property taxes.

From then until the establishment of Virginia Key Beach, there was no place where blacks could tread on the beach in the county. For years, black leaders requested a beach, to no avail. Many blacks were forced to drive to Ft. Lauderdale or Pompano, to enjoy the waters of the Atlantic Ocean. Then in the mid- 1940s, a determined group banded together to get a beach for blacks in Dade County.

The elected speaker for the group was Attorney L. E. Thomas, who later became a judge in the City of Miami “Negro” Municipal Court. The group began a protest of existing conditions by filling several cars with black passengers and driving up and down several nearby beaches. Nothing happened and no action was taken to establish a black beach.

The next moved was to go bathing. The group got three black soldiers and three black sailors to agree to go into the water at the beach north of Baker’s Haulover. The area was not frequented very much by whites, but attorney Thomas and other black leaders agreed it would make a test case to force a “separate but equal” public swimming facility exclusively “for Negros”. Several police cars responded, but no one was arrested because the officers knew this was what the group wanted in order to bring widespread attention to their demand. The Negro Ministerial Alliance had notified the city officials.

The incidents persuaded the county commission to open a black beach, and the idea to create Virginia Key took root. The 700-foot beach was opened on August 1, 1945. Since there was no causeway at the time, boat services hauled passengers to and from the beach for a round trip fare of 75 cents. The beach remained segregated until the mid-1970s.