THE GARTH C. REEVES, SR. WALL OF DISTINCTION

 

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Garth C. Reeves, Sr., publisher emeritus of The Miami Times, moved to Miami with his family in 1919, four months after his birth in Nassau, Bahamas. Mr. Reeves graduated from Miami’s Booker T. Washington High School in 1936 and earned a Bachelor’s degree in printing from Florida A & M University in 1940. After serving in World War II, Mr. Reeves returned to Miami and began to work alongside his father Henry E.S. Reeves, who established The Miami Times in 1923. The Miami Times has become the Black community’s voice and is Miami’s oldest and largest black newspaper.

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Mr. Reeves broke the color barrier in Miami’s white establishment, becoming the first Black to serve on the governing boards of Miami-Dade Community College, Barry University, the Greater Miami Chamber of Commerce, and the United Way of Miami-Dade. He also served as organizing chairman of the board for National Industrial Bank, the first integrated bank in the State of Florida.

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In the 1950s, he was instrumental in integrating local beaches, parks and golf courses. Mr. Reeves served 10 years as president of Amalgamated Publishers of New York City representing 110 black newspapers throughout the country, and served two terms as president of the National Newspaper Published Association. He is a life member of the NAACP, Sigma Pi Phi and Omega Psi Phi fraternities, founding member of the Episcopal Church of the Incarnation, and a Board Member of the Black Archives History & Research Foundation of South Florida, Inc. In 2018, Mr. Reeves reinforced his lifelong commitment to the preservation and cultivation of Miami’s rich black history by making a generous pledge to establish the Black Archives Endowment Fund and help ensure the organization’s sustainability.