and beautiful homes. When beachfront land was being bought up, Merrick argued that everyone should have the right to beach access, which included middle to lower income whites and the Black community; because of the Jim Crow laws, beaches were segregated, but Merrick believed that rather than deny the Black community complete beach access, that they should have their own "great Bay beach" and park, and that it should be forever preserved for the Black community. In his 1937 speech to the Miami Realty Board, Merrick lamented the unfair living conditions of the black community, he recalled peddling vegetables when he was young and stated "[i]f I had anything in the wagon left over, I would go over into negro town and get rid of it. Sadly, but truly, that is the picture of how we have always treated our negro population. If anything is left over, or anything we do not want, then the negroes get that. Today one third of our present population is negro. When we will have a million people, we will have at least a fourth of a million negroes. Today this third of our present citizenry are effectively denied water access and “water use.” Now collectively, as well as individually, we cannot receive fairness, unless we give fairness. It is proposed—for Miami at least, that this unfair condition be remedied. It is proposed to give fairness to this deserving one third of our citizenry. It is proposed that at a proper point on this proposed fifty mile water Loop, that a great Bay beach be established and forever preserved for negro use. And that similarly, on the ocean side of the Loop that similar advantages be established and preferably in one whole little island facing on the Gulf Stream, which could ideally be made there for them an ocean and Gulf Stream park." The petition to remove Merrick's name from the University of Miami campus, claimed that "leading up to public votes on George Merrick’s aforementioned, “Slum Clearance Plan,” [from 1937] the use of racist advertisement materials was fairly wide-spread throughout Miami and the surrounding areas," the petition then cited an image of a slum clearance ad from the 1950s (years after the death of George Merrick), the image used was not from George Merrick's lifetime. Published as part of Vizcaya Museum and Gardens "Black Voices," Dr. Dorothy Fields, historian and founder of The