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Coral Gables, Florida – George Merrick founded the City of Coral Gables in 1925, one of the first planned communities in America. He designed its layout and built many of its most iconic structures, including the Biltmore Hotel. He modeled much of the city’s style and names after Andalusia and Granada in southern Spain. Today, Coral Gables is often called the “new Beverly Hills,” surpassing its California counterpart.

One of Merrick’s greatest contributions was helping establish the University of Miami in 1925. He donated 160 acres of land and pledged $5 million in cash to launch it. For its first 15 years, he also provided critical financial support to keep the school afloat. Students affectionately called him the “Father of the University.” He could easily have named it “Merrick University.”

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Yet, today the University of Miami’s President and Board of Trustees are erasing his memory. Since May 2021, they have removed his name from the university’s founding history and even from a campus parking garage. This decision came in the wake of the George Floyd riots of 2020. Floyd, a career criminal, died in Minneapolis police custody after ingesting a lethal drug overdose while being arrested for passing counterfeit bills. Against that backdrop, one of Merrick’s 1937 speeches to the Miami Realty Board was labeled racist.

Progressives

George Merrick was not a racist. In his day, racists were largely Democrats—heirs of the Confederacy—who enacted “race laws” across the South. These laws declared that a single drop of African blood made someone black, stripping them of civil rights. In fact, Nazi Germany studied South Carolina’s race laws when drafting its anti-Jewish statutes, only to find them too extreme.

These laws also enforced segregation, including in housing. Martin Luther King Jr., at the Lincoln Memorial in 1963, rejected segregation and affirmed that Americans should be judged “not by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character.” The Civil Rights Act of 1964 later codified that principle.

Merrick, however, was a progressive. This movement, which arose in America around 1900, paralleled European socialism. But unlike in Europe, American progressives avoided openly using the word “socialism” until this millennium. Progressivism champions big government, heavy spending, high taxes, burdensome regulations, perpetual inflation, and a “living Constitution” untethered from its original meaning.

Progressives argue that government can be a force for good. Yet Thomas Paine warned that: “Government, even in its best state, is but a necessary evil; in its worst state, an intolerable one.” Hence, progressives diverge from the vision of government held by America’s founders.

Early progressive leaders included Presidents Teddy Roosevelt and, even more so, Woodrow Wilson. In 1913, progressives gave America: (1) the Federal Reserve, (2) direct election of U.S. Senators, bypassing state legislatures, and (3) the federal income tax. Later progressives included Presidents Herbert Hoover and Franklin D. Roosevelt.

Democratic progressives like Wilson and FDR tolerated and empowered their segregationist allies in the South. Wilson segregated the federal civil service and even welcomed the Ku Klux Klan to the White House, screening the KKK movie “The Birth of a Nation.” Princeton University has since acknowledged his racism and removed his name from its school of public policy.

FDR also relied on Southern Democrats. His first Supreme Court appointment in 1937 was Hugo Black, an Alabama Democrat and former KKK lawyer. FDR’s New Deal agencies institutionalized redlining and other discriminatory housing practices that disproportionately harmed Black Americans.

Progressives, believing in rule by “expert” technocrats, pursued the City Beautiful movement—an approach Merrick embraced in designing Coral Gables. But this high-regulation model has consequences:

1. It invites capture by crony capitalists.
2. It turns cultural diversity into a political battlefield.
3. It fuels cancel culture, particularly on campuses, where dissent is silenced.

Ironically, Merrick’s own progressive ideals helped create the academic culture that led to his cancellation. In a sense, he cancelled himself.

Miami Realty Board Speech

In 1937, Merrick delivered the speech that triggered today’s controversy. He referred to blacks as “negroes”—a standard term at the time and simply the Spanish translation of the word. To judge him otherwise is to erase history.

The United States Housing Act of 1937 mandated slum clearance. In response, Merrick proposed a “Negro Resettlement Plan.” Segregated housing was legally required, so Merrick could not have proposed otherwise.

He candidly admitted that Miami’s black residents had been given only “what was left over and not wanted” and denied beach access. But then he insisted: “Collectively, as well as individually, we cannot receive fairness unless we give fairness.” To that end, he suggested setting aside two beaches—one on Biscayne Bay and one on the Atlantic Ocean—for black residents.

He also proposed replacing slum housing with affordable, Bahamian-style homes on spacious lots with fruit trees. He believed this was what black residents would prefer. He praised Miami’s black community as “self-respecting” and “crimeless for 50 years.” Far from expressing racism, his words conveyed admiration and respect.

His broader speech also called for countywide rapid transit and zoning regulations—classic progressive policies. Today, only 3% of commuters rely on rapid transit, yet it remains heavily subsidized. Zoning regulations, meanwhile, are notorious breeding grounds for corruption.

In sum, Merrick’s speech combined advocacy for fair treatment of black residents with progressive calls for urban renewal, repid transit and zoning regulations. It was hardly a racist harangue.

University Administration

Nonetheless, in 2021, the University of Miami administration concluded that Merrick had “boldly held, and acted upon, racist segregationist beliefs throughout his life.” This ignored the historical reality: that segregation was legally required, that Merrick employed Bahamian laborers, that he allowed neighborhoods to cross racial lines, and that his father and grandfather were abolitionist preachers.

As Goethe wrote of Mephistopheles: he embodies “the spirit of perpetual negation.” Today’s progressives similarly define themselves by negating the achievements of America and Western civilization.

In contrast, many patriot groups in South Florida open their meetings with land acknowledgments honoring the pioneers—Ponce de Leon, Henry Flagler, Julia Tuttle and George Merrick—who made South Florida a refuge from tyranny, whether from Latin American communism or America’s own “blue states.”

At least the Miami Hurricanes football team has regained national prominence. Unfortunately, the university’s administration remains bogged down in woke progressive nonsense.