Overtown Racism In Miami

There is a long history about blacks in Miami, including the earliest black pirates in 1640s, the Bahamian fishermen, the black escaped slaves from mainly Georgia in 1700’s, and the large group of blacks from Georgia and Alabama in the 1880s and 1890s. Segregation was the first challenge that the black communities of Miami had to face. Miami was incorporated as a city in 1896, as Henry Flagler extended his railroad to Miami. In the same year, the Overtown, used to be called colored town, was established, and it was exclusively for blacks. The railroad separated Overtown from rest of communities, but kept it close enough for blacks to get to work. It was highly segregated community so that blacks were not allowed to leave Overtown in the night.
Colored Town had become a self-sufficient community in 1920s, and it entered its golden age in 1930s. From 1930s to 1950s, there were popular night clubs, famous restaurants, hotels, and theaters with full house in Colored Town. Even white people came to Colored Town to enjoy the night life of the big nightclubs. However, blacks were segregated even in black nightclubs in Colored Town, separated from white people by sections. Even when Jackie Robinson, as the first black to play major league baseball, came Miami with the Brooklyn Dodgers, he was not allowed to stay with the team in downtown. In 1947, a new policy for blacks called home inspections came out. They would set rules for the house and cut off the front porch for sidewalks. Besides, the thuggish white policeman, sanitation and Klan were the problems for black community back then.
As the social restrictions on blacks began to ease, Colored Town lost its magic gradually.
Blacks visitors, who used to stay in the hotels in Colored Town, started staying in large hotels in Miami Beach. Blacks took their money and investment to elsewhere. In early 1960s, the construction of I-95 and I-395 became a huge challenge for blacks in Overtown. Although an alternative plan was constructing the highway along with the railway, it was rejected. To reserve enough land for the expansion of downtown area and to move black community to other areas, the I-95 crossed through Overtown directly, separated black community, destroyed housing for thousands of blacks, and forced a large number of blacks who made Overtown home moved out of
Overtown.
At the same, Fidel Castro came to power in 1960, resulting an influx of Cubans to Miami in a short period of time.
Miami became a perfect place to get away from Castro for many wealthy and educated Cubans including doctors, lawyers, teachers, and businesspeople. The government provided a lot of help for them and they fit into the south Florida seamlessly. In the 1980s, the second wave of Cubans came in, but they were more impoverished. Thus, black community became more difficult as some jobs were taken by Cubans. As Dorsey Fields said, blacks went from second class to third class citizens overnight. Also, Haitians came to Miami in a large number without any help from the federal government in 1970s. Although blacks treated Haitians in a way that white people treated blacks, blacks stood with Haitians in a way because of the similar situation of Haitians and Blacks in terms of social status, economy, and discrimination by both white people and
Cubans.
Thuggish white policeman was always a problem for black communities. A young black man Arthur McDuffie beaten to death by white policemen and the white jury gave a not guilty verdict for all officers involved. This result sparked a riot. However, there were no suburban Black professionals in theses riots, although they were actually the beneficial of the riots. These Black professionals were invited to downtown by white people and asked why did they riot, and they asked for business.
Both the documentary and the readings present the positive outcomes, but there are still many problems for black community. In the last one century, black community has a great change from every aspect. We should see the progress and the accomplishment that black community has done. There are successful blacks in every position of the city. There was a first black chief in 1985 and the city’s first black city manager in 1979. However, there are many problems left for black community to resolve like the black-on-black crime and teen pregnancy. Black community also need to help each other, the blacks on the position or successful businessmen should come back to community and do something to help the improvement of black community.