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.
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
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