Overtown
Massive interchange clears huge section of Overtown in 1967. Source: Transit Miami
Despite the repercussions that changing the course of the freeway was inevitably going to bring to historical black community in Overtown, there was not as much opposition to the plan. In addition, historically, this time of the U.S. severeley enforced Jim Crow law, under which Miami’s civil rights movement could not yet be developed and organized to gather political power against the city and state authorities. [2] However, the controversy of the construction of highways through Overtown did serve as a catalyst for Black residents of Overtown to step up with their voice politically. Throughout the 20th century, Black citizens of the city of Miami had continuously dealt with racial inequality, police brutality, and white superiority, but the degree and scale of the destruction of the construction of the expressways on Overtown was unforgivable and an out-of-boundary decision even for the biased city committee. [4] |
 A picture of present day Overtown
source: http://www.overtownmusicartsfestival.com/home/about-us/
The name Overtown comes from the fact that it was located on the other side of the railroad tracks from white communities and people had to go “over town” to this neighborhood. During the Jim Crow era, it was commonly called Colored Town. The neighborhood eventually flourished into a well-defined community with schools, homes, churches and a center of entertainment with theaters, nightclubs, hotels, and markets, earning itself yet another nickname, “Southern Harlem”. [1]
In 1955, the city of Miami planned the construction of expressaway that ran through downtown Miami on the edge of residential neighborhoods and through low-value, “blighted” industrial areas as a part of city’s urban renewal. A year later in 1956, the Interstate Highway Act was passed, and the city was funded fully for its construction by the Congress. Unfortunately, by this time the original plan shifted the planned route of highway several blocks to the west, resulting in countless number of black residents in Overtown displaced from their community and Overtown’s main business district devastated.[7] When the Magic City Center Plan was created in 1960, the construction of the expressways was once again confirmed. Surprisingly, the Magic City Center Plan never even mentioned the damage the construction of expressways would cause on one of the oldest neighborhoods in Miami, but instead eclipsed it with the existing problems in the Central Business District and dramatic solutions. [4] |
Sources:
[1] “Overtown Community”. University of Miami Libraries: Special Collections. Accessed 28 August, 2015 http://library.miami.edu/specialcollections/ohp/communities-overtown/
[2] Rose, Mark H., Mohl, Ryamond A. “Expressways in Miami” in Interstate: Highway Politics and Policy Since 1939. (2012). 3rd ed. 117 – 122
[3] Metropolitan Dade County, City of Miami. Magic City Center Plan For Action. (State University Libraries of Florida, 1960). accessed August 28, 2015. http://digitool.fcla.edu/
[4] Connolly, N.D.B., "Colored, Caribbean and Condemned: Miami's Overtown District and The Cultural Expense of Progress 1940-1970," Caribbean Studies 34, no.1 (2006)
[1] “Overtown Community”. University of Miami Libraries: Special Collections. Accessed 28 August, 2015 http://library.miami.edu/specialcollections/ohp/communities-overtown/
[2] Rose, Mark H., Mohl, Ryamond A. “Expressways in Miami” in Interstate: Highway Politics and Policy Since 1939. (2012). 3rd ed. 117 – 122
[3] Metropolitan Dade County, City of Miami. Magic City Center Plan For Action. (State University Libraries of Florida, 1960). accessed August 28, 2015. http://digitool.fcla.edu/
[4] Connolly, N.D.B., "Colored, Caribbean and Condemned: Miami's Overtown District and The Cultural Expense of Progress 1940-1970," Caribbean Studies 34, no.1 (2006)
