Overtown is a neighborhood of
Miami,
Florida, United States, just northwest of
Downtown Miami. Originally called Colored Town in the
Jim Crow era of the late 19th through the mid-20th century, the area was once the preeminent and is the historic center for commerce in the
black community in Miami and
South Florida.
A part of the historic heart of Miami, it was designated as a "
colored" neighborhood after the creation and
incorporation of Miami in 1896. The incorporation of
Miami as a city occurred at the insistence of
Standard Oil and FEC railroad tycoon
Henry Flagler, whose mostly black American railroad construction workers settled near what became Downtown Miami, just north of Flagler's
Royal Palm Hotel on the
Miami River. Owing to a substantive black population, 168 of the 362 men who voted for the creation of the city of Miami were counted as "colored," but the
separate but equal segregation laws of the
Deep South dictated the city designate the portion of the city, in this case, north and west of FEC railroad tracks, as "Colored Town."[2]
The area experienced serious economic decline from the late 1950s. Issues ranging from
urban renewal to the construction of
interstate highways like
I-95 (then, the North-South Expressway), the
Dolphin Expressway and the
Midtown Interchange in the 1960s, fragmented the once-thriving center with the resident population decimated by nearly 80 percent from roughly 50,000 to just over 10,000.[7] The area became economically destitute and considered a "
ghetto" as businesses closed and productivity stagnated in the neighborhood.[8] In 1982,
a riot broke out in the neighborhood following the police shooting of a man.
Since the 1990s and 2000s,
community gardens have been created, in addition to renovations to the historic Lyric Theatre and revitalization and
gentrification efforts spurred both by the city of Miami and
Miami-Dade County. Dr. Marvin Dunn
[1] founded the original Roots in the City Overtown Community Garden, turning an "overgrown, littered lot into a flourishing garden" maintained by Overtown residents and volunteers.[9][10][11] Roots in the City, a non-profit "dedicated to community development, jobs training, inner-city beautification, healthy eating initiatives, and community research" used the Community Gardens to provide affordable fresh produce to low-income families, public school students, community agencies and homeless shelters.[12] and is also organizes an urban farmer's market.[13] These projects and other aspects of Overtown were featured in a short documentary The Ground under Overtown[2] centered on multi-issue multi-racial community organizing created around Florida protests against the
FTAA with a focus on
environmental racism, critiques of so-called "free trade"
agreements like the FTAA, and positive community solutions such as
permaculture. Anti-FTAA protesters at Dr. Dunn's invitation held a workshop on permaculture at the Overtown Community Garden and donated over 100 cherry trees to the Overtown community.[14]
As of 2000,[17] Overtown had a population of 10,029 residents, with 3,646 households, and 2,128 families residing in the city. The median household income was $13,211.99. The racial makeup of the neighborhood was 74.77%
Black, 19.90%
Hispanic or
Latino of any race, 3.27%
White (non-Hispanic), and 2.05%
Other races (non-Hispanic).
Theodore R. and Thelma A. Gibson Charter School, 1682 NW 4th Ave.[38]
Libraries
Overtown Public Library (350 NW 13th St),[39] with its exterior walls adorned with paintings by Overtown's famous urban expressionist painter,
Purvis Young.
Dorsey Memorial Library (100 NW 17th St) (1941–1961),[40] Dorsey Memorial Library was the first city-owned building constructed specifically for library purposes.
Museums
Black Police Precinct & Courthouse Museum, 480 NW 11th St.[41]
Places of worship
In addition to the churches listed in the
places of interest section, in the neighborhood there are:[42]
A.M. Cohen Temple Church of God in Christ, 1747 NW 3rd Ave
Christ Church of The Living God, 225 NW 14th Ter
Greater Israel Bethel Primitive Baptist Church, 160 NW 18th St
N. D. B. Connolly. "Colored, Caribbean, and Condemned: Miami's Overtown District and the Cultural Expense of Progress, 1940-1970," Caribbean Studies 34. no. 1 (January–June 2006)