In order to know where we’re headed, we got to know where we come from. That’s why for Black History Month 2025, we joined efforts with our sister organization Power U to bring members on an two-part interactive Black Miami History lesson and tour – made possible by local Black historian, tour guide, and Power U alumni Keith Ivory – to learn the history that they don’t teach us in schools.
MWC and Power U members together represent many generations, cultures, neighborhoods, and speak many languages. Thank you to our partners MARB Language Services for making this experience accessible in Spanish, and Haitian Creole – allowing for members to learn the long history of African-Americans, Bahamians, and Haitians in making Miami.
Mr. Ivory took us through Liberty City and Little Haiti and shared with us how this area was known as Lemon City, before Miami was even incorporated. We even made a stop at the historic Hampton House and got to walk the very steps taken by revolutionary activists, organizers, and entertainers like Martin Luther King Jr, Malcolm X, Josephine Baker, Muhammad Ali, and Ella Fitzgerald.
Together we learned:
- Bill Baggs Park in Key Biscayne was part of the Underground Railroad, a central point where boats from the Bahamas would pick up Black people escaping slavery.
- Railroad Shop Colored Addition was a neighborhood of Black families who were evicted and displaced by the City and County School Board so they could build a whites-only school.
- Dr. King spoke at a press conference in Miami in 1966, about how the white power structure benefits from pitting Black people against the newly arrived Cubans and vice versa.
Learning Black Miami History allows us to connect the dots and understand why Miami’s working-class Black and immigrant communities struggle today.
Throughout the 1900s, City of Miami officials and the real estate industry worked hard to drive down the value of Black neighborhoods so that they could suppress Black people’s economic power and enable the government to take over the land to sell it to wealthy real estate investors. This looked like stoking racist violence, denying families permits to renovate and improve their own property, banks refusing loans, and judges allowing the city to seize Black people’s land and property.
Miami’s legacy of real-estate-dominated politics and displacement of Black and immigrant communities in mass to make room for wealthy investors, continues to impact our lives today – because it’s still happening!
Just as our ancestors did, we will continue to believe in better futures and envision a dignified society for everyone. We will continue to tell our stories, educate ourselves and one another, and fight back against the dehumanization and disrespect of our people. Onwards!
Accounts to follow to learn Black Miami History:
Reflections from our members:
“I’ve lived here for 24 years, and never before have I or my son who goes to school here have learned about this history. I’m very happy to have gotten this opportunity to learn.” – Mari
“When I entered MLK’s room, I felt his presence, as if he were there in the room with me.” – Fabiola
“I feel very motivated and hopeful for another society, for a better tomorrow. At the Hampton House, I felt the spirit of MLK moving through me, all through my bones. The strength and the power… telling me to move forward, keep moving forward. Onward! Change is possible!” – Sylvana
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Miami Workers Center builds the power of working-class Black and Immigrant communities in Miami-Dade County. Through leadership development and grassroots campaigns, we seek to transform ourselves, our workplaces and our neighborhoods to win the respect, rights, and resources we all deserve.