Miami's Colored Over Segregation: Segregation, Interstate-95 and Miami's African-American Legends

The article examines the legendary imagery of Miami's African-American community in "Colored Town" and the current conditions in "Overtown," focusing on the impact of I-95.
It discusses how segregation and I-95 have constrained and defined the African-American community in Miami.

In the early 20th century, Jim Crow laws led to the ghettoization of the Black community in "Colored Town," which paradoxically fostered a vibrant and thriving community due to the concentration of trades and classes.
Key events between 1947 and 1967 reshaped Miami:
- Florida Supreme Court struck down municipal segregation (1947).
- The Interstate System (I-95) was built in Miami (1955-1968).
- Cuban immigration increased significantly (1960s).
- Black consciousness movement gained momentum (1960s).
- Civil Rights laws were passed nationwide (1960s).
These events dismantled Jim Crow laws and altered the urban infrastructure, impacting the quality of buildings, streetscapes, and the sense of community.

Following a freeze in 1894-95, Henry M. Flagler extended his railroad south to Miami, employing a large population of Black laborers.
By 1896, a semi-permanent encampment for Black laborers and their families formed, leading to the development of Colored Town.
In 1896, Plessy \text{ vs. } Ferguson legalized segregation, solidifying the community's segregation.
Colored Town became a community of professionals and laborers.
It was known as Little Broadway, with 9th Street clubs hosting after-hours shows for performers who entertained in segregated Miami Beach clubs.
The Lyric Theater, developed by a Black entrepreneur, provided vaudeville performances.
Booker T. Washington High School offered the best education for Black youth in South Florida, despite facing criticism and a bombing during its construction.
From the 1920s to the 1950s, Colored Town remained the center of Black culture in Miami, expanding through controlled strategies like redlining.
The name was officially changed to Overtown.
The community contained both the best and worst conditions imposed on Miami's Black community.

Housing conditions were poor, with narrow concrete apartment buildings replacing wooden houses to maximize density.
Rents and taxes were inflated, while public services were minimal.
The city's education system neglected the Black population, with Booker T. Washington High School built long after Miami High School.
The city police department was known for its brutality, and curfews and ordinances controlled the Black population's daily activities.
Miami remains a highly segregated city, experiencing racial riots between 1968 and the present.
Overtown, Liberty City, and Brownsville operate as de facto segregated communities, influenced by both positive and negative aspects of their history.

While the physical places remain, the population is economically mobile and culturally diverse.
The future is defined by the African-American community's perception of its past, even as they leave Overtown.
The sense of community persists, with efforts to rebuild Overtown influenced by memories and nostalgia.
Some view this as a benign patriarchy, with a dispersed population maintaining control over development.

The construction of I-95 devastated the community in the name of progress.
The well-meaning elder and exiled community may have a vision for rebuilding Overtown that does not accurately represent its history.
South Florida's landscape and infrastructure are heavily engineered, with highways as major geographical elements.
I-95 runs North-South, impacting the city fabric and communities along its path.
Driving in South Florida is exemplified by the rhythmic certainty of I-95 as it passes through various communities and interchanges.
As the Interstate drops into Liberty City it grudgingly lunges through the fabric of the city resting on the ground and becoming airborne at alternative and sporadic intervals to allow for arterial access and underpassing city streets.
The interstate soars into a web of ramps, some 7 stories high. Following the interchange the Interstate once again drops to the ground slicing a wide the line thorough the terrain and splitting the cities warehouse district and straightens as if to gain momentum toward O\atown.
The buildings and neighborhoods left in the wake of the interstate often appear awkward, nervous, and naked.

The Interstate Transportation System is often blamed for fracturing urban neighborhoods.
The construction of I-95 coincided with a relocation of population along racial, economic, and development criteria.
The African-American community was unprepared for these simultaneous occurrences and fell into disrepair.
I-95 is both a symbol for escape and the cause of Overtown's destruction.
Building I-95 parallel to NW 7th Avenue severed the urban context east from west, reinforcing segregation.

Systems theory: any system changes and evolves once it is put into practice and that the intentions of the said system fail to predict the totality of the outcome. The system in all cases is open and in Miami the system of the interstate highway interacts with the environmental, social and cultural system(s) to create qualitative and new properties.
All parties involved in I-95's impact implemented systems based on noble intentions, but the interaction with other systems caused unintended results.
The community seeks to return the neighborhood to a glorified perception of its past, controlled by a dispersed population forming a socially acceptable patriarchy.

The community becomes dependent on I-95 as both a victimizer and a source for community development projects.
Rejuvenation projects attempt to stitch the community back together underneath the expressway.
Urban sutures act to undermine the intended axis of the Interstate and reinstate the fabric of the fragmented street infrastructure.
These projects become part and parcel to the interstate and are developed with dependency on the highway.

Caught in a dilemma of good intentions and political patronage, the community finds itself dependent on an infrastructure it despises (I-95).
The future lies in the evolution of a new form of community, rather than the resurrection of an idealized past.
The richness of Overtown must be inclusive of its complex and contradictory history.
Ignoring true conditions and needs of the contemporary community risks repeating detached, patriarchal dictates.