The Struggle for Black Freedom in Miami: Civil Rights and America's Tourist Paradise, 1896–1968

Abstract

Miami has never fit neatly into the Old South. A North Carolina State University study found that it is the city where you are least likely to hear “y'all” in the former Confederacy. Miami was founded in 1896, thirty-one years after the end of the Civil War, by the oil mogul Henry Flagler. The first African Americans there came to build Flagler's railroad. But the city witnessed some of the worst racial violence in the nation, experienced four race riots from 1968 to 1992 and saw the kind of racial discrimination most often associated with other Deep South states. What made Miami different was the city leaders' goals: they wanted to implement the same Jim Crow practices as the rest of the South, while luring tourists and permanent residents from the North by creating a far different image. White leaders knew it would discourage tourists and prospective residents if the level of violence against African Americans mirrored other areas of the South—including north Florida. They adopted a strategy of holding the line on giving African American rights when they could and yielding as little as possible when they had no other choice. The priority of the white elites was the image of the city, which was drawing tourists from all over the world and billing itself as the “Gateway to Latin America.”