Liberty City - History

History

Once a part of the sparsely populated outskirts of northern Miami, what became Liberty City developed during the Great Depression of the 1930s when President Franklin D. Roosevelt authorized the construction of the Liberty Square housing project in 1933, the first of its kind in the Southern United States. Built as a response to the deteriorating housing conditions in densely-populated and covenant-restricted slums of Overtown, construction on the initial housing project began in 1934 and opened in 1937.

Into the 1940s and 1950s, the growing Liberty City and adjacent Brownsville thrived as a middle income black American community, hosting several churches, hospitals, and community centers. The area served as home to prominent figures such as Kelsey Pharr, M. Athalie Range (the first African American to elected serve on the Miami city commission) and boxer Muhammad Ali. Although segregation laws prohibited black Americans from resting and residing in popular Miami Beach, service establishment and resorts such as the Hampton House catered to and entertained the likes of notables such as Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., Althea Gibson, and even whites such as Mickey Mantle.

Construction of Interstate 95 in Florida in Overtown and declining use of restrictive covenants in the wake of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 dramatically altered the neighborhood into the 1960s. Increasing numbers of lower income elderly and welfare-dependent families migrated to the Liberty City neighborhood following their displacement primarily from inner city Overtown, leading to large-scale black flight of middle and higher income African Americans and other blacks like West Indian Americans largely to suburban areas like Florida City and Miami Gardens in southern and northern Dade County, respectively.

Crime grew prevalent in the increasingly poverty-stricken area in the immediate post-Civil Rights era of the 1960s and 1970s. The ensuing problems of the poor and disenfranchised grew most apparent and notable in race riots which occurred in Liberty City in August 1968 during the Republican National Convention in Miami Beach, and in 1980 following the acquittal of police officers charged with the killing Arthur McDuffie.

The plight of inner-city black Miamians increasingly came to be highlighted in national press into the 1980s as the Hurricanes football team of the University of Miami won several national college football championships led by players recruited from the mostly black, lower income neighborhoods such as Liberty City and Overtown. National exposure continued with the popularity of nationally broadcast programs such as the NBC crime drama Miami Vice, which brought the deteriorating conditions of the area to greater prominence.

Into the 1990s and 2000s, the music grew to reflect the area with locals such as Luther Campbell of the 2 Live Crew pioneering the Miami bass genre which dominated Southern hip hop music during the decade. Other music and sports talents rose to national prominence from area such as rappers Trina and Trick Daddy and NFL players Chad "Ocho Cinco" Johnson and Willis McGahee.