The building of the Royal Palm Hotel

John Sewell, foreman for Henry Flagler, brought 12 black men down to clear and lay down the tracks from West Palm Beach that was started 1896 finished in 1897

Map of “Cocoanut” Grove

The housing before the city started and Henry Flagler’s railroad came down.

The third building in with the most windows was called the pool hall and was where Miami was incorporated.

Another picture of Miami’s incorporation on July 28, 1896

The men of the Flagler organization were given the day off so they could vote for the incorporation of Miami.

A scene from the banks of the Miami River in the 1890’s. This was the water source for all of Miami at that time.

Miami City Cemetery (west entrance) Established in 1897 with land donated by Mary Brickell.

As it was in life so it was in death.  Blacks were buried in the back of the cemetery.  The first burial not recorded was that of an elderly black man on July 14, 1897.

The first recorded death was a white man named Graham Branscomb, a 24-year-old English who died on July 20, 1897 from consumption.

Digging a ditch to lay plumbing pipes

Overtown Miami after The Lyric Theatre was constructed.

Dana Albert Dorsey House built in 1915 by the first black millionaire located at 250 NW 9th Street, Miami, FL 33136

Throughout much of the early and middle 20th Century, Miami's black residents were confined to specific areas through restrictive covenants, racial violence, and exclusionary zoning. By 1930, these local policies and practices restricted most of Miami's 29,000 black residents to a small area outside of downtown Miami known as "Colored Town," now Overtown. The growing neighborhood became black Miami's commercial and cultural center.

Shotgun homes that were prevalent in Miami’s Overtown

The second group of police officers being sworn in to the historic black precinct

Ira P. Davis

The growing police force within Miami

Overtown looking vibrant in 1950’s