BLACK GENESIS - FORT LAUDERDALE
Seminole Indians inhabited the area for thousands of years. They proudly defended their land against the Spaniards prior to 1821 and against Americans for two more wars. By 1838, General William Lauderdale built the first fort, which later became the city's namesake. Though many Seminoles were killed or driven to the Everglade swamps, they were never conquered. A détente ended Florida's Indian Wars. Then increasing numbers of European settlers arrived in the 1880s to fish, farm and build real estate.
The first African American settlers in the region were railroad workers who helped build an extension from the north in 1896. For convenience, they settled in shanties along the railroad tracks. After the tracks and stations were completed, many remained to work in other endeavors. At the time of Fort Lauderdale's incorporation as a city in 1911, it had a recorded population of only 150. Even as late as 1940 the city had a population of only 18,000. Few of the suburban cities, which surround it today, had been formed.
Like elsewhere in our segregated country of the time, a close-knit Black community emerged to provide living essentials: a Black church, newspaper, shops, theater, restaurants and professional services. As the first Black church in the area, Piney Grove Baptist takes on more importance relative to the other institutions since it opened before the Civil Rights Movement. Today, that historic church is known as First Baptist Church Piney Grove. African Americans lived closer to downtown than today's Sistrunk Business Corridor.
Sistrunk Business Corridor is named after Broward County's first Black physician, Dr. James Sistrunk, who co-founded Provident Hospital, the first Black hospital in Broward County. A library is named for Dr. Von Mizell. In Pompano, Ely High School is named for legendary educator Mrs. Blanche Ely. And in Dania Beach, Collins Elementary proudly bears the name of Mrs. Collins.
Before 1960, the African American presence was an order of magnitude smaller than Miami. Then Cold War geo-political-economics took a hand (see Cuba Policy Impacts Miami). Though Cold War dynamics established a fervent anti-Castro outpost, they had severe consequences in Miami that accelerated Black middle-class flight to Fort Lauderdale/Broward County and northward.
Coincident with those events, South Florida attracted a large number of defense contracts. The business community targeted European Americans and Europeans for winter retreats and retirement homes in the American subtropics. Even with the abundance of new housing and jobs, racism did not elude Fort Lauderdale/Broward County. Broward was a site for several Florida Sit-ins during the Civil Rights Movement as chronicled at the Old Dillard Museum.
Aside from Florida elections where mischief prevails, African Americans, Latino Americans, Caribbean Americans, and even Seminoles are claiming more seats at the big table. You see large numbers of entrepreneurial small businesses by all walks of life. That qualitative difference between Fort Lauderdale/Broward County and Miami-Dade County, arguably represents a healthier climate for new residents in South Florida.
BLACK CULTURAL TRAVEL MADE EASY