Like other American cities, discrimination and segregation set the tone for race relations. Yet segregation had an upside. Overtown, the culturally vibrant and economically diverse Black district of pre-1960s Miami, was a regular on the Chitlin' Circuit. Black performing artists flocked to the city. In the early 1960s, it even attracted Muhammad Ali to train in Miami Beach. But Cold War escalation in our hemisphere and its resultant policy responses by Federal and Florida state governments had enormous unintended consequences.

    In Fall 1959, Fidel Castro ascended to power in Cuba with a communist form of government, setting in motion a remarkable chain of events. Cuban business owners justifiably left for fear they would lose their businesses and freedoms to a communist government. Castro's Cuba represented Russia's only communist-friendly outpost in North America and thus, would curry financial and military favor from Russia. American government leaders feared this communist influence only 90 miles from our South Florida borders. More importantly, they feared other Latin American nations might follow in Cuba's footsteps. To prevent communism spreading beyond Cuba, the deck of public policy cards for South Florida would be reshuffled in a uniquely profound way.

    The federal government designated Miami to be the point of embarkation and assistance for Cuban immigrants. To use a chess metaphor it was a "Queen" in the Cold War Cuba Policy directed at Russia. To be specific, the federal government awarded 50 times the amount of business loans/grants to new Cuban immigrants than to native Black Miamians in the 1960s. The federal government also "persuaded" Miami, Dade County and Florida officials to remove residential and business barriers to entry and award public service jobs, business loans and home loans to Cuban immigrants. As a result, American government leaders could parade "So-happy-to-be-here" Cuban Immigrants of Little Havana district in Miami to the rest of the world.

    Our White Americans sisters and brothers were Bishops and Knights who deferred to the Queen, but maintained their full citizen status. Though the handouts were unfair to White Miamians, they did not suffer exclusion from business and home improvement loans, nor suffer as much from freeway construction. They could live anywhere in South Florida and many chose larger suburban homes with new malls and jobs nearby. New freeways would be needed to get to those suburban communities. And civic historians note, the first purpose of the Interstate Freeway System was to transport military equipment and forces across the nation, so extending Interstate Freeway 95 to Miami was a federal priority.

    Given such a complex geo-political-racial-transportation climate, unprecedented Cold War policy decisions with bad unintended consequences were inevitable. Since Black Miami was a Pawn on the chessboard of Cold War Cuba Policy, the federal and state government permitted freeway builders to constructed a major interchange in the heart of (then) economically stable Overtown. The land-gobbling freeway interchange had a dagger-like effect on the community. Black Middleclass  residents moved from Overtown to greater Fort Lauderdale or points north or out of the state. City officials offered poorer Overtown residents an opportunity to move to Liberty City for public housing. Thus Liberty City became a new unincorporated district quickly engulfed in the despair of concentrated poverty and politically neutered, since it was not officially part of Miami and lacked a tax base. Destabilized with only its historic churches remaining as anchors, Overtown became a worn-out husk of its former self.

    White proponents of this extraordinary Cold War Cuba Policy argue, in the larger scheme of things, unconventional moves were necessary and some collateral damage is to be expected. Their proof point is America beat Russia in the Cold War. Barring the brunt of this unfair and rushed policy, African Americans see things quite differently.

    The federal, state and city government never developed a comprehensive plan to preserve Black businesses in and adjacent to Overtown, concurrent with Cuban immigrant business assistance in Miami. There was no real incentive program to migrate the Black Middleclass adjacent to Overtown or within Miami-Dade County to counteract the loss of jobs and Black leadership, even as we witnessed the emergence of Little Havana. When urbanologists and historians look back on 1959-1990 Miami, they can easily document how Cold War Cuba Policy set a course for discrimination, destabilization and poverty that lead to Miami's racial unrest.

    By 1990, when Miami civic authorities approved building the $100 million Miami Arena at the edge of Overtown, it was more of a distress call than urban renewal. Insensitive Miami public officials even thumbed their nose at the Nelson Mandela Peace Tour in the early 1990s, simply because Mandela voiced support for Castro in Cuba. Those Miami leaders ignored the long-standing fact that Castro-led Cuba contributed greatly to the end of Apartheid in South Africa when Mandela was rotting away in jail, long before the USA joined the Anti-Apartheid bandwagon. Sadly and this a point to stress, many Cuban Americans who demonstrated brotherhood with and understanding for Black Miamians were painted with the same brush as the misguided Cuban Americans.

    Fortunately, there is more sensitivity to the special needs of Black Miami today, albeit too late for the Black Middleclass of Overtown. Gentrification is the latest tenant with major hotels and condos springing up. One positive outcome of the Cold War Cuba Policy is that it triggerred conditions for the development of Royal Palm Luxury Resort on Miami Beach.