MLK Hialeah: Life on the "Right" Side of the Tracks

As you head west on NW 62nd Street (MLK Blvd.) through Liberty City, you will cross the CSX / Tri-Rail tracks.

This will mean that you are in Hialeah, but nobody will have to tell you that.

You will be able to tell that something changed by how many name-brand stores and franchises that you see on both sides of the road.







To Hialeah's credit, many other cities would have let MLK Blvd. end at the tracks and retained the old name of the street (in this case, W 9th Street), but Hialeah continued MLK Blvd. all the way to the canal, and this was courageous.




What is telling is that the inner-city ended as quickly as it did.







Marshall Davis, the manager at the African Heritage Cultural Arts Center in Liberty City, talked about living in "The Canyon" as a child, which was what they called the corridor of homes that backed onto the tracks.






At the time he lived there (and he is probably in his late 50's), there was nothing beyond the tracks at the time. That means that Hialeah got a fresh start as a "new" city and didn't have the baggage of being a segregated city.



That gave them a leg up on Liberty City, and the difference is a clear as night and day.

Indexing for This Topic:

"Wrong Side of the Tracks"

Atlanta: The Martin Luther King Jr. Capital of America

In August of 2009, on a road trip that would take us to Toledo, Ohio, and into Connecticut for our wedding, my husband and I spent the first night of our trip in Atlanta. More than anything, I wanted to visit the King Center.

I was not disappointed in what I found there, and it was gratifying to see that the center was now accompanied by a National Historic Site facility as well. This had been added from when my husband had last been there.


One thing about the National Historic Site that kind of took me off guard was how closely they tied Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. to Mahatma Gandhi. I was not surprised, but it was one of those, "...of course" moments.


It made perfect sense that it would honor Gandhi as the inspiration behind King's non-violent resistance.


I have been a student of Gandhi and King from the time that I had gone to battle with my church over my changing world view. One of the first books that I read as I sought to expand my understanding of how religion and privilege went hand-in-hand had been Mel White's "Religion Gone Bad."
In his book White talked extensively about how King and Gandhi had been the driving force behind him as he founded the activist organization, Soulforce.

To say the experience at the King Center and the National Historic Site was humbling somehow sells it short. A better word would be reverent. More than a museum, it felt like I was walking on hallowed ground, and standing in the shadow of two men who exhibited a rare kind of humanity that only comes once in a generation.

Indexing for This Topic:
"Cause for Optimism"

Inner-city Infrastructure: Overtown's Lyric Theater

I have come to realize that there are two different pedigrees when it comes to the inner-city areas of South Florida. One is a lineage that traces the roots of the marginalized community to white founders who fled to the suburbs as undesirable "others" moved in next door. The other lineage is derived from when a community was a segregated enclave in which Blacks were forced to live under Jim Crow laws. The four communities in South Florida that I am familiar with who have this kind of lineage are Overtown and Liberty City in Miami, Sistrunk in Fort Lauderdale, and Pearl City in Boca Raton.

The advantage of finding an area that was historically a segregated community is that the heritage is rich in culture. But in the case of Overtown, Sistrunk and Pearl City, these communities are all very close to what is now the commercial core of those cities. This simple fact is now putting them at risk. In all three instances there is an enormous amount of pressure to erase and "sanitize" the Black history and have the commercial district swallow it up. As a friend explained it to me, "Suddenly [the white folks] realized they had given up a prime location."

In Overtown, the historic Lyric Theater is a good example of what can be done to resist exactly this kind of pressure. In 2007 we were given an example of what kind of activism is needed in order to draw attention to not only the heritage of these communities, but also to preserving the buildings.

The Wikipedia post for Overtown almost seems to credit this increased attention to spurring on the revitalization of the theater, and by 2012 it looks like it will serve as a focal point of a youth program.

But back to that 2007 event. It was during the Art Basel festival season when a POPtv / nonradioMusic Studio Lab Project (no, that is not a typo) presented "AAPC+Overtown; A Snapshot of the Golden Age of American Music."

The project featured Derin Young and it was a multimedia performance that showcased historical Overtown residents and visitors by using both audio and video content. What it also did was celebrate the rich cultural history of Overtown. The performance utilized special segments highlighting Sammy Davis, Jr., Sam and Dave, Nat King Cole and Dinah Washington, as well as music from contemporary composers like Derin Young and R.M. Crews, who form the nucleus of the Studio Lab Project.

Indexing for This Topic:

"The Culture"

"White Flight"

Florida New Majority and The Miami Worker's Center

Since my most recent visit to Liberty City and Overtown I have been following two groups that are building a strong presence there.

The following is copied from the "About Us" page of the Florida New Majority (FNM)

"Founded in 2009, FNM overcomes the history of racism and division in the Sunshine State.

"By building common cause among diverse communities we are expanding democracy and developing the leadership of underrepresented communities. We are shifting the role of government away from being a pocketbook for corporate interest, to supporting the well-being of all Floridians."

The Miami Worker's Center is headquartered at the corner of MLK Blvd and 7th Avenue in Liberty City. There is a block party on Saturday, October 23rd, 2010 that sounds like a fun event.

Both of the above groups have e-newsletters that you can subscribe to on their web pages. I am confident that I will be posting quite a few more events and campaigns that these groups are involved with.

Indexing for This Topic:

"Cause for Optimism"

The Overtown Renaissance Movement

I just finished a Prezi presentation. Take a look. It is a far cry from a Powerpoint slideshow for sure.

Give it about 10 seconds to load in the background before you click on anything. It is a large file. Then click on the ">" icon at the bottom. This will start the program and it will take another 10 seconds to buffer.

Next I recommend you click on "More," then "full screen," and then advance the screens manually with the ">" icon at the bottom of the screen.

Indexing for This Topic:
"The Culture"

"Cause for Optimism"

Liberty City Sheds Its History as the Crime Capital of South Florida

The last line of the Wikipedia entry for Liberty City is disturbing to me.

Liberty City is a notoriously dangerous section of Miami as mass shootings are commonplace.

I have to ask why somebody would end this Wikipedia post in this manner after reading the prior sentences within the same paragraph.

Liberty City is also home to the Miami Workers Center. A strategy and organizing center for low-income communities and low-wage workers in Miami-Dade County. Initiated in March 1999, the Center’s mission is to work to end poverty and oppression. The Center’s most significant achievement has been the initiation and development of Low Income Families Fighting Together (LIFFT)—a grassroots membership organization of and for current and former welfare recipients, low-wage workers, and public housing residents that has become a growing force in Miami-Dade County. In these efforts the Miami Workers’ Center joins arms with Miami-Dade County's low-income people to address issues of poverty and limited opportunity.

There is much to be hopeful for in Liberty City, not the least of which is the massive investment made by the county to provide community services to the residents. This 5-story tall building is dedicated entirely to providing much needed health and wellness programs to some of the most disadvantaged people of South Florida. It is adjacent to the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Metrorail station.

People are too quick to condemn the inner-city poor as a drain on taxpayers. People like my nephew. Thankfully, Miami-Dade County sees their work in Liberty City as an investment in the future, rather than a paternalistic duty.

As wonderful as the Miami-Dade County Human Services Office Building is, I doubt if it will do as much to alter the course of history in Liberty City as the African Heritage Cultural Arts Center will. While visiting the center to take photos I met with the manager, Marshall Davis. He is a white-haired man who has been at the center for more than twenty years.

This is a small excerpt of a conversation that I had with him. My question to him was, "What makes you optimistic about the future of Liberty City?"

Indexing for This Topic:

"Cause for Optimism"

"The Culture"

The Murals of Liberty City, Florida

This particular mural stood out among the many that were painted along MLK Blvd. in Liberty City. It is obvious that somebody is keeping it vivid and fresh. It virtually leaps off the wall and grabs you as you drive by. (Click on image for a high-resolution view.)

When driving by, you, as a driver, will not have a chance to read the words, but there-in lies the message. Only a few American's will not recognize them as excerpts from King's last speech.

"Like anybody, I'd like to live a long life...but it doesn't matter now. I've been to the mountaintop."

And I've seen the promised land. I may not get there with you. But...we as a people will get to the Promised Land."

This is the short video of a portion of the speech that includes the above phrases:

There were many other murals along MLK Blvd. in Liberty City, and here is a sampling.

Going under the I-95 freeway eastbound, this is your initial view.




If you get stopped at the light under the freeway, you get to read these words.








These murals are in the downtown core.











Make sure you take a moment to read the initial comment made below this blog by 'circles...all the way down' about this sign, which he entitled "For Rent: Dream of the Century."





These murals are under the I-95 freeway westbound, toward the downtown Liberty City area.






The spirit of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. has been kept alive in Liberty City. At the far western end, just before entering the Hialeah portion of MLK Blvd., you will pass Martin Luther King Jr. park, where there is a larger-than-life statue of Dr. King.


If you want to take some of the art home with you, you can always buy a T-shirt.

Indexing for This Topic

"The Culture"

"Cause for Optimism"

Report Card: Fort Lauderdale / Lauderdale Lakes, Broward County, Florida

Fort Lauderdale / Lauderdale Lakes

Broward County, Florida

Dr. Martin Luther King Jr Avenue

(Also known as: NW 31st Avenue)

Zip Codes: 33312 / 33311 / 33309 (south to north)

Overview: If you click on the map below you will not see an MLK Blvd (or in this case, MLK Avenue) anywhere in sight. For reasons still unknown to me (but which I will be investigating), Google Maps still does not show NW 31st Avenue as Dr. Martin Luther King Jr Avenue. Neither did Mapquest. Regardless, the street signs all show both MLK Avenue and NW 31st Avenue for the duration of the road that I traveled. The Broward Transit Route Map did show Route 40 going along the northern length of what it referred to as MLK Blvd. (not Avenue...go figure), which it also showed turning into NW 31st Street when it passed Commercial Boulevard in the north.

MLK Avenue through Fort Lauderdale starts in a thriving residential community of single-family homes south of Davie Boulevard in South Fort Lauderdale. (See photo of home below.) Heading north, the parcels of land along MLK Ave. start becoming commercialized while the residential neighborhoods continue behind the commercial buildings.

View Larger Map

At NW 19th Street you enter Lauderdale Lakes, and by the time you reach Oakland Park Boulevard (the equivalent of 31st Street) the area is heavily commercial and even borders on becoming industrial. It gradually transitions back to residential, and by the time you reach NW 40th Street the street signs no longer reference NW 31st Avenue as MLK Avenue.

Length: Approximately 5 miles

From 1300 Block South to 3900 Block North.

(Davie Boulevard in the south to just shy of Commercial Boulevard in the north)

Classifications:

Residential Neighborhood (houses and apartments visible to MLK Avenue) = 50%

Vacant = 15%

Blighted and Ignored = 5%

Blighted but Not Ignored = 5%

Gentrification Failing = 0

Gentrification Succeeding = 0

Viable with Room to Improve = 50%

Vibrant and Car Friendly = 25%

Vibrant and Pedestrian Friendly = 0

Commercial Corridor: Main Street = 10%
(Only at the crossroads with east/west major intersections.)
Gentrification Failing = 30%
Gentrification Succeeding = 10%
Viable with Room to Improve = 60%

Commercial Corridor: Mom & Pop Shops = 20%

Vacant = 50%

Blighted and Ignored = 10%

Blighted but Not Ignored = 20%

Gentrification Failing = 10%

Gentrification Succeeding = 0

Viable with Room to Improve = 10%

Vibrant and Car Friendly = 0

Vibrant and Pedestrian Friendly = 0

Industrial Corridor = 15%

Vacant = 30%

Blighted and Ignored = 30%

Blighted but Not Ignored = 40%

Gentrification Failing = 0

Gentrification Succeeding = 0

Viable with Room to Improve = 0

Vibrant = 0

Institutional and Parks = 5%

Gentrification Succeeding = 50%

Viable with Room to Improve = 50%

Community Assets:

Parks and Community Centers: There are several schools along the length of this MLK Avenue, owing primarily to how heavily residential the corridor is. Most of the schools did not front MLK Avenue but the number of school zones were evidence that they were there, just out of sight. On the property with the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr Elementary School there was a school with the name "Title I Migrant and Special Programs" on the sign out front. The one visible community center that fronts on MLK Avenue, the brand new Edgar P. Mills Multi-Purpose Center, was tough to research on the web, but I believe it to be a "Family Success Center" and arts facility. It was disturbing to see that almost without exception, Broward.org cited the address as 900 NW 31 Ave. and made no reference to the fact that it was on MLK Avenue. This bears some more investigation as to why that would be.

Churches: There were less than a dozen churches that fronted on this MLK Avenue. I imagine that the small number has to do with how accessible the area is to other more suitable church sites, such as the very successful (and large) Black churches in the nearby historically Black Sistrunk neighborhood. On the map you will see several churches along the east-west corridors, just a few blocks off MLK Avenue.

National Chain Grocery or Department Stores: None were encountered, not even at the junctions with the major east-west corridors.

Brand Name Franchised Restaurants: A few (your typical KFC and Church's Chicken) were visible from MLK Avenue when I crossed Broward Boulevard, Sunrise Boulevard and Oakland Park Boulevard.

Other National Franchises: Familiar auto parts franchise stores were visible only at the east-west crossroads noted above.

NIMBY Items Encountered:

There is a massive flood reservoir to the east of MLK Avenue between NW 13th and 17th Streets, but it was sheltered by a dike and not visible from the street. The four blocks of chain link fencing were not too attractive though, and gave the appearance of more vacant land.

There were no rail corridors crossing this MLK Avenue because it ran parallel to the CSX Railway corridor ten blocks to the east.

There were two highly visible major power substations along this MLK Avenue.

Indexing for This Topic

"The Report Cards"

Join the "White Guy on MLK Blvd." Facebook Page

We're moving into the big times. Follow me on my own "White Guy" Facebook page.

Contempt for People on Medicaid

In the summer of 2009, there was a serious debate going on about the need for healthcare reform, and many people showed their bigoted views out in the open. One was a doctor, who wrote a "Letter to the Editor" of his Jackson, Miss. newspaper. It became a viral email and went wild across America.

That Facebook page has since gone dead, but it pictured a young physician by the name of Dr. Roger Starner Jones. His short two-paragraph "open letter" to the White House accurately puts the blame on a "Culture Crisis" instead of a "Health Care Crisis".

It's worth a quick read:

Dear Mr. President:

During my shift in the Emergency Room last night, I had the pleasure of evaluating a patient whose smile revealed an expensive shiny gold tooth, whose body was adorned with a wide assortment of elaborate and costly tattoos, who wore a very expensive brand of tennis shoes and who chatted on a new cellular telephone equipped with a popular R&B ringtone.

While glancing over her patient chart, I happened to notice that her payer status was listed as "Medicaid"! During my examination of her, the patient informed me that she smokes more than one pack of cigarettes every day, eats only at fast-food take-outs, and somehow still has money to buy pretzels and beer. And, you and our Congress expect me to pay for this woman's health care? I contend that our nation's "health care crisis" is not the result of a shortage of quality hospitals, doctors or nurses. Rather, it is the result of a "crisis of culture" a culture in which it is perfectly acceptable to spend money on luxuries and vices while refusing to take care of one's self or, heaven forbid, purchase health insurance. It is a culture based in the irresponsible credo that "I can do whatever I want to because someone else will always take care of me". Once you fix this "culture crisis" that rewards irresponsibility and dependency, you'll be amazed at how quickly our nation's health care difficulties will disappear.

Respectfully,
ROGER STARNER JONES, MD

A long (and hostile) Facebook thread ensued in which I was at odds with my brother and my nephew. My nephew went so far as to call the inner-city poor "sub-par samples of humanity" who didn't deserve to live and contribute their DNA to the future of the human race. His Social Darwinism is another topic entirely, but I will save that for later.

When I explained this Facebook wall "conversation" to Kala Luzia, a Librarian II at the African-American Research Library and Cultural Center on Sistrunk Blvd., this was her response:

Snopes has verified this story and provided a counter viewpoint from the same newspaper that published Dr. Jones' "Letter to the Editor."

Indexing for This Topic

"Othering"

"Complicity"

"Paternalism"

"We've Done Enough"

Report Card: Riviera Beach, Palm Beach County, Florida

Riviera Beach

Palm Beach County, Florida

Dr. Martin Luther King Jr Boulevard

(Also known as: West 8th Street / State Road 710)

Zip Code: 33404

Overview: MLK Blvd through Riviera Beach starts in an industrial cul-de-sac three blocks long to the east of Dixie Highway and the Florida East Coast Railway corridor.

View Larger Map

Immediately to the west of Dixie Highway is a residential area with a dozen vacant frontage lots that appear to be zoned for commercial. There were a few boarded up and failed mom-and-pop shops, and one seemingly viable strip mall at Avenue U.

The homes through this corridor are a mix of blighted and viable homes and apartment buildings, and exist on both the east and west sides of the Australian Avenue north-south corridor.

After about a mile the area returns to an industrial park on both sides of the North Congress Avenue north-south corridor, and when the road makes a curve to the northeast it becomes the Bee Line Highway.

Length: Approximately 2 miles

From 100 Block West to 3500 Block West.

(Dixie Highway in the east to Bee Line Highway in the west)

Classifications:

Residential Neighborhood (houses visible to MLK Blvd) = 40%

Vacant = 15%

Blighted and Ignored = 20%

Blighted but Not Ignored = 20%

Gentrification Failing = 25%

Gentrification Succeeding = 10%

Viable with Room to Improve = 10%

Vibrant and Car Friendly = 0

Vibrant and Pedestrian Friendly = 0

Commercial Corridor: Main Street = 0%

Commercial Corridor: Mom & Pop Shops = 10%

Vacant = 40%

Blighted and Ignored = 25%

Blighted but Not Ignored = 25%

Gentrification Failing = 10%

Gentrification Succeeding = 0

Viable with Room to Improve = 0

Vibrant and Car Friendly = 0

Vibrant and Pedestrian Friendly = 0

Industrial Corridor = 48%

Vacant = 50%

Blighted and Ignored = 10%

Blighted but Not Ignored = 0

Gentrification Failing = 0

Gentrification Succeeding = 0

Viable with Room to Improve = 10%

Vibrant = 30%

Institutional and Parks = 2%

Gentrification Succeeding = 100%

Community Assets:

Parks and Community Centers: There is one community center with an attached park along the Riviera Beach MLK Blvd.

Churches: Most of the churches in this corridor are one block removed from MLK Blvd, but there are at least a half-dozen Black Church congregations, all in the residential area.

National Chain Grocery or Department Stores: None were encountered.

Brand Name Franchised Restaurants: None were encountered.

Other National Franchises: None, not even an auto parts franchise.

NIMBY Items Encountered:

Sewage and water treatment facilities are located at Avenue U.

Two major rail corridors frame in the residential area.

The industrial parks along both rail corridors are not the small-business models. They are campus-sized industrial installations.

Indexing for This Topic

"The Report Cards"

Divide and Conquer: A Warning to the Black Church about Hegemony

Hegemony is a media and political term that describes a phenomenon whereby a minority can maintain control over a much larger population through an array of tactics that have proven successful over the history of the world. The Black community need look no further than South African apartheid to know that it works against them, and that it has been used against them since the beginning of time.

If I remember my history correctly, it was warring factions within African tribal cultures that first started selling captured tribe members as slaves to white explorers.

The pastors of the Black Church need to examine themselves as it relates to this one specific tactic of hegemony, and that is the tactic of dividing and conquering. If hegemonic forces can keep the minority populations at each other's throats, then they will never band together to fight their real enemy, will they?

In a Sept. 29, 2010 article published by the Dallas Voice, Linus "Buster" Spiller wrote the following as a follow-up to the Eddie Long story:

"My greatest wish is that black gay men will place themselves in the forefront of this dialogue because our lives are at stake. No longer can we sit in these churches silently, pay tithes, and have verbal whipping after verbal whipping heaped upon us as though we are not worthy of basic human decency, even if we have deep family ties within that church community. No longer can we freely give our time and talents in support of religious institutions that don’t extend respect in return. And no longer should we tolerate hypocritical biblical teachings by those like Long, who feel comfortable leading efforts such as his infamous 2006 march against gay marriage, yet allegedly violated the marriage covenant with his own wife according to Christian doctrine."

You can read the full story on the Dallas Voice, but for now, I want to go on the record as one who states very clearly that Dr. Martin Luther King Jr would have never come out against homosexuals. Bayard Rustin was one of his most trusted allies and the genius behind many of the tactics that built the public support behind the Civil Rights movement. Coretta Scott King has always maintained this same kind of support for gay rights. At a Creating Change Conference for the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force she said:

We have a lot more work to do in our common struggle against bigotry and discrimination. I say "common struggle" because I believe very strongly that all forms of bigotry and discrimination are equally wrong and should be opposed by right-thinking Americans everywhere. Freedom from discrimination based on sexual orientation is surely a fundamental human right in any great democracy, as much as freedom from racial, religious, gender, or ethnic discrimination.

If the Black Church fails to change their views on the rights of the gay men and lesbians within their community, then they will become the stumbling block to the kind of change that needs to happen along the MLK Blvds of America.

Oh, and if you still want to read more about the Black struggle for civil rights and the connection that it has with gay rights, here is a fascinating link to a fringe story about Malcolm X.

* Photo could not be attributed to a specific source. It appears in dozens of on-line articles.

Indexing for This Topic:

"Black Church"

The Humanity in Overtown, Florida: In $.25 Increments

My formal "report card" on Overtown will be done soon, but I wanted to report on something that happened there today while I was busy collecting photographs and interviews.

The fellow reaching into the cooler in the photo on the right was very reluctant to talk to a white guy with a recording device and a still camera, so I put the camera back in the car and mostly made idle conversation while I ate my $.25 icee. His icees are homemade frozen Kool-aid, frozen in a small plastic cup like the one you see in his left hand.

What tore at my heart was his passion for the kids there at Theodore Gibson Park, next to the Frederick Douglass Elementary School.

The vendor didn't want to give me his name, so I will call him Raymond.

Raymond was deliberately trying to be vague, but he was apparently struggling financially. All he shared with me was, "We all do what we have to t' get by."

And kids will be kids. Even if they didn't have any money they would still come up and ask how much the icees cost. If they had a parent nearby, they would rush back and tell their mom or dad, but most of the kids either were there without a parent, or they knew the parent would have no money.

As it turns out, Raymond's personal ethic got in the way of his business ethic. It was his habit to pass on any of his tips to the little kids, so when somebody like me comes along and tells him to keep the change from a dollar bill, Raymond would allow three kids to have a free icee. I saw one fellow on a bench give a young boy a dollar who was bold enough to ask for a quarter, and Raymond was observant enough to give the young boy one icee and then three more freebies to three more youngsters within the next few minutes. To me it looked like the fellow who gave up the dollar looked like he needed it even more than Raymond or the child, and if he was related to the child he must have been a grandfather. I got the impression that he was a stranger to the child though.

Raymond is not just an entrepreneur. He is also a leader, and a teacher. These children were being taught important lessons by this big-hearted man. After giving away a free icee these kids were told who to thank. The gifts were never allowed to be anonymous. After I gave Raymond a dollar the next three kids who said "thank you" to Raymond for the free icee were told, "Thank this man. He bought it for you."

And they did, with very generous smiles.

After the man on the bench gave up his dollar, Raymond told the kids to go thank the man on the bench. They would holler "Thank you," but the sounds of the overhead freeway nearby drowned out the sound. Regardless, the kids knew that they were the beneficiaries of a generous act.

With a demonstration like this, I see that the community already has the will to create a future for the young people. They just don't have the means.

And people like Raymond are doing what they can to train the future leaders - at a very young age - and in $.25 increments.

Indexing for This Topic:

"The Culture"

"Reparations"

Tampa, Florida: One of the Longest MLK Blvds in the Nation

I found another little tidbit of information while searching which MLK Blvds have the most hits on Google, and this is one much closer than Portland, Oregon.

Tampa, Florida appears to be one of the longest MLK Blvds in the nation. Take a look at this map. You will have to scroll left and right to find the ends of it.

View Larger Map

I do much of research with Mickey Rowe. He and I are avid cyclists, so we are now planning a trip to Tampa that will explore not only a famous bike trail that starts north of St. Petersburg, but also the length of this MLK Blvd. We will report back to you later this year.

Portland, Oregon: The Most Hits on Google Trends for "MLK Blvd."

There is one interesting tidbit that has made me curious ever since I started this blog. Whenever I looked up the search terms "MLK Blvd" on Google Trends, the sister cities of Portland and Beaverton, Ore. kept being returned at the top of their list. Not only were they at the top of the list, but the combined hits were probably five times more numerous than Tampa, Fla., the next closest city on the search terms.

Only after I did an in-depth look into where MLK Blvd runs in Portland, Ore. did this make sense to me. It is a very long MLK Blvd.

In addition to that, it is a prominent commercial corridor.

View Larger Map

I have not driven along MLK Blvd in Portland, Ore., but I look forward to the day when I do. It looks to me like this is a city that was willing to do it right, and it looks like the businesses embraced the change because, unlike other businesses here in South Florida and in Muncie, Ind., the businesses actually use the name MLK Blvd rather than the old name from before it was changed.

I will keep you posted with a formal "Report Card" when I get enough information to complete one.

Indexing For This Topic:

"Renaming Resistance"

"Report Card"

Sistrunk Boulevard: The Cultural Heart of Black Fort Lauderdale

Long before there was an MLK Blvd in Fort Lauderdale, there was Dr. James Franklin Sistrunk. Born in 1891, Dr. Sistrunk settled in Broward County in April 1922 after World War I. Although trained and qualified as a surgeon, he was barred from the all-white hospitals in formally segregated Fort Lauderdale, so by 1938 he had joined with Dr. Von D. Mizell to establish the areas first hospital for Black patients.

Provident Hospital was located on NW 6th Street. The photos at the right, from the Fort Lauderdale Observer web site, give you an idea of how humble the beginnings were for a couple of Black doctors. (If you click on the image you can see an enlarged image.)

NW 6th Street was renamed after Dr. Sistrunk passed away in 1966. The Sistrunk District, as it came to be known, had remained prosperous (at least for a Black neighborhood) until the end of segregation allowed Black-owned businesses and the Black clientele to shop further afield. Many moved a bit further west, which is where Dr. Martin Luther King Jr Avenue is now located.

One of the last of the original Sistrunk District shops to die was P&G's Shoe Repair. P&G's was originally known as Bud's Community Shoe Shop until Bud retired in 1988. Matthew "Bud" Walters is thought to have been Fort Lauderdale's first Black cobbler in 1939 when he moved here after studying his vocation in Atlanta. Bud opened his own shop in the Sistrunk District in 1955 after having worked his trade in the shops of others.

Bud's, and later P&G's, was known as the place to stay current on what was happening in the community. I guess it isn't just the barber shops in the Black communities where a person can keep up with the news.

Indexing for This Topic:

"Report Cards"

"The Culture"