Once 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 it 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 black American elected to 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 Motel and Villas catered to and entertained the likes of notables such as
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 Liberty City after their displacement primarily from
inner city Overtown, turning the area into a dangerous ghetto, leading to large-scale
black flight of middle- and
higher-income blacks 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 movement era of the 1960s and 1970s. By 1968, Liberty City, with a population of 45,000, was Miami's largest and most congested area. Years of social disruption created an unstable climate that needed just a spark to ignite. The ensuing problems of the poor and disenfranchised grew most apparent and notable in
race riots that occurred in Liberty City in August 1968 during the
Republican National Convention in Miami Beach and in May 1980 following the acquittal of police officers charged with the killing of
Arthur McDuffie. The plight of inner-city black Miamians increasingly came to be highlighted in national press into the 1980s as the
University of Miami Hurricanes football team won several
national college football championships led by players recruited mostly from 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, music grew to reflect the area, with locals such as
Luther Campbell of
2 Live Crew pioneering the
Miami bass genre, which dominated
Southern hip hop during the decade. Other music and sports talents rose to national prominence from the area such as rappers
Trina and
Trick Daddy,
NBA player
Udonis Haslem and
NFL players
Chad "Ocho Cinco" Johnson,
Antonio Brown, and
Willis McGahee. == Gentrification ==