Racial and Ethnic Diversity in South

By Desmond Alufohai, CMP [email protected] Map of USA

316 m

50 states 67 Counties 19.5 million Map of Florida, USA

Map of -Dade County, FLA.

13 Districts 2.6 million Miami-Dade

People QuickFacts County Florida USA Population, 2013 estimate 2.6 m 19.5 m 316 m Female persons, percent, 2012 51.40% 51.10% 50.80% White alone, percent, 2012 77.60% 78.30% 77.90% Black or African American alone, percent, 2012 19.20% 16.60% 13.10%

American Indian and Alaska Native alone, percent, 2012 0.30% 0.50% 1.20%

Asian alone, percent, 2012 1.70% 2.70% 5.10%

Native Hawaiian and Other Pacific Islander alone, 2012 0.10% 0.10% 0.20%

Two or More Races, percent, 2012 1.20% 1.90% 2.40% Hispanic or Latino, percent, 2012 64.30% 23.20% 16.90% White alone, not Hispanic or Latino, percent, 2012 16.30% 57.00% 63.00% Foreign born persons, percent, 2008-2012 51.20% 19.30% 12.90% Language other than English spoken at home, 72.30% 27.30% 20.50% High school graduate or higher 78.20% 85.80% 85.70%

Bachelor's degree or higher 26.30% 26.20% 28.50%

Per capita money income in past 12 months (2012 dollars) $23,304 $26,451 $28,051

Median household income, 2008-2012 $43,464 $47,309 $53,046 Persons below poverty level 19.10% 15.60% 14.90%

Source: U.S. Census Bureau (http://edr.state.fl.us/Content/population-demographics/data/) Senator Bill Nelson Senator Marco Rubio D-FLA R-FLA FL Congressional % Delegation 21 78.0% White 3 11% Black 3 11% Hispanic

27 FL House of % FL Senate % Representatives 85 70.0% 30 75% White 21 18.3% 6 15% Black 14 11.7% 4 10% Hispanic

120 40

MIAMI: Early Beginnings

Few cities of such youth can claim a history as eventful, significant, and tumultuous as that of Miami. From its beginnings as a tiny settlement along the Miami River to the robust international city of today, Miami has represented for multitudes of new residents a place to begin anew, a gateway to a better tomorrow. Beginning in 1565, Spain exercised control over Florida for nearly 250 years. Spain’s colonization effort is divided into two eras separated by a twenty-year British interregnum in the late eighteenth century. During the Second Spanish Period, which stretched from 1784 to 1821, Spain liberalized her settlement policies in an effort to develop her colony, encouraging, in addition to her own countrymen, residents of other lands and faiths to settle in Florida. In the early 1800s, a few Bahamian families accepted Spanish land offers along the Miami River and on Biscayne Bay, and farmed in those lush areas. In 1821, Spain sold Florida to the United States for $5 million in Spanish damage claims against the American government. One year later (1822) Florida became a territory, marking the beginning of its march toward statehood. In 1830, Richard Fitzpatrick, a prominent figure in the politics of Territorial Florida, purchased the Bahamian-held lands on the Miami River, and established a slave plantation over a portion of them. After the Seminole Wars, the Indian population had receded, prompting few families to settle along the Miami River as late as the 1890’s The Brickells arrived in Miami at the outset of the 1870s, and quickly established themselves as successful Indian traders as well as shrewd real estate investors. Julia Tuttle moved to the area in 1891 and purchased the Fort Dallas land to build her home. A woman of great foresight, Tuttle prophesied that a great city would someday arise in the area, one that would become a center of trade with South America and a gateway to the Americas. Henry M. Flagler, a multi-millionaire from his partnership with John D. Rockefeller in Standard Oil, was extending his railroad south along Florida’s east coast, and developing cities and resorts along the way. In 1894, Flagler’s railway entered West Palm Beach. The first train entered Miami on April 13, 1896. By then a city was arising on both sides of the Miami River. The heart of the community was a retail district along Avenue D (today’s Miami Avenue) emerging north of the river, in an area of piney woods. On July 28, 1896, 344 registered voters, a sizable percentage of whom were black laborers, packed into the Lobby, a wood frame building on Avenue D standing near the Miami River.

They voted for the incorporation of the City of Miami. In 1911, Miami featured an aerialist soaring in a Wright Brothers airplane over a Flagler-built golf course west of Colored Town. For most Miamians this event marked their first glimpse of an airplane. The experience served as a harbinger for the city’s emergence as one of the nation’s early aviation centers.

Soon after the inaugural aerial display, Glenn Curtiss, a famed aviator, arrived and established a flight school. By the time America entered World War I in 1917, Miami and the surrounding area hosted several flying schools, including a facility near the Miami Canal that Curtiss operated for future combat pilots in the Great. The Boom Years

1920’s – 1940’s Miami-Dade County, FLA State voters amended the State of Florida’s Constitution in 1956 to allow for a Home Rule Charter. Dade County was then granted the power to create commission districts, pass ordinances, create penalties, levy and collect taxes to support a centralized metropolitan form of government. The Board of County Commission may create municipalities, special taxing districts and other boards or authorities as needed. The Home Rule Charter for Miami-Dade County was adopted at referendum on May 21, 1957. On November 13, 1997 voters changed the name of the county from Dade to Miami-Dade to acknowledge the international name recognition of Miami. Home rule is the power of a constituent part (administrative division) of a state to exercise such of the state's powers of governance within its own administrative area that have been decentralized to it by the central government. Miami–Dade County is a diverse, low-lying county located along the subtropical stretches of southeastern Florida. It is a dynamic, economic and culturally diverse coastal community that is bordered by two national parks: Biscayne National Park and Everglades National Park. The County is comprised of 34 municipalities and a large unincorporated area. There are 156 nationalities represented in the County, with approximately 51% percent of the residents being foreign born and over 100 different languages spoken. Within the County

64% Hispanic 19.2% non-Hispanic Black

16.3% non-Hispanic White Due to this diversity, Miami–Dade County regularly conducts business in three different languages –

English Spanish Creole Miami–Dade County has a diverse economy and culture The Cuban Influence

Fidel Castro

One of the city’s most defining moments came in 1959 with Fidel Castro’s takeover of Cuba. Castro’s transformation of the island nation into a Marxist state led to a vast exodus of Cubans to Miami. Many of the first wave of refugees were highly educated persons who left behind successful careers and businesses. The Bay of Pigs Invasion

At the same time, Miami and South Florida became a center for intrigue as America’s Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) prepared a force of exiles for an armed overthrow of Castro’s government. But the CIA-sponsored Bay of Pigs invasion in 1961 failed and an agreement between the United States and the Soviet Union during the Cuban Missile Crisis in 1962, providing that the former would refrain from invading Cuba, left a bitter taste in the mouths of many Cubans toward the government of their adopted country. The Cuban Airlift

1965 marked the beginning of the U. S. sponsored “Freedom Flights,” a massive airlift of Cubans to Miami. By the time of their termination in 1973, more than 3,000 “Freedom Flights” had delivered 150,000 Cubans to America, primarily to Miami and its environs, and in the process had instituted the radical transformation of the city of Miami into a Latin American capital. The Cuban Adjustment Act (CAA) 1966

The CAA was passed by the U.S. Congress and signed into law by President Lyndon B. Johnson, the law applies to any native or citizen of Cuba who has been inspected and admitted or paroled into the United States after January 1, 1959 and has been physically present for at least one year; and is admissible to the United States as a permanent resident. “Wet Foot, Dry Foot Policy”

The wet foot, dry foot policy is the name given to a consequence of the 1995 revision of the CAA of 1966 that essentially says that anyone who fled Cuba and enters the U.S. would be allowed to pursue residency a year later.

President Clinton’s administration came to an agreement with Cuba that it would stop admitting people found at sea. So a Cuban caught on the waters between the two nations (with "wet feet") would summarily be sent home or to a third country. One who makes it to shore ("dry feet") gets a chance to remain in the United States, and later would qualify for expedited "legal permanent resident" status and eventually U.S. citizenship. The Mariel Boatlift of 1980

Mass emigration of Cubans who departed from Cuba’s Mariel Harbor for the United States between April 15 & Oct. 31, 1980.

The Mariel boatlift was ended by mutual agreement between the U.S. and Cuban governments in October 1980. By that point, as many as 125,000 Cubans. The Haitians Between 1957 and 1986, during the family dictatorships of Franҫois “Papa Doc” and Jean-Claude “Baby Doc” Duvalier in Haiti, the political persecution that Haitians suffered caused many Haitian professionals, the middle class, and students to emigrate to the United States and other countries. Between 1977 and 1981, 60,000 Haitians landed in South Florida, many of them settling to the neighborhood of Little Haiti.

https://www.dropbox.com/sh/rj3ddebfjdjezac/AACx8o2lpERH0VWeXQP2HoG9a#lh:null-Haitians2.mp4 Today, Florida has the largest number of people of Haitian heritage. In 2000, Florida had 182,224 foreign-born Haitians, 43.5% of the total foreign-born population from Haiti (excluding the number of American-born Haitians).

New York had the 2nd largest population of foreign-born Haitians with 125,475, approximately 30%. Haitian illegal immigrants attempting to reach the shores of Florida are routinely swept up by the United States Coast Guard and often repatriated. This has led to many civil rights group protests regarding the treatment they receive, in contrast to the asylum granted to their Cuban counterparts (wet feet, dry feet policy) . Jean Monestime Miami-Dade County Commissioner District 2 Other Immigrant Groups South Florida's newcomer immigrants are not all Cubans or Haitians. Beginning in the 1980s, other Latino immigrants also began settling in the Miami area. Nicaraguans, Colombians and Venezuelans are the largest groups, but the numbers of Mexicans and Central Americans are also increasing, especially in Broward and Palm Beach Counties just to the north of Miami-Dade County. By the year 2000, Latinos had become the largest minority in the state of Florida, surpassing Blacks, which up to then had been the largest minority statewide.

- VIGLUCCI, DRISCOLL & HENDERSON, 2001 The Guatemalans

“While the Guatemalans who arrived in the 1970s and 1980s were fleeing conflict in their home country and often feared for their lives, the U.S. government preferred to not grant them political asylum or refugee status.”

- BURNS, 1993; HAGAN, 1994; MENJÍVAR, 2006 “Rather, it overwhelmingly treated Guatemalans who arrived in the U.S. without documents as undocumented or "illegal" aliens and sought to discourage their remaining in the country. In this way, Guatemalans and Haitians were treated similarly by the U.S. government and many members of each group had to worry that they might be caught and deported back to their homeland, a fear that was never a concern for Cubans.”

- BURNS, 1993; HAGAN, 1994; MENJÍVAR, 2006 The Nicaraguans

"Nicaraguans are discriminated against in South Florida. No politicians want to hear what we have to say. I don't know why. They ignore us ... Every year we go to Washington to lobby, but they won't listen! ... There are several Cuban organizations, and they each receive millions of dollars per year

- L. KONCZAL, 1999 The Civil Rights Movement

The African-American Civil Rights Movement encompasses social movements in the U.S. whose goal was to end racial segregation and discrimination against black Americans and enforce constitutional voting rights to them between 1954 and 1968, particularly in the South. The movement was characterized by major campaigns of civil resistance. Between 1955 and 1968, acts of nonviolent protest and civil disobedience produced crisis situations between activists and government authorities. Federal, state, and local governments, businesses, and communities often had to respond immediately to these situations that highlighted the inequities faced by African Americans. Forms of protest and/or civil disobedience included boycotts such as the successful Montgomery Bus Boycott (1955–56) in Alabama; "sit-ins” such as the influential Greensboro sit-ins (1960) in North Carolina; marches, such as the Selma to Montgomery marches (1965) in Alabama; and a wide range of other nonviolent activities.

Noted legislative achievements during this phase of the Civil Rights Movement were passage of:

- the Civil Rights Act of 1964, that banned discrimination based on "race, color, religion, or national origin" in employment practices and public accommodations;

- the Voting Rights Act of 1965, that restored and protected voting rights;

- the Immigration and Nationality Services Act of 1965, that dramatically opened entry to the U.S. to immigrants other than traditional European groups; and

- the Fair Housing Act of 1968, that banned discrimination in the sale or rental of housing. African Americans re-entered politics in the South, and across the country young people were inspired to take action. The 1980 Miami Riots

One of the worst race riots in United States history broke out in the black neighborhoods of and in Miami. In 1981 Dade County paid McDuffie's family a settlement of $1.1 million after they filed a civil lawsuit against the officials.

The 1980’s was a turning point for Miami’s Black communities. Black communities were engulfed in several riots reflecting the serious challenges and frustration resulting from the deteriorating conditions at the time. The situation of Miami’s Blacks in the 1980’s did not mirror that of Cubans in Miami, who were experiencing great political and economic growth. This contrast to Miami’s other major minority group, combined with the tension and the community’s deterioration as a result of the 1980’s riots, drove Miami- Dade County to recognize the serious disparities facing its Black community. Metro Miami Action Plan

Miami-Dade County created the Metro Miami Action Plan (MMAP) with the mission of “addressing the socio-economic disparity of Miami-Dade County's Black community,” with collaboration from Miami-Dade County government, the City of Miami, and the Miami-Dade County Public School Board. MMAP’s mission was designed:

- to advocate and coordinate initiatives and programs for the benefit of the community- at-large, and specifically to empower Miami’s Black communities;

- to eradicate the disparities between Black communities and other racial/ethnic groups;

- and ensure that Blacks have equal access to economic development funding, education, and are treated fairly in the criminal justice system. Stand Your Ground law

Florida was the first to enact the "Stand Your Ground" law in the United States and did so in 2005. .

Stand-your-ground law states that a person may justifiably use force in self-defense without an obligation to retreat first.

Today, Miami-Dade is the undisputed “Gateway of the Americas”

Economy (trade and business) Cultural diversity Tourism

It is among America’s top destination to live, work and play (leisure).

$140.0 South Florida’s two-way Merchandise Trade in Billions $124.7

$120.0 $112.8

$100.0 $95.4 $90.0

$79.0 $79.2 $80.0 $72.1 $65.9

$58.8 $60.0 $52.2

$40.0

$20.0

$0.0 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2012 Stats

Among U.S. Airports 1st International Freight 2nd International Passengers 3rd Total Freight

$32.8 b 272,395 jobs

40.5 million passengers 2012 Stats

4.08 million $27 billion 100 nations 207,000 jobs Cruise Econ Impact 250 ports passengers 2010 Stats The Hospitality and $18.8 b 14.1 m Econ Impact visitors 107,500 jobs Leisure Industry CONCLUSION

The Declaration of Independence: The American Way

“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.”

“That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed,”

“That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness.”