MIAMI, Fla. — Monday, Juneteenth, is a day commemorating the end of slavery in America.
But many Florida communities are celebrating this weekend. In honor of the Juneteenth holiday, we take a deep dive into one of Miami’s most historic communities and share how they are continuing to honor and celebrate black history.
In Miami’s South Dade area lies a community called Richmond Heights.
“In 1949, Captain Frank C Martin took acreage that he was previously farming and decided that he should create a community,” shared Jessica Garret Modkins.
Richmond Heights is a community that is rich in historical significance. It is one of the first designed middle-class neighborhoods for black residents in the State of Florida.
“It was often attributed to post-World War II. GIs would take their GI bills and put a down payment on their first house. For African Americans throughout the South, that opportunity wasn’t given to them,” explained former State Senator Dwight Bullard. “Richmond Heights was one of those unique circumstances that allowed black veterans to get their first home.”
When you drive through the streets of the quaint suburbs, many of these homes that were bought during an era of segregation and Jim Crow still stand today.
But there have been changes through the years.
Bullard is a resident of over 40 years in this community and said after Hurricane Andrew, the area redeveloped.
“You had a number of folks who were longtime residents that decided to leave Richmond Heights. But those of us who stayed behind got to see the renaissance of Richmond Heights,” he shared.
It was a coming of age for the area.
Black businesses boomed and community centers were created. One in particular, the South Dade Black History Center, is now a fixture. The center’s job is to remind those who live in the area and visit of the important characters and events that make Richmond Heights and the South Dade area what it is today.
“There is this elevation of thought, responsibility that has come with being a Richmond Heights child,” shared Modkins.
Modkins is the Executive Director of the Historical Society and said all from here share a pride unlike any other.
“There is something that is within you when you are from here, that I thought everyone lived the same way until I went off to college until I realized it’s not the same. So, at that point, that was when my mother and I decided we got to document the history of Richmond Heights.”
She’s spoken to pioneers in the area and their successors and written a book, and created a documentary.
On the Juneteenth holiday, those who call Richmond Heights home, like Bullard, can’t help but reflect on what it means to them.
“Well, Juneteenth is about black liberation and Richmond Heights is part of that story. I mean, when you talk about the concept of the American Dream and what that’s supposed to be, finding opportunity, the literal story of Richmond Heights is just that,” Bullard stated.
He furthered, “The black soldiers that fought during the Civil War and the connection to black soldiers who made Richmond Heights home, you have an immediate historical arch that ties those two stories together.”
This area was founded as a paradise for Black Floridians. The hope is this weekend, others acknowledge, remember, and celebrate the sacrifice and strife those before made to create Richmond Heights today.
