Redlining Tour In Miami Reveals The City’s Dark Past

By Akili Smith

Neighborhoods are often mirrors that reflect a community’s lifestyle influenced by economic, political and social status.

For many residents in Miami, it is common to pass through neighborhoods, some of which are more popular than others. Yet, behind many of today’s neighborhoods on the rise — several a few short miles away from Barry University such as Overtown, Liberty City and Brownsville — are important pieces of history that characterize the city’s redlining and practice of racial inequality.

Still, they have shown resilience.

Street art and graffiti-covered gates line the road as cars sit parked beneath tightly stacked high‑rises in Miami’s Wynwood district. Photo Credit: Sierra Johnson

First, what does redlining mean? Dr. Richard Denis, a history and political science professor at Barry, explained that it was a system where banks and the government decided certain neighborhoods were too risky to invest in, usually because they were communities populated by African Americans or immigrants. and why it's called redlining is simple.

“They literally drew red lines on maps,” said Denis.

“They” were federal agencies and private banks, and they went hand in hand.

“Institutions like the Home Owners’ Loan Corporation and the Federal Housing Administration defined what counted as a safe investment,” he said. “Their standards often treated racial diversity as a risk... that created a system where discrimination was built into how housing worked.”

Redlining made it so that certain communities had less access to financial services such as housing and wealth, which was a national policy. This policy significantly impacted communities of color, especially Black communities.

Denis stated that you will see the same pattern in many of the nation’s large cities, from Chicago to Los Angeles to Miami.

“White neighborhoods received investment and expanded, while Black neighborhoods were cut off from credit,” he said.

South Florida People of Color (SFPoC) is an organization that partners with Barry University to host events to create awareness about injustices like this.

The organization hosted “Red Lines to Repair Tour” on Feb. 10, which, as stated on Barry Campus Labs website, the mission involved exploring the cities of Overtown, Liberty City and Brownsville to examine the effects of gentrification and redlining on residents.

“We created the tour because so many people live in and around Miami and have no idea how neighborhoods like Overtown and Liberty City were deliberately shaped by racist federal, state and local policies,” said Roni Bennett, the organization’s executive director.

Redlining started in the 1930s and has since been outlawed. However, the damage that it created still lingers today. Bennett shares that redlining didn't just deny Black families mortgages and home loans decades ago—it set off a chain of consequences that reverberate today.

“Families who were denied homeownership were denied the primary vehicle for building generational wealth in America,” she said.

She adds that those same neighborhoods were then targeted for highway construction, leaving them in neglect.

“Now, ironically, some of these same communities are being "rediscovered" by developers, and longtime residents are being priced out of neighborhoods their families built,” she said.

Sharing that same perspective is Dr. Marvin Dunn, a retired psychology professor from FIU who is now the director of the Miami Center for Racial Justice.

He claims that Coconut Grove was one of only Miami communities that boasted black homeownership.

“Elsewhere, it was rental, rental, rental, and it still is. So, we are landless people in Miami, have always been, and if you don't own the land, when the Interstate comes through, the land is taken,” he said.

Beyond the physical and financial effects of redlining, Dunn said there are even more mental effects on Miami residents.

“There’s psychological redlining...There's still areas that black people are not welcome in and areas where I don't think black folks want live in,” said Dunn. “So, we sort of do some self-segregating in terms of where we move. So legally, it's gone. But in practical terms, we still have the impact.”

Pictured: Marvin Dunn Photo Credit: Akili Smith

Focusing on the neighborhoods of Overtown, Liberty City and Brownsville on the bus tour, these were neighborhoods that were originally built to house displaced Black families who also faced restrictions from living elsewhere, as mentioned by Bennett.

“These neighborhoods represent the heart of Black Miami... Each neighborhood tells a different chapter of the same story: Black communities building something extraordinary despite systemic barriers, and then having much of it taken away through policy decisions they had no say in.”

Dunn adds that today, the land in communities like Coconut Grove, is very valuable, and that “makes it extremely competitive for people who live here historically to remain in this community.”

Back in 2022, Miami designated a historic Black neighborhood in West Coconut Grove as Little Bahamas. Homes in that area are now valued anywhere from about $200,000 to $7.8 million, based on the Zillow website.

When asked why this history isn’t taught widely in secondary schools or colleges, Denis states that redlining challenges the idea that housing outcomes are “just about individual effort.”

“Redlining shows that policy and institutions played a major role in shaping opportunities. That is a harder story to tell,” said Denis.

Looking ahead, Bennett focuses on repairing the politics behind the communities.

“Policy solutions like community land trusts, equitable zoning and reparative investment funds are all on the table. But none of it works without political will and genuine accountability to the communities that were harmed,” she said.

From redlining to loss of wealth to housing displacement and more, these communities have stood strong in the face of adversity. Now it's time to pass the torch down to the younger generations like Barry students who live and study near these disadvantaged communities.

As Bennett believes: “Justice isn't a one-time payment or a plaque on a building. It's an ongoing commitment to restructuring the systems that created the harm in the first place.”