Origins
The West Grove originally began as a settlement for Bahamian Immigrants. Built around the hotel of Peacock Inn (as pictured above), nowadays Peacock Park.
Bahamian Settlement
The inhabitants of West Grove can be traced back to a wave of Bahamian migration throughout the twenties. Bahamians came to the US in search of jobs which had much higher wages (sometimes 3 times higher) than could be found in the Bahamas. These jobs often consisted of construction for Flagler’s railroads, or agricultural work. They also brought new techniques such as blasting limestone with dynamite in order to create land more suitable for growing. The migrants who formed a community in the West Grove were able to maintain their unique culture in practices ironically because segregation of blacks and whites made it such that they were isolated from competing cultures and ideas. In addition to the racism of the time, immigration officials also profiled women coming from the Bahamas as potential prostitutes, and oftentimes turned them away.
Religion in Coconut Grove
As soon as Bahamians settled in the West Grove churches became the stable of community life. The rise of these churches came from the segregation by whites and their respective churches. Churches in the black community was the base for community charity and was a center for activism. The oldest black church in Miami is the Macedonia Mission Baptist Church, on Douglas Road, made in 1894.
Early Relations with Police
Even in Miami's early times the police have clashed with the Black community. Police officers in early Miami were usually from towns in the south and were aggressive towards the Black citizens. One sheriff tried to stop Black citizens from voting. Police would also practice torture on blacks. Interrogation of Blacks would involve electric chairs in order to obtain information. See how the relationship between West Grove residents and the Police have evolved throughout the early years until now in the Barriers page.
Racism and Jim Crow in Coconut Grove
The South had an epidemic of racism throughout the 20th Century. Blacks from the West Grove were constantly treated as second class citizens in every day life in even the most simple things, like being expected to step aside for a white person. In addition to this, the presence of the KKK was a very prevalent threat in the West Grove. The presence of this racism was very detrimental for the situation in the West Grove.
Sources Cited
Information Citations:
Beard, Kathryn. "Bahamian Migration." The American Mosaic: The African American Experience. ABC-CLIO, 2010. http://africanamerican.abc-clio.com/Search/Display/1666534?terms=bahamian+migration
Dunn, Marvin. Black Miami in the Twentieth Century. Gainesville: University Press of Florida, 1997
George, Paul S.. “Policing Miami's Black Community, 1896-1930”. The Florida Historical Quarterly 434–50. http://www.jstor.org/stable/30151006.
Mohl, Raymond A.. 1987. “Black Immigrants: Bahamians in Early Twentieth-century Miami”. The Florida Historical Quarterly 271–97. http://www.jstor.org/stable/30147810.
Photo Citations:
Munroe, Ralph. Black Bahamians Settled in Coconut Grove. 1890. Ralph Munroe Collection. http://historymiami.mycapture.com/mycapture/enlarge.asp?image=50482601&event=1761109&CategoryID=79823