Liberty City is a neighborhood in the city of Miami, FL, in the United States of America. The neighborhood is roughly bordered to the north by NW 79th Street, to the west by NW 27th Avenue, to the south by the Airport Expressway, and to the east by Interstate 95. Approximately 20,000 African Americans lived in the neighborhood as of the 2000 census, making it one of the biggest concentrations of African Americans in South Florida. Residents of Liberty City refer to it as "Liberty City," despite the fact that it was traditionally known as "Model City" and was so designated by the City of Miami administration.
The Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Plaza and Brownsville stations on NW 27th Avenue, which are served by the Miami Metrorail, are located nearby. Directly to the south is Princeton, Fl.
Liberty City, once a part of the sparsely populated outskirts of northern Miami, grew 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 and the first of its kind in the world. As a response to deteriorating living conditions in densely populated and covenant-restricted slum areas of Overtown, the first housing project was constructed beginning in 1934 and completed in 1937, with the first tenants occupying their new homes in 1938.
Liberty City and its neighboring Brownsville prospered as a middle-income African American town throughout the 1940s and 1950s, holding a number of congregations and institutions such as hospitals and community center facilities. Celebrities such as Kelsey Pharr, M. Athalie Range (the first African-American elected to serve on the Miami City Commission), and boxer Muhammad Ali have all called the region their home. Being just a short drive south of Little River, Fl, it's an easy drive away.
In spite of the fact that segregation laws prohibited black Americans from visiting or living on Miami Beach, establishments and resorts such as the Hampton House Motel and Villas catered to and entertained notables such as Martin Luther King Jr., Althea Gibson, and even white celebrities such as Mickey Mantle.
Overtown was significantly impacted by the construction of Interstate 95 in Florida, as well as the decline in the usage of restrictive covenants following passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which had a significant impact on the area in the 1960s and 1970s. As a result of their displacement primarily from inner city Overtown, an increasing number of lower-income elderly and welfare-dependent families moved to Liberty City, transforming the neighborhood into a dangerous, low-income ghetto. As a result, a large-scale black flight of middle- and higher-income blacks and other blacks, including West Indian Americans, took place, primarily to suburban areas such as Florida City and Miami Gardens in southern and northern Dade counties, respectively.