Black History Month kicks off this week, and a powerful new exhibit is shining a light on Overtown\u2019s rich and complex history.<\/p>\n
The exhibit, called Sepia Vernacular, features photographs unearthed from the City of Miami Planning Department, offering a rare glimpse into life in the 1940s and 50s.<\/p>\n
It was a time when Overtown was a vibrant, yet segregated, community that helped shape South Florida. The images, many covered for 30 to 40 years, reveal what life looked like back then.<\/p>\n
For James McQueen, executive director of the Southeast Overtown Park West CRA, the exhibit hits close to home.<\/p>\n
“History for me, for me, it is interesting because I lived it,” McQueen said. “I grew up when Miami was a segregated south, and so my world was Overtown. I did not have many experiences outside of what was then called the central Negro district.”<\/p>\n
With Black History Month underway, McQueen hopes the exhibit encourages families and students to learn, reflect and connect with Overtown\u2019s history in a meaningful way.<\/p>\n
Sepia Vernacular is open to the public through the month of February at the Lawson E. Thomas Court Center, 1021 Northwest 2nd Avenue. The exhibit is free and offers a powerful way to celebrate Black History Month in South Florida.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Black History Month kicks off this week, and a powerful new exhibit is shining a light on Overtown\u2019s…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":140838,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[40869,48241,123,125,124],"class_list":["post-140837","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-miami","tag-art-and-culture","tag-black-history-month","tag-miami","tag-miami-headlines","tag-miami-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/140837","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=140837"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/140837\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/140838"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=140837"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=140837"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=140837"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}