'This is our city': Overtown walking tour sheds light on Black displacement through the years
The Black Collective’s walking tour series traces the impact of gentrification and amplifies community voices demanding housing justice in Miami.
Amelia Orjuela Da Silva, Miami Times Staff Writer, Sep 30, 2025
On a warm Saturday afternoon, a group of residents, activists and community leaders gathered at Gibson Park in Overtown not just to stroll through its streets, but to reclaim them as their own. The walking tour, coined “This Is Our City,” became the first in a series organized by The Black Collective, a grassroots group devoted to building Black political, economic and social power in Miami-Dade County.
For more than two hours, participants walked through historic sites and listened to stories of resilience, displacement and survival, reflecting on what the neighborhood once was — and what it’s still fighting to become.
“This is about preserving the culture of Black Miami,” said Moise “Moe” Simbert, organizing director for The Black Collective. “We want to make sure that people who come to Black Miami experience that culture — whether they’re in Overtown, Little Haiti or Liberty City. And for the people that are within Miami, we want to make sure they’re not being displaced, not being pushed out.”
The walking tour is one of several initiatives emerging from The Noir Project, a campaign that began in 2022. Over nine months between 2023 and 2024, The Black Collective canvassed more than 10,000 Black and Afro-Latino residents across 27 ZIP codes to learn about their priorities in four areas: safety, health, democracy and vision.
“Whether it was sheltered, unsheltered, documented or undocumented, we wanted to get a true appearance for people of the community,” said Simbert. “People were telling us that nobody really came into the community … We took the Noir Project as the initiative to get the real facts to start making real changes.”
The findings, compiled into a 30-page report, became the foundation for The Black Agenda, a platform outlining policy demands based on what Black Miamians said they needed.
Top concerns included secure jobs, affordable housing, fewer guns, access to mental health services and free clinics, and a stronger voice in local decision-making. Sixty percent of respondents said they felt their voices didn’t affect policymaking.
“Housing is not a luxury; it is a right,” the Black Agenda reads. “We built this city — yet we are pushed out, priced out, left out. We demand free, accessible housing for all.”
The Overtown tour, led by lifelong resident and volunteer guide Jacqueline Conney, brought that history into focus. As she led residents and group members along Northwest Third Avenue, Conney described how once-affordable apartment complexes in front of Gibson Park have been replaced by developments out of reach for longtime residents.
“Those used to be apartment complexes that ranged from $400 for a one-bedroom, $650 for a two-bedroom,” said Conney, signaling a building now called Island Living Apartments. “People could afford to live there. Then they made programs to help with Lotus House and Section 8. But all the elders that were there — where did they go?”
Today, Island Living’s one-bedroom units range from $685 to $1,313, while its two-bedroom units range from $819 to $1,812.
The tour passed landmarks like St. John Institutional Missionary Baptist Church, founded in 1906, and Lil Greenhouse Grill, one of the first new Black-owned businesses to open in Overtown before the redevelopment boom. Conney shared how small acts of care, like the restaurant’s weekly free meals, keep the spirit of Overtown alive even as gentrification reshapes its streets.
But change is visible everywhere. Conney recalled how lots once selling for $10,000 skyrocketed to $90,000 in a few years, displacing many residents.
“Under this overpass,” she said, signaling toward I-395, “used to be at least 20 to 70 houses. They stayed there because you had shelter from the rain, shelter from the sun. But they tore it all down.”
After the tour, The Black Collective members surveyed additional residents to continue their efforts in housing advocacy. For Simbert, the tour was more than a history lesson; it was a chance to witness displacement in real time.
“While we walk by the side of the highway, next to Camillus House, next to where people are sleeping on the ground, but we have a whole bunch of empty buildings where we need to be asking our government officials to hold them accountable and asking them, why is this not housing?
Source: The Miami Times