BLACKFLORIDA 

African Americans from Georgia, South Carolina, and the Bahamas blended with native-born Floridians and Seminoles to lay the foundation for the growth of Greater Fort Lauderdale / Broward County. Deerfield Beach and Hollywood’s Liberia community had strong Bahamian roots and the cultural flavor has been retained in celebrations and housing styles.

 

Downtown Fort Lauderdale features public tours of the Stranahan House and the New River Inn, highlighting the city’s founding and the first meeting point for cultures, and the Fort Lauderdale Historical Society’s photos depict life in the 1930s and ‘40s in the city’s oldest Black community.

 

More than 120 countries are represented in Greater Fort Lauderdale / Broward County today and more than 60 languages are spoken. The area is vying for number one in the country when it comes to diversity. Black residents makeup almost one quarter of the population - in large part because of the influx of Caribbean immigrants from Jamaica, Haiti, and Trinidad - and Hispanics are the fastest growing ethnic group, comprising over 15% of the population.

 

Greater Fort Lauderdale leads in the state in diversity and growth and, here, the past continues to be a present day experience.

 

sunny.org/multicultural/history