| Offered every February in observance of Black History Month, Miami-Dade Transit's award-winning Black History Tours feature sites that once reflected the prosperity and independence of Miami's black community. The free tours reveal a time when black celebrities like Lena Horne, Nat King Cole, Marian Anderson and Billie Holiday performed but could not sleep in Miami Beach, so they stayed in Overtown hotels and entertained blacks in Overtown nightclubs at late-late shows. When the stars tired of Overtown, they escaped to Georgette's Tea Room in Brownsville, where the legendary Billie Holiday once kept a permanent room.
The 2010 tours will depart on Saturday, Feb. 20 and 27 beginning at 9 a.m. from the Stephen P. Clark Center at 111 NW 1st St. in downtown Miami. Buses will pick up tour participants on First Street in front of the building. Tour buses visit historical sites in Overtown, Coconut Grove, Liberty City, Brownsville, Virginia Key and elsewhere.Seats on the tour are available on a first-come, first-served basis. There is no need to make a reservation. To further research the history of Miami's Black communities, contact the Black Archives History and Research Foundation Inc., 305-636-2390, .
The printable Black History Tours brochure  (8 1/2" x 11" paper) requires the Adobe Acrobat Reader, a free download to your computer. See below.
Our interactive brochure is available here.
Program Background
In 1993, the then-Metro-Dade Transit Agency searched for ways to raise its profile in a positive manner among African Americans, who have long thought of the agency as unaware of their transit needs. Staff came up with the idea of having tours of historical sites in the Black community during February, Black History Month. As far as could be determined, no other public transit agency had conducted free Black history tours.
A local nonprofit organization, the Black Archives History and Research Foundation Inc., periodically offered tours of historical sites in the Black community. They were contacted to determine their interest in a joint effort: Transit would provide the buses free of charge and Black Archives the landmarks to be featured and the tour guides.
The Black Archives was very eager to participate, as it was also an opportunity for that organization to raise its profile, not only in the African American community, but in the community at large. Thus, the Black History tours project was born.
TOP
Program Description
Once the participation of the Black Archives Foundation was assured, MDT had a vehicle to pursue its objective of changing Blacks' negative perceptions of public transit.
Planning for the tours began in October of 1993. Transit Marketing staff worked closely with the Foundation to establish a route to accommodate large buses. The Foundation determined the most interesting sites, and MDT staff created and tested bus operator maps on trial runs. The Black Archives produced a script and provided retired Black teachers and Archive board members as guides to conduct the tours on the four Saturdays in February, 1994. (The script is reviewed every year to include updates and additional historical details.)
The three-and-a-half-hour tours visit four of the oldest Black communities in Miami-Dade County: Coconut Grove, Overtown (Colored Town), Liberty City, and Brownsville (Brown's Subdivision or Brown Sub). The first two were established in the late 1890s, the others in the early part of the 20th Century.
Chapman House
Overtown historical landmark: home of Dr. William A. Chapman Sr.
The tour guide points out various landmarks while relating their history. At selected sites, participants have an opportunity to view displays of historical significance.
TOP
Program Costs
The first year of the tours the objective was to focus a positive image of Transit in the Black community. In January 1994, a $9,500 package was purchased from a local radio station with a predominantly Black audience. The package, designed to promote MDT's participation in the Martin Luther King Jr. parade, included a full-page, four-color ad in the station's "Rhythm Magazine" promoting the free tours ($5,000); a two-page centerfold map of historical sites in the Black community and MDT service to those sites (valued at $10,000); twenty 60-second ads promoting MDT's section in the magazine (valued at $4,000); and 10,000 copies of the magazine for distribution at Martin Luther King Jr. Metrorail station on the day of the parade. This set the stage for introducing MDT's free Black History Month tours.
The flyer and ad (mentioned above) were produced in-house. The cost of photocopying 10,000 fliers was $400.
For 1995: three one-quarter page ads ($686.40 each) placed in the Black weekly newspaper; 7,000 fliers photocopied for distribution at schools, churches, transit information centers, and community meetings (cost $210); 1,000 posters placed in buses and rail trains (cost $850). A brochure produced by MDT staff describing the tour sites was photocopied as needed for distribution to tour participants.
The Black-oriented radio station used in 1994 provided free public service announcements of the tours in 1995. Articles/calendar items about the tours were also published in the Black weekly newspaper, in the major daily newspaper and its twice-weekly "Neighbors" section, and in the then-Metro-Dade employee newsletter - all free advertising. Even a major magazine, Modern Maturity, featured the tours in a July/August 1995 issue.
TOP
Program Success
The 1994 tours were an instant hit. The response from the Black community transcended all expectations, and about 10-15% of the requests were from other segments of the community. Each Saturday there was an increasing need for buses to accommodate the tour participants (43 per bus) to a maximum of four buses, filled to capacity. An unexpected development was requests for weekday tours from schools and church groups. There were three to four weekday tours scheduled by Bus Operations using a maximum of three buses per tour. Bus operators familiar with the historic sites were provided with a script and began conducting the tours.
Community response to the 1995 tours was nothing short of phenomenal. The weekday tours using bus operators as tour guides have become a regular feature. One to four schools were scheduled Monday through Friday for the entire month. The 1995 weekend tour reservations skyrocketed - from one bus/43 reservations the first Saturday in February (rainy weather) to 16 buses/680 reservations for the last Saturday. Many were turned away and told to try again next year. Staff other than bus operators and from various divisions in the agency was trained to conduct the weekend tours, bringing the project totally in-house.
TOP
Program Results
The Black History Tours project has accomplished its original objective: to create a positive image of public transit in the Black community. The tours also created an abundance of goodwill. Many professionals taking the tour - not only Black professionals - who had not ridden a bus since childhood remarked that they were grateful to Transit for sponsoring the tours and were pleasantly surprised at the cleanliness and comfort of the buses. Positive impressions of public transit often translate into new ridership. Systemwide ridership for March 1995 increased by 1.02% weekdays and by 5.74% weekends, when compared to February 1995.
However, in subsequent years, the Black History Tours project has gone beyond being an MDT public relations/marketing effort. Not only Blacks have embraced the tours, but also the community at large. Comments after the tours were (and are) always positive. Even some negative perceptions of a Black community such as Liberty City - site of 1980 racial disturbances - were dispelled.
|
Greater Bethel AME Church
Oldest African American church in the city of Miami
|
Tour participants unfamiliar with the area saw well-kept homes and not the crime-infested ghetto they thought it to be. Teachers at all grade levels (even from a neighboring county) used the tours to supplement their Black History Month curriculum. Individuals and groups used the tours to give young people, especially young Blacks, a renewed sense of history and of community. Moreover, correctional institution personnel saw the tours as helping young and older offenders regain a sense of self-worth. Miami-Dade Transit's Black History Tours project has become a consciousness-raising event for the entire community to look forward to for many years to come. And it is a project well worth duplicating by other transit agencies.
Today, the Black History Tours are a firmly established feature of Miami-Dade County's Black History Month activities. Very little advertising is necessary beyond a one-time news release, as individuals and groups begin calling to make reservations in early December or January before the February tours.
TOP
|
files, you can download 
