The Railroad Shop Colored Addition, a thriving Black Miami community erased overnight
MIAMI - In the summer of 1947, a thriving Black community in Miami vanished in the blink of an eye.
Families were evicted with little notice, given just two hours to leave behind their homes, businesses and belongings.
Rebecca Jenkins McSwain, whose family was among those forced out of the Railroad Shop Colored Addition, recalled the devastation in a recorded interview.
"My family is from Railroad Shop Colored Addition out of Miami and we were evicted from our property," she said. "My grandmother lived in the four-by-six area of the first section and they just put those people out in the rain, locked their doors and the City of Miami took their property."
Forced out with nowhere to go
Jenkins McSwain shared her story with historian Cynthia Strachan of the Bowles-Strachan Historical Resource Center. Her family relocated to the Carver Ranches neighborhood in Broward County after being forcibly removed.
According to newspaper reports from August 1947, 45 families — 119 people, including 70 children — were evicted. One family with a newborn baby was given a slight extension, but most were thrown out into the streets, their belongings scattered.
Alexis Smith Parker, whose mother was evicted from the Railroad Shop Colored Addition, described the traumatic scene passed down through generations.
"The stories that I heard—it was raining. They were throwing their things out in the streets. There was fire," she said.
A once-thriving Black community
Established in 1917, the Railroad Shop Colored Addition was part of the Allapattah community, spanning NW 12th to 14th Avenues and 46th to 50th Streets. It was home to dozens of Black families, churches and Black-owned businesses.
Kamila Pritchett, a historian and Executive Director of the Black Archives at the Lyric Theater, has collected articles and photos from Miami's Tropical Dispatch documenting the eviction.
"The railroad shop inhabitants were thrown out and you can see in these pictures residents with all their belongings on the front lawn," she explained. "Furniture scattered, people rolling up mattresses, looking like they had very little time before they had to evacuate their homes."
Why were they evicted?
At the time, the Railroad Shop Colored Addition was surrounded by an all-white community. When new schools and a park were needed, the Black neighborhood was targeted for demolition.
Today, that park is Charles Hadley Park and just south of it stand the schools formerly known as Allapattah Elementary and Allapattah Middle.
"They wanted to build the school Allapattah for the white community," Smith Parker said. "And it's funny because they built it for the whites, but now our school is basically predominantly Black."
Those schools have since been renamed Lenora Braynon Smith Elementary and Georgia Jones Ayers Middle, honoring two childhood friends who once lived in the Railroad Shop Colored Addition. Braynon Smith's daughter recalls her mother's connection to the land.
"She would always point over here. There was an avocado tree," she said. "She said that tree was in their backyard, so they grew up in this neighborhood."
Eminent domain and broken promises
Oscar Braynon Sr., a descendant of one of the displaced families, recalled the destruction.
"Their belongings were put on the street and the houses that were left were demolished," he said. "All of a sudden, the surrounding white community wanted a school and parks and the local government decided that they wanted this community gone."
Families who built Miami's railroads lost their homes with no compensation. Smith Parker lamented the erasure of what was once a thriving economic and cultural hub.
"This was probably one of the richest areas in Miami-Dade County," she said. "The families that were rooted here were the foundation of the City of Miami."
Braynon reflected on the staggering financial loss.
"What was $10,000 in 1947 is probably worth a quarter of a million dollars today," he said. "And what did they get for it? Nothing. Just a bitter taste. A bitter memory."
No compensation, no justice
Nearly 80 years later, descendants of the Railroad Shop Colored Addition say their families were never compensated by the City of Miami.
Their story remains a painful reminder of the systemic displacement of Black communities throughout history, an injustice that, to this day, has never been made right.
