Miami

Miami sits on Florida's southeastern coast. As of the 2020 census, its city proper population was 442,241, making it the second most populous city in Florida. The broader Miami metropolitan area in South Florida is home to an estimated 6.39 million people, ranking as the fifth-largest metro in the Southeast and the eighth-largest in the United States. The city's skyline is the third-tallest in the U.S., featuring over 300 high-rises, with 70 of them rising above 492 feet. Miami also serves as the county seat of Miami-Dade County.

The city is a major hub for finance, commerce, culture, arts, and international trade. Its metro area has the largest urban economy in Florida, with a gross domestic product of $533.674 billion in 2023. A 2018 UBS study of 77 global cities ranked Miami as the third-richest city in the U.S. and the third-richest worldwide in purchasing power. As of 2020, 70.2 percent of Miami's population identifies as Hispanic or Latino, making it a majority-minority city.

Downtown Miami holds one of the largest concentrations of international banks in the country and hosts numerous major national and international companies. The Health District contains several large University of Miami–affiliated hospitals and health facilities, including Jackson Memorial Hospital—the nation's largest, with 1,547 beds—the Miller School of Medicine, and other medical research and care centers. PortMiami, the city's seaport, is the busiest cruise port globally in both passenger traffic and number of cruise lines.

The Miami metropolitan area is the second-most visited city or metro area in the U.S., after New York City, drawing over four million visitors in 2022. Because of its strong commercial and cultural ties to Latin America and its majority-Hispanic population, Miami is often called the "Gateway to Latin America" or even the "Capital of Latin America."

Toponymy

The city's name comes from the Miami River, which itself derives from Mayaimi, the historic name for Lake Okeechobee and the Native American people who lived around it. Miami is also sometimes called The 305, Magic City, Gateway to the Americas, Gateway to Latin America, Capital of Latin America, and Vice City.

History

The Tequesta tribe lived in the Miami area for roughly 2,000 years before Europeans arrived. A village of several hundred people, dating back to 500–600 BCE, sat at the mouth of the Miami River. The entire tribe is believed to have migrated to Cuba by the mid-1700s. In 1566, Spanish admiral Pedro Menéndez de Avilés, Florida's first governor, claimed the area for Spain, and a Spanish mission was built a year later.

Spain ruled Florida for centuries—except for a brief British period from 1763 to 1783, after which Britain returned the territory to Spain—until Spain ceded Florida to the United States in 1821 in exchange for U.S. recognition of Spanish sovereignty over Texas and the resolution of a border dispute along the Sabine River. In 1836, the U.S. built Fort Dallas on the banks of the Miami River as part of its development of the Florida Territory and its efforts to suppress and remove the Seminoles, turning the Miami area into a site of conflict during the Second Seminole War.

Miami is notable as the only major U.S. city founded by a woman. Julia Tuttle, a citrus grower originally from Cleveland, owned the land on which Miami was built. In the late 19th century, the area was called "Biscayne Bay Country" and described as a promising wilderness and "one of the finest building sites in Florida." The Great Freeze of 1894–1895 sped up Miami's growth because its crops were the only ones in Florida that survived. Tuttle then convinced railroad magnate Henry Flagler to extend his Florida East Coast Railway to the region, earning her the nickname "the mother of Miami." Miami was officially incorporated as a city on July 28, 1896, with a population of just over 300.

In the early 20th century, waves of migrant labor, especially from the Caribbean, deeply shaped Miami's development. Scholars note that Bahamian immigrants formed a critical part of the city's construction and service workforce during its formative decades, providing essential labor for roadbuilding, hotel construction, and other urban expansion. Their role helped anchor early economic growth and laid a foundation for Miami's later multicultural identity.

During this period, migrants from the Bahamas and African-Americans made up 40 percent of the city's population. When landlords began renting homes to African-Americans around Avenue J (later NW Fifth Avenue), a gang of white men with torches marched through the neighborhood, warning residents to move or be bombed. Miami's economy relied heavily on seasonal tourism and construction work, creating a volatile job market of low-wage, temporary employment and contributing to pronounced income inequality, even as the city promoted itself as a booming leisure destination.

Despite its image of resort-style prosperity, workers and activists during the interwar period organized around unemployment and labor exclusion, helping to lay early foundations for labor mobilization in South Florida.

Miami prospered during the 1920s as northerners moved to the city, boosting population and infrastructure development. The legacy of Jim Crow was embedded in these developments. Miami's chief of police at the time, H. Leslie Quigg, did not hide the fact that he, like many other white Miami police officers...