Post-War Suburban Growth
Year	Month	Day	Event	Related Resource
1929			The North Bay Causeway opened. It linked Miami Beach with the mainland at what is today Seventy-ninth Street. The intersection at Seventy-ninth and Biscayne Boulevard subsequently gained importance, and as Miami emerged from the Great Depression and later World War II, it and its outlying areas experienced a period of intense development. Many of the buildings near this intersection built in the 1950s and 1960s were designed along classic Modernist lines.
1941	June		A large group of white Coconut Grove residents protested the move of two black families into white sections of the community. The group succeeded in the blocking the two families, but shortly thereafter blacks began moving into white areas of Coconut Grove.
	August		Five-hundred whites in northwest Dade County actively opposed the construction of a 250-acre black development on NW Seventh Avenue. They were supported by the Ku Klux Klan and carried banners to the county courthouse where they presented a petition with over 1200 hundred signatures in opposition to the development.
1943	May	27	The Dade County public health system was created.
	June	14	The Greater Miami Port Authority was created.
1944			The City of Miami hired its first black police officers. They were only assigned to patrol in areas where blacks lived.
1945			The Mayor of Miami, Leonard K. Thompson, began pushing to consolodate Dade County into a singular entity. Voters rejected his plan, but many services, including sewage, education, and transportation, were already consolidating on their own.
	June	11	The Dade County Port Authority was created. It replaced the Greater Miami Port Authority, which had been created two years earlier.
	August	01	The first ferry traveled to Virginia Key.
	August	08	Dade County established Virginia Beach as a black-only beach. The Virginia Key beach remained as such for years.	display
1946	January	06	The Miami Herald began offering "the Clipper edition." It was a smaller version of the Herald that they sent by air to the countries of Latin America.
	January	13	Grattan Ellesmere ("G.E.") Graves Jr. arrived in Miami to practice law. He worked to rally all of the city's blacks to fight for equal rights, often times inserting himself at the forefront of the battle. He was a crucial part of the battle for civil rights in Miami.
	April		Developers broke ground for what would be the extremely exclusive residential community of Bal Harbour. Robert Cabel Graham, a wealthy Detroit truck manufacturer and farmer, hired the firm of Harland and Bartholomew and Associates to design the community. Its exclusivity lay in the original agreement that required no lot be "sold, conveyed, or leased to anyone not a member of the Caucasian race, not to anyone having more than one-quarter Hebrew or Syrian blood."
	April		The Florida Supreme Court ruled that Dade County's segregation of black residential districts was illegal. They were largely following the lead of other courts around the nation that had already banned such practices.
	May		The Miami Housing Authority used a 24-acre tract of land in Coconut Grove to provide low-rent housing for blacks. When white residents of the community began to protest, a deal was struck. A seventy-four-foot buffer strip and a wall - parts of which still stand today - were constucted to divide the two populations.
	May	07	Voters approved the transfer of Jackson Memorial Hospital from the City of Miami to Dade County.	display
1947	April	17	Miami Beach enacted an ordinance banning signs containing discriminatory phrases such as "Gentiles Only" or "Restricted Clientele." The act came at a time when the city was undergoing an increase in its Jewish population.
	August	01	The City of Miami evicted a number of black residents from their homes. Their homes were destroyed to make way for Allapattah Junior and Elementary schools.
	December	29	Life magazine published a story on Miami Beach containing over twelve pages of color photos and text. The article referred to the city as "the crown jewel of the Miami area."
1948	March	31	The Greater Miami Crime Commission was established.
1949			Florida's first television station, WTVJ, began broadcasting in Miami.
			The Cosmopolitan Golf Club tried to break the color barrier on the city's links. The group of fourteen black individuals showed up to play golf at a course near Miami Springs. They were allowed to play that day, but thereafter the city tried to force its black residents to play on the single day each week that the course was closed for maintenance. Led by attorney and civil rights activist G.E. Graves, blacks sued the city for equal use of public golf facilities.
	October	29	The town of Hacienda Village was incorporated. It was to serve as a casino town.
1950	October		The United States Supreme Court ruled that the City of Miami's segregated public golf courses were unconstitutional. The ruling overturned a Florida Supreme Court decision that stated the opposite.
	December	29	Dade County bought the Venetian Causeway. They purchased it from the Miami Bridge Company.
1951	September	23	A group of racist Miamians bombed a black apartment house in the community known as Carver Village. A Catholic Church and Jewish Centers were also targeted, but the bombing of the apartment house stood out as it came just as a number of blacks were ready to move into the all-white community. Authorities believed that the Ku Klux Klan was to blame for the attacks.	display
1953	April	30	The town of Plantation was incorporated.
1955	May	26	The town of Miramar was incorporated.
	May	30	The town of Margate was incorporated.
1956	January	03	George Engle unveils the Coconut Grove Playhouse. It was a renovated movie theater, yet resembled a Broadway playhouse with its lavish quarters for star actors and actresses, gold plumbing fixtures, and top-notch dining rooms and bars. It opened with the American premier of "Waiting for Godot."
	June	13	The town of Lighthouse Point was incorporated.
	July	25	Florida's House of Representatives upholds segregation by a vote of 89-1. Miami's Jack Orr is the sole dissenter.
1957	January	25	The Sunshine State Parkway opened. Later to be called the Florida Turnpike, it opened on this day between Miami and Fort Pierce. Leroy Collins, Florida's governor, dedicated the road at the Fort Lauderdale exit. At this time, the speed limit was 60 miles per hour and the cost of traveling its length was $2.40.
	December	10	Pembroke Park was incorporated.
1958	January	01	Pembroke Pines was incorporated.
	December	07	Pope Pius XII established the Diocese of Miami. The Diocese of Saint Augustine had previously covered the entire state.
1959	January	01	Fidel Castro assumed control of the island of Cuba. The exodus of Cubans refugees moving to Miami began.
	January	24	Miami International Airport was dedicated.	display
	February	01	The 20th Street terminal at Miami International Airport opened.
	May	21	Voters approved a new county government. It was called the Dade County Metro Government.
	June	20	Cooper City was incorporated.
	June	20	The town of Lauderhill was incorporated.
1967			Several Florida species were put on the federal endangered list. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service placed Florida panther, the snail kite, and the Cape Sable seaside sparrow on the list.	display
1976			Florida's state legislature created the South Florida Water Management District.	display
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