Before Miami was the hotspot it is today, it was a terrible place to look like us.

White supremacy kept our people from the palm tree line beaches and art deco rooftops,

but we didn't care.

This place was our secret escape from it all.

This is Two Minute Black History, what you didn't learn in school.

Hampton House was where we found refuge from the glaring white world outside its doors.

What was this place and why was it known as the jewel of black Miami?

During the peak of the Jim Crow era, our people often had to choose between rest and safety

because hotels routinely denied us stays.

Hampton House was a whole other world, a black mecca, where we could unclench our jaws,

drop our shoulders and forget about white foolishness, even if just for a few nights.

And everyone was there.

After Muhammad Ali won the World Heavyweight Championship, he retreated to Malcolm X

sweet to celebrate with his people.

And Martin Luther King Jr.'s eye have a dream speech.

He practiced it at the Hampton House before his legendary oration at the march on Washington.

Hampton House was crucial to the well-being of our people.

Unlike many once popular haters, Hampton House is still standing as a non-profit cultural

center today.

Places unabashedly filled with black joy and the comforts of our community are still

necessary as we continue to be targeted by bias, discrimination and the effects of historical

trauma.

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