Overtown is one of the poorest neighborhoods in Miami, Florida, one of the poorest cities in the United States. It is located just northwest of Downtown Miami. Local residents often go by the demonym "Towners."
Known as the African-American enclave “Colored Town” when Miami was founded in 1896, the area had begun to be referred to as “Overtown” by the middle of the twentieth century and at that time was the thriving heart of Miami’s black culture. Though during the mid-1900’s the neighborhood was known as “the Harlem of the South,” by the last decades of the twentieth century Overtown had become a center of urban decay, poverty, and crime. Overtown is now on the threshold of becoming a destination of choice for South Florida residents.
