How a tiny Miami ballpark became a haven for Black baseball: 'The world would come here'

Miami’s Dorsey Park, a 2.5-acre site in Overtown, has long served as a haven for Black baseball and other sports since the Jim Crow era. The space traces back to 1917, when Dana Albert Dorsey, Miami’s first Black millionaire, sold the land to the city with the condition that it become the first official park in Colored Town. Over the decades, Dorsey Park hosted Negro Leagues games, boxing, and matinee baseball, serving as a vibrant community hub despite segregation. A 1939 night game under floodlights signaled how sport drew people of different backgrounds together, a legacy that historians say preceded national sports integration and remains a point of pride for Overtown.