Amelia Orjuela Da Silva | Miami Times

Leaders say the milestone, achieved during the 2024–2025 school year, represents both academic progress and a powerful community victory.

Black women make up just 4.1% of all U.S. lawyers. The legal profession has long been an exclusive space, guarded by systemic barriers that made access difficult for women of color. Still, Black women fought for their place.

The project — funded through the C40 Cool Cities Network’s Heat, Health, and Equity Challenge Fund — began recruiting residents in June, installed sensors in July, and will continue recording temperatures through October. Led by the city’s Office of Resilience and Sustainability (ORS), along with The Miami Foundation and other community-based organizations (CBOs), the effort seeks to close a long-standing “data gap.”

When news broke that Miami would lose more than $60 million in federal funding for the long-planned Underdeck project — now officially named the Rev. Edward T. Graham Greenway — many in Overtown saw it as yet another setback for a community scarred by broken promises. But business leaders say they are determined not to let the cut derail momentum.

When Giovanni Sairras walked out of a Florida prison after serving 17 years of a 20-year sentence, he knew reentry was about more than just survival — it was about dignity. That vision led him to found Re-Entry One Inc., a grassroots nonprofit helping returning citizens rebuild their lives, in 2020.

When a mental health crisis unfolds in Miami-Dade, a call to 1-866-SAFEMIA brings a different kind of first responder: the Freedom House Mobile Crisis Team sends trained medics, therapists and crisis interventionists who focus on de-escalating and connecting people to care — without involving police. A new $2.2 million grant will allow the Liberty City-based team to operate seven days a week.

Once the only beach Black Miamians could access, the historic park now stands as a powerful monument to civil rights, memory, and cultural preservation.

A $1 billion redevelopment project at Claude Pepper Park aims to transform the west side of North Miami, but nearby Mitchell Lake Estates residents say the project threatens to upend the peace and stability of their community.

As Juneteenth celebrations unfold across the country this week, many Black Miamians are reflecting on the holiday’s deeper meaning amid political backlash, cultural erasure and vandalism, including the recent defacing of a beloved mural at Dorsey Park in Overtown.

The Miami Job Corps Center, a lifeline for hundreds of South Florida’s at-risk youth, is abruptly shutting down, leaving students scrambling for housing and staff blindsided by sudden unemployment.

Despite praise from city leaders, dozens of residents opposed the renaming of Rolling Oaks Park. They made a petition, gathering more than 600 signatures, and criticized the lack of community input.

In collaboration with The Miami Foundation, the initiative will include the installation of indoor and outdoor heat sensors in the homes of about 70 residents to collect survey data on their experiences with extreme heat. The project targets seven climate justice neighborhoods: Overtown, Liberty City, Little Haiti, Allapattah, Little Havana, Flagami and the Little Bahamas.