From Palm Beach County to Miami-Dade, 11 cities are celebrating their centennials in 2025 and 2026. WLRN News' series "History We Call Home" spotlights the moments, ideas and people that made these cities part of our community's fabric over the past century.
Before the city of Hollywood was founded in 1925, there was an enclave of Black residents that had a safe haven to call their own.
Established in 1923, the historically Black community of Liberia was located just south of Dania Beach, in Hollywood. In a time when people of color were denied access to equal education and places of business, Liberia was a place of learning and camaraderie among its neighbors.
According to Broward County historian Emmanuel George, the neighborhood was billed even in the press at the time as a place for the segregated Black population.
"According to the Hollywood Reporter in 1923, there was an article talking about this new community: Liberia," George said. "A new place for colored people."
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Over the years, residents not only built homes and churches, but businesses, too.
George, who has been compiling archival media of Liberia as part of an online videos series about Broward's Black history, said the neighborhood was home to thriving nightlife that welcomed the likes of James Brown, The Cornelius Brothers and Sister Rose.
"That whole strip on J.A. Ely Boulevard was the thriving Black business district. There was restaurants, there was grocery stores," George said.
Attucks High School
Children in Liberia studied and lived in the same neighborhood. They went to a school called Attucks, built in 1927, and named after Crispus Attucks, a formerly enslaved man who died during the Boston Massacre of 1770.
Linda Anderson was a fourth-generation resident of the community and remembers her school days at Attucks fondly.
"We all knew each other," Anderson, who was born and raised in Liberia, said. "It would put a smile on your face because you just think about the cheerleading squad, we had a football team, we had an awesome band. "
Actress Eartha Kitt visited the high school in 1963 to help fund a new swimming pool.
In 1970, public schools in Florida were desegregated and officials turned Attucks into a middle school.
When Anderson started going to what’s now called Hollywood Hills High School, she remembers facing racism outside the neighborhood the first time when taking the bus to school.
"We didn’t know that we were going to get egged on the school bus. And eggs started coming in and we had eggs all over us, so we tried to go in the bathroom, clean up, but we didn't get egged anymore because we had those windows up when we came through," she said.
Community leader
The historic Hollywood Beach Resort in Hollywood proper would not allow Black visitors and other minorities for much of its early history, so Liberia was a place where Black Hollywood residents could go to live away from discrimination.
Anderson spent decades being a community leader and an activist — she even helped rename streets that were dedicated to confederate generals and a Ku Klux Klan leader. A couple of those streets were located in Liberia.
When when Anderson ran successfully for office in 2020m, Hollywood had its first Black commissioner — after 95 years. She also became the city’s vice mayor. Her term ended November 2024.
Now Anderson has sold her house to move in with her mother, whom she takes care of, and live closer to her son, in another part of South Florida.
"I would love to come back and look in the neighborhood and make sure that the same houses is there, people that I know that either their children are living there or somebody in the family," Anderson said.
"People took pride in their houses. They looked out for each other. And that's what this neighborhood is about, helping each other."
In the modern day, Liberia has been able to mostly maintain its small neighborhood feel, with primarily single-family homes within its small footprint. Apartment buildings and hotels have cropped up over the years.
Anderson and George advocated for historical markers to be put up in Liberia so after 100 years, Hollywood doesn’t lose the neighborhood’s important century-long story.
In February, the State of Florida made that dream a reality with a marker commemorating the community's history.
