Little Haiti is located in Miami, FL in the United States. The area’s historical names include Edison, Lemon City, Little River and Little River. It is home to many Haitian immigrants, as well as other immigrants from the Caribbean.
Little Haiti is the well-known area where exiles from Haiti settled. It is known for its French-Creole names, street activity, art galleries and dance performances.
Because of the rich cultural heritage of the Caribbean immigrants who have brought life to Little Haiti, it has become a vibrant hub in Miami’s arts community. Over the past decade, small businesses like record shops, kitsch bars and authentic eateries have slowly made their way into Little Haiti, creating their own unique patchwork within the neighborhoods of Little River, Little Haiti, and the newly christened Little Haiti.
A bronze statue measuring 13 feet tall, depicting General Toussaint Le’Ouverture (known as the “Father in the Haitian Revolution”), is located at the corner of N Miami Avenue & 62nd Street.
The neighborhood today called Little Haiti was once known as Lemon City for more than 100 years. A small group of people settled in Biscayne Bay north of the Miami River after the Civil War to occupy unclaimed land. Some of the homestead permits were granted to some of the squatters who had been squatting on unclaimed land. A hamlet was soon established with a “Motto” post office.
In 1893, “Lemon City” was replaced by “Motto” in the official title of the community. Lemon City had a school that opened in 1890. It also had multiple businesses, a newspaper and port facilities on Biscayne bay. Miami quickly surpassed Lemon City’s importance after the Florida East Coast Railway’s extension was completed to Miami in 1896.
Viter Juste, a Haitian activist, businessman and community leader, coined the nickname Little Haiti. He hails from the capital. Jean-Claude Exulien is a retired historian who has known Juste from 1977 and has been a close friend since 1977. Juste published an article on the Miami Herald in which he first called the neighborhood “Little Port-au-Prince,” marking that the term was first used. The Miami Herald editors thought that the name “Little Port-au-Prince”, was too long so they used the short term “Little Haiti” as the headline.
In May 2016, the City of Miami commissioners voted to designate Little Haiti an official neighborhood despite opposition from a variety of groups including historians and African-Americans. Its borders overlap with Edison and Lemon City, both of which were established by Bahamian immigrants prior to Miami’s establishment. It is a little south of Miami Shores, FL and north of Princeton, FL.
