The history of South Florida intimately intertwines with America's Black history. In honor of Black History Month, the National Weekly will highlight and celebrate the pioneering Black communities of South Florida, as they struggled with harsh climates and strict segregation to create a legacy that would inspire generations. This week we will focus on Coconut Grove, one of the region's earliest Black communities.

Named after the Coconut Grove post office built by Dr. Horace Porter in 1873, Coconut Grove is the oldest continuously inhabited community of South Florida. Originally an independent city, Coconut Grove was annexed to the City of Miami in 1925.

Today's Coconut Grove is a local hotspot of boutiques, top-rated restaurants and night clubs. Yet underneath the newly sprung, glittering store fronts, Coconut Grove still keeps remnants of its pioneering Black Bahamian settlers, which gave birth to a thriving Black community.

Grenadians at home and across the world will be celebrating the 38th anniversary of independence for the Spice Island on February 7. But in South Florida, the Grenada Civic and Cultural Association (GCCA) will be the center of celebrations. For 24 years, the GCCA has made a home for the Grenadian-American Diaspora in South Florida.

The GCCA was founded in Miami by Michel Hood-Julien and Bulah Alexander in 1988, when "there was not much [Grenadian] cultural awareness in the community," says current GCCA president Sherry Peters. The association grew from a small collection of Grenadian-Americans seeking to celebrate Grenadian culture together, to a full cultural and philanthropic organization. The GCCA has help Grenadians both at home and in Florida, from providing book scholarships for Grenadian students attending colleges and universities in the U.S., to shipping school equipment and medical supplies to Grenada.

Today the GCCA is dedicated to providing "social and cultural interaction amongst Grenadians and other national groups in the South Florida area, whereby creating a framework for Grenadians to contribute towards the development of Grenada in the areas of education, health, tourism, culture, artistic endeavor."

In honor of Black History Month, the African-American Research Library and Cultural Center (AARLCC) in Fort Lauderdale will be showing classic 1940s movies for free in their mock-up of the historic Victory Theater.

The event, Fabulous Forties on the Avenue, will show classics such as 1943 "Stormy Weather," staring the iconic Lena Horne and Bill Robinson; the 1943 first all-Black Hollywood musical "Cabin in the Sky;" a classic 1947 feature film "Juke Joint," from pioneering African-American director Spencer Williams; and 1948 Florida thriller "Key Largo," starring Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall. The films will be shown every Saturday in February at 1 p.m.

The mock-up of the Victory Theater is a part of the year long "Fabulous Forties on the Avenue" exhibit – a street recreation of the historic South Florida African-American community of Northwest 5th Avenue of the late 1940s. The exhibit "pays tribute to this iconic stretch of road that motivated generations of Black families to push through the boundaries of segregation and form lasting bonds that led to survival, entrepreneurship and cultural reformation."

The street recreation includes other iconic store fronts from the historic neighborhood. After emerging from the dark Victory Theater, visitors can stroll down NW 5th Avenue past a wide variety of stores, a school and a typical home. The displays include items from the period, ranging from a Victrola phonograph, a Lincoln Continental car and an old-fashion ice box used to keep food cool using blocks of ice, all donated from local members of the community.

On Monday, January 16, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. (MLK) Day, Americans across the nation will commemorate the life and work of the civil rights icon. Dr. King, who was born in 1929, was assassinated in Memphis, Tennessee on April 4, 1968.

Just four days after Dr. King's assassination, his friend, Michigan Congressman John Conyers Jr. proposed legislation to commemorate Dr. King's birthday as a federal holiday. Conyers collected over four million signatures on petitions supporting the bill and, despite Congress' resistance, Conyers, later joined by the late Black Congresswoman Shirley Chisolm, re-entered the legislation each year.

In 1973, Illinois became the first state to officially commemorate Dr. King's birthday as a state holiday, followed by Massachusetts and Connecticut.

Eventually, as public pressure mounted, President Ronald Reagan signed the national holiday into law on November 3, 1983. MLK Day however was not enacted as a federal holiday until 1986. Only 27 states and the District of Colombia honored the holiday.

In Arizona, then Governor Evan Mecham attempted to abolish the holiday, but backlash was so strong that in 1991, the NFL threatened to move the 1993 Super Bowl from Phoenix to Pasadena, California. By 1992 Arizona adapted the holiday. By 1993, all 50 states commemorated the holiday.

Sources: www.infoplease.com; www.time.com

Celebrate the great civil rights icon with a myriad of community events taking place here in South Florida.