

Once-prosperous sections of Belle Glade have over time turned to blight. During the 50s and 60s, they came over from Barbados. "I grew up on the bottom side of 5th Street. Colin Walkes grew up in Belle Glade right on 5th street. And The Muck became the epicenter of what would become mainstream college football.BELLE GLADE, Fla. Programs begin to swing their attention to the bigger, faster, stronger athlete. Michael Jordan was the best athlete, Eddie Murphy was the most sought out actor, Michael Jackson was the world’s greatest entertainer, the list of African American in the lime light continued to grow by the day.Īnother landscaping change was the manifestation of the collegiate football television empire.

This opportunity for the first time was attainable by all minorities.
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The 80’s across the country was marked by the dawn of the new age of the American dream for African Americans and The Muck minorities took full advantage. A period where schools where created, blacks could participate in playoff championships, and where The Muck began its high school football dominance. The foundation of what Muck City football is today. Outside of being labeled the Aids capital of the world and the creation of many prisons, the 80's was transformation of the glades when it comes to all things football. The formulation of Glades Central and influx of African American athletes laid the foundation for the future of NFL athletes to come out of this area. This success was instrumental in helping the community to take steps forward by allowing African Americans players to compete alongside whites for state championships, which was not allowed to the black schools prior to this period. Back to Back state titles in football would come in short order after the school’s formation. The racial tension of combining the two schools would be overshadowed only by the outstanding dominance of the newly formed Glades Central athletic program. Two local schools Lake Shore Middle-Senior High and Belle Glade High of the muck were prime targets for desegregation and formulated into becoming one school now known as Glades Central High School. Desegregation efforts in 1971 were made to combat racism and try to bring uniformity and peace to black and white communities by combining schools. Martin Luther King Jr., Malcolm X, and many others that had been gun downed or slain during the past decade. With the dark days of the sixties looming over the country embracing the deaths of many civil rights advocates in the black community like Dr. Initially called the Resettlement Administration, the FSA set up camps for workers with improved amenities and education for families, offering a modicum of comfort in a hard, dusty life around the glades. One government agency that did help was the Farm Security Administration. Most of the new deal legislation that benefited industrial workers did little for itinerant farmers. With fickle harvests and lopsided contracts migratory workers were going wherever crops were being grown as the seasons changed. Living conditions were dismal and by the late 1930s, there were about 300,000 migrant workers roaming the country in search of employment which led many of them to Florida and the glades region.īlack migrants including Jamaicans and Mexicans were particularly hard-pressed to find work. Migrant workers had little government protection and were isolated from the communities they traveled through. To this day the memory of those lost still survive in the minds and hearts of locals with memorials around town reminding of the devastation of 1928.Īfter the abolition of slavery in the United States migrant workers emerged as a system of agricultural labor in the South. This hurricane would lead to the flood waters of lake Okeechobee spilling over and taking over 2,500 lives in the glades community. The Flood of 1928 took an outstanding number of lives from a single storm. After tallying the votes, it was clear that the town should be called Belle Glade since that settlement was known asĭuring that very year in the newly named town only six months later, the city of “Belle Glade” and the surrounding community including Pahokee, South Bay & Clewiston was hit with one of the largest hurricanes in the history of the United States. The suggestions receiving the most votes would be the deciding factor on what the new name of the glades largest town would be called. The more colorful version of the story behind the naming of the glades largest city suggest that a blackboard was placed in the middle of this lobby so locals could write their suggestions on the board. If we could rewind time to six months prior to the largest storm to ever hit the glades, we could bring you right into the lobby of a local hotel where the city of Belle Glade was given its name.
