In my family, eating dessert before dinner happened on Sunday after a long day at church. First a quick breakfast before Sunday School, church, then meetings with the usher board, deacons, and deaconesses. Ice cream was my reward in the Miami community where I was born and grew up, Colored Town now called Overtown.

Over time, there were numerous Black owned ice cream parlors. As early as 1915, Gedar Walker built one next to the Lyric Theater. Years later Baby Coombs and Arthur King both had popular ice cream parlors in the area.

For many years, Arthur and Louise McQueen’s Sundry Store and Ice cream Parlor was a favorite spot for ice cream and to find “knick knacks.” Their son, James McQueen, is the Executive Director of the City of Miami’s Southeast Overtown/Park West CRA.

The Black owned restaurants located in Miami’s Overtown were mostly family businesses. They specialized in home cooked food from either the southern states or from the Bahamas. A good mix, both cuisines provided food for our souls. Highlighted in this article are several whose legacies continue in our community through their descendants.

Attorney HT Smith is a grandnephew of Edmund (Ed) and Willie Ann Polite, owners of Polite’s Restaurant. “ I helped out at the restaurant – sweeping, washing dishes, bussing tables, and taking out the garbage,” HT said. “In exchange, I got to eat as much of that great soul food as I could. However, I was never a salaried employee.”

He continued, “My favorite dishes included fried chicken, chitterlings, collard greens, black eyed peas, lima beans, peach cobbler, bread pudding, and sweet tea. Uncle Ed and Aunt Willie Ann Polite always encouraged me to stay in school, make good grades, go to college, get a great paying job doing something I loved, and take good care of my family.”

HT Smith followed their advice. After finishing college and becoming an attorney, he later became President of the National Bar Association from August 1994 to August 1995. He is the Founding Director of the Trial Advocacy Program at Florida International University College of Law and Chairman of the Gwen Cherry Park Foundation.

Margaret Jane Thompson Mackey opened one of the first Bahamian restaurants the same year the US stock market crashed in 1929. With skill and passion as cook and hostess, she grew the restaurant into a destination for residents and a magnet for tourists. Mackey’s Seafood Cafe served Everyday Specials including boiled fish and grits, stewed fish and grits, corn bread, potato bread, biscuits, coleslaw, and potato salad. Stewed conch, bar-be-que oven cooked ribs, souse and peach cobbler were also on the menu. Each plate cost less than one dollar.

For decades, Margaret gave back to our community in many ways. She generously fed the homeless, and supported church groups and school bands. Celebrities including Mohammed Ali, Les Brown, and Sir Lancelot Jones were frequent customers. Jones was a bone fishing guide in the Florida Keys.

Margaret’s passion and sense of purpose was an inspiration to her five children and ten grandchildren. Their many accomplishments in education, business and county government are a lasting testament to her love and support.

Margaret’s oldest daughter, Sarah, helped at the restaurant while in high school. According to Margaret’s granddaughter Antoinette C. Woods Miller, when Margaret became ill, “Sarah continued operating the seafood cafe from 1965 until 1968 when the Urban Renewal Project was built on the original location of the restaurant.”

Several years ago, Antoinette took the lead. She published an informative booklet highlighting her grandmother’s struggles and successes and with her sister Andrea Anita Woods Pratt. They requested the City of Miami name a street honoring their grandmother. The dedication was January 11, 2023, in Overtown with joint resolutions from Miami-Dade County and the City of Miami.

Soul food continues to be enjoyed in Overtown and beyond. I am proud that Overtown restaurants will participate at the 2025 Food Network South Beach Wine & Food Festival (SOBEWFF). Our very own Chef Karim Bryant of Lil Greenhouse Grill will be participating in this event: https://sobewff.org/personality/karim-bryant/

And Chef Marcus Sammuelson is hosting Overtown EatUp! https://corporate.sobewff.org/overtown/?t=g

Dorothy Jenkins Fields, Ph.D., is a publican historian and founder of the Black Archives, History & Research Foundation of South Florida Inc.
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