The Miami Dolphins’ 2026 rookie draft class spent last Monday, June 15, touring Historic Overtown alongside members of the Booker T. Washington Senior High School football team as part of the organization’s celebration of Juneteenth.
Overtown, 100 years ago the center of the Black community in Miami, is described by the official website of Greater Miami and Miami Beach as having a cultural expansion in the 1930s that reflected the Harlem Renaissance, at the time serving as a haven to Black stars and artists visiting the city during the Jim Crow era.
In the 1960s, the construction of multiple major highways forcibly relocated the majority Black residents in Overtown by the thousands, ensuring economic decline throughout the area.
Today, the impact and significance of Historic Overtown can be experienced through museums, artistry and food — or in the case of the Dolphins rookies, a tour with local historian Dr. Marvin Dunn.
As part of Dunn’s tour, players enjoyed lunch at Red Rooster Overtown, co-owned by the 2024 Jason Jenkins Corporate Community Pillar Award winner, Derek Fleming. That award was named in remembrance of former Dolphins senior vice president Jason Jenkins, who died in 2022 and was himself a pillar of the South Florida community. The rookies were able to learn more about Overtown’s evolution and community impact through their meeting with Fleming.
Following the tour, the participating Dolphins traveled to Booker T. Washington Senior High School to visit further with the football team as the school celebrates its 100th anniversary.
The June 15 event was part of the franchise’s offseason community programming, which is geared toward building relationships and developing cultural understanding through experiences that inspire change for the better.
It’s notable that the excursion through Overtown was experienced by Dolphins rookies, who come from all over but now have a better sense of a part of their new home, as well as the history that comes with it.
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