Belle Glade, Florida | |
---|---|
City of Belle Glade | |
Nickname: | |
Motto: Her Soil is Her Fortune | |
Coordinates: 26°41′7″N80°40′17″W / 26.68528°N 80.67139°W | |
Country | United States |
State | Florida |
County | Palm Beach |
Settled (Hillsboro Settlement) | c. 1912–April 8, 1928 [3] [4] [5] [6] [7] [8] |
Incorporated (Town of Belle Glade) | April 9, 1928 [3] [4] [5] [6] [7] [8] |
Incorporated (City of Belle Glade) | September 11, 1945 [3] [4] [5] [6] [7] [8] |
Government | |
• Type | Commissioner-Manager |
• Mayor | Steve B. Wilson |
• Vice Mayor | Joaquin Almazan |
• Commissioners | Mary Ross Wilkerson, Andrew L. Berry, and City Treasurer Zayteck D. Marin |
• City Manager | Diana Hughes |
• City Clerk | Jessica Figueroa |
Area | |
• Total | 7.03 sq mi (18.21 km2) |
• Land | 6.97 sq mi (18.06 km2) |
• Water | 0.06 sq mi (0.15 km2) |
Elevation | 16 ft (5 m) |
Population (2020) | |
• Total | 16,698 |
• Density | 2,395.01/sq mi (924.66/km2) |
Time zone | UTC-5 (Eastern (EST)) |
• Summer (DST) | UTC-4 (EDT) |
ZIP code | 33430 |
Area code(s) | 561, 728 |
FIPS code | 12-05200 [11] |
GNIS feature ID | 0278445 [10] |
Website | http://www.bellegladegov.com/ |
Belle Glade is a city in south-central Florida and it is the far western part of Palm Beach County, Florida, United States, on the southeastern shore of Lake Okeechobee. It is part of the Miami metropolitan area of South Florida. According to the 2020 U.S. Census, the city had a population of 16,698, down from 17,467 in the 2010 census.
Belle Glade (and the surrounding area) is sometimes referred to as "Muck City" due to the large quantity of muck, in which sugarcane grows, found in the area. [1] Despite being located in the South Florida region of the state, Belle Glade is culturally more associated with the Florida Heartland.
For a time during the early to mid 1980s, the city had the highest rate of AIDS infection per capita (37 cases in a population of roughly 19,000) in the United States. [12] According to the FBI, in 2003, the city had the second highest violent crime rate in the country at 298 per 10,000 residents.[ citation needed ] In 2010, the Palm Beach County sheriff's office estimated that half of the young men in Belle Glade between the ages of 18 and 25 had felony convictions. [13]
The Belle Glade or Okeechobee culture was an archaeological culture that extended around Lake Okeechobee and included the lower Kissimmee River valley. It existed from as early as 1000 BCE until about 1700 CE. The culture is named for the Belle Glade site, which was excavated in the mid-1930s as part of a Civil Works Administration project. The Belle Glade site included a midden and a burial mound. [14] [15]
The town of Belle Glade was founded during the Florida land boom of the 1920s. [16] During that period, there were a series of efforts made to put in place drainage systems to reclaim dry land from the Everglades, including land around Lake Okeechobee. It was hoped that the reclaimed acreage could be put to better use, including agriculture. In 1921 the Florida legislature established an agricultural research station at Belle Glade to study methods of growing crops on reclaimed Everglades land. At that time, there were already 16 settlements on and around Lake Okeechobee, inhabited by around 2,000 people. [17]
A settlement, originally named Hillsboro, was built at what is now Belle Glade in 1925. [18] In 1926 the Florida East Coast Railway extended its system to Belle Glade, which helped the town's development. [19] [20]
A powerful hurricane struck the area on September 16, 1928. The storm winds caused Lake Okeechobee to overflow its banks, inundating towns around the lake and causing widespread damage in Belle Glade. According to figures compiled by the Florida Department of Health, the storm killed 611 people in Belle Glade alone, and a total of over 1,800 statewide. Contemporary accounts stated that most of the dead were Black migrant farmworkers, a "large percentage" of whom were believed to be from the Bahamas. [21] Belle Glade was rebuilt, and a large dike was erected to protect towns around the lake from storm-driven overflows.
German prisoners of war were confined in camps located at Belle Glade and nearby Clewiston during World War II. [22]
In the early 1980s, researchers began to notice a large number of people with AIDS in Belle Glade. The disease had first been identified by doctors in New York and California in 1981, and it was largely associated with communities of gay men in and around large cities. In Belle Glade, however, people with AIDS mainly identified as heterosexual, and around half were women. Some researchers, and notably Dr. Mark Whiteside and Dr. Carolyn MacLeod of the Institute of Tropical Medicine, in Miami, hypothesized that AIDS in Belle Glade might be connected to poverty and poor living conditions in the city's "colored town," where many people diagnosed with the disease also lived. Their theory, along with the very high per capita AIDS rate in Belle Glade, brought notoriety to the town as the "AIDS capital of the world." Whiteside and MacLeod's theory turned out to be incorrect, but subsequent research conducted in Belle Glade shaped scientific knowledge about the transmission of HIV, the virus that causes AIDS, through heterosexual sex. [23]
Today, the area around Lake Okeechobee is fertile and farming is an important industry. Sugar cane and vegetables are grown. [24]
Migrant farmworkers are an important part of the labor force. Belle Glade received national attention when a 1960 CBS television documentary, Harvest of Shame , graphically depicted the local migrant farmerworkers' daily existence and working conditions. [25] [26]
Men and women still gather around 5 a.m. in the same lot you see at the beginning of Harvest of Shame, waiting for buses to take them to the fields. The "loading ramp," as it's called, is a bleak, empty lot, surrounded by some small buildings with bars on the windows and a boarded up storefront. [27]
As of May 2014 the city has plans "to demolish the loading ramp and turn it into a park." [27]
The town is known for its football tradition, and together with nearby Pahokee has "sent at least 60 players to the National Football League". [2]
According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of 4.7 square miles (12 km2), of which 4.7 square miles (12 km2) are land and 0.21% is water.
Climate data for Belle Glade, Florida, 1991–2020 normals, extremes 1924–2006 | |||||||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Month | Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec | Year |
Record high °F (°C) | 90 (32) | 92 (33) | 93 (34) | 95 (35) | 99 (37) | 98 (37) | 100 (38) | 99 (37) | 97 (36) | 96 (36) | 91 (33) | 89 (32) | 100 (38) |
Mean daily maximum °F (°C) | 75.9 (24.4) | 78.7 (25.9) | 81.7 (27.6) | 86.0 (30.0) | 89.2 (31.8) | 91.1 (32.8) | 92.3 (33.5) | 92.3 (33.5) | 90.8 (32.7) | 87.3 (30.7) | 81.4 (27.4) | 77.9 (25.5) | 85.4 (29.7) |
Daily mean °F (°C) | 63.9 (17.7) | 65.9 (18.8) | 69.3 (20.7) | 73.2 (22.9) | 77.5 (25.3) | 80.9 (27.2) | 82.4 (28.0) | 82.5 (28.1) | 81.4 (27.4) | 77.3 (25.2) | 70.8 (21.6) | 66.7 (19.3) | 74.3 (23.5) |
Mean daily minimum °F (°C) | 51.8 (11.0) | 53.1 (11.7) | 56.9 (13.8) | 60.5 (15.8) | 65.9 (18.8) | 70.7 (21.5) | 72.4 (22.4) | 72.7 (22.6) | 72.0 (22.2) | 67.3 (19.6) | 60.1 (15.6) | 55.6 (13.1) | 63.3 (17.4) |
Record low °F (°C) | 21 (−6) | 27 (−3) | 27 (−3) | 33 (1) | 44 (7) | 54 (12) | 62 (17) | 61 (16) | 60 (16) | 39 (4) | 32 (0) | 24 (−4) | 21 (−6) |
Average precipitation inches (mm) | 2.27 (58) | 1.90 (48) | 3.03 (77) | 2.14 (54) | 4.55 (116) | 9.49 (241) | 7.01 (178) | 8.63 (219) | 7.29 (185) | 4.26 (108) | 2.55 (65) | 2.10 (53) | 55.22 (1,402) |
Average precipitation days (≥ 0.01 in) | 9.1 | 7.3 | 7.6 | 7.6 | 8.6 | 16.2 | 17.0 | 17.1 | 17.5 | 11.7 | 7.7 | 7.8 | 135.2 |
Source 1: NOAA [28] | |||||||||||||
Source 2: XMACIS2 [29] |
Census | Pop. | Note | %± |
---|---|---|---|
1930 | 926 | — | |
1940 | 3,806 | 311.0% | |
1950 | 7,219 | 89.7% | |
1960 | 11,273 | 56.2% | |
1970 | 15,949 | 41.5% | |
1980 | 16,535 | 3.7% | |
1990 | 16,177 | −2.2% | |
2000 | 14,906 | −7.9% | |
2010 | 17,467 | 17.2% | |
2020 | 16,698 | −4.4% | |
U.S. Decennial Census [30] |
Race | Number | Percentage |
---|---|---|
White (NH) | 1,091 | 6.53% |
Black or African American (NH) | 9,432 | 56.49% |
Native American or Alaska Native (NH) | 3 | 0.02% |
Asian (NH) | 77 | 0.46% |
Pacific Islander or Native Hawaiian (NH) | 3 | 0.02% |
Some other race (NH) | 31 | 0.19% |
Two or more races/Multiracial (NH) | 259 | 1.55% |
Hispanic or Latino (any race) | 5,802 | 34.75% |
Total | 16,698 |
As of the 2020 United States census, there were 16,698 people, 6,324 households, and 4,052 families residing in the city. [32]
Belle Glade Demographics | |||
---|---|---|---|
2010 Census | Belle Glade | Palm Beach County | Florida |
Total population | 17,467 | 1,320,134 | 18,801,310 |
Population, percent change, 2000 to 2010 | +17.2% | +16.7% | +17.6% |
Population density | 3,109.0/sq mi | 670.2/sq mi | 350.6/sq mi |
White or Caucasian (including White Hispanic) | 31.1% | 73.5% | 75.0% |
(Non-Hispanic White or Caucasian) | 8.8% | 60.1% | 57.9% |
Black or African-American | 56.3% | 17.3% | 16.0% |
Hispanic or Latino (of any race) | 34.2% | 19.0% | 22.5% |
Asian | 0.5% | 2.4% | 2.4% |
Native American or Native Alaskan | 0.2% | 0.5% | 0.4% |
Pacific Islander or Native Hawaiian | 0.2% | 0.1% | 0.1% |
Two or more races (Multiracial) | 2.0% | 2.3% | 2.5% |
Some Other Race | 9.7% | 3.9% | 3.6% |
As of the 2010 United States census, there were 17,467 people, 5,832 households, and 3,879 families residing in the city. [33]
In 2000, 39.0% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 40.9% were married couples living together, 22.0% had a female householder with no husband present, and 29.3% were non-families. 23.3% of all households were made up of individuals, and 6.1% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 3.04 and the average family size was 3.62.
In 2000, the population was spread out, with 33.5% under the age of 18, 10.0% from 18 to 24, 27.1% from 25 to 44, 20.7% from 45 to 64, and 8.7% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 30 years. For every 100 females, there were 103.5 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 102.6 males.
In 2000, the median income for a household in the city was $22,715, and the median income for a family was $26,756. Males had a median income of $26,232 versus $21,410 for females. The per capita income for the city was $11,159. About 28.5% of families and 32.9% of the population were below the poverty line, including 41.1% of those under age 18 and 21.4% of those age 65 or over.
As of 2000, speakers of English as a first language accounted for 61.03% of all residents, while Spanish as a mother tongue consisted of 26.87%, Haitian Creole comprised 11.00%, and French made up 1.07% of the population. [34]
As of 2000, Belle Glade had the tenth highest percentage of Haitian residents in the United States, at 11.50% of the populace. [35] It also had the sixtieth highest percentage of Cuban residents nationally, at 5.98% of the population. [36]
The cane sugar mill of the "Sugar Cane Growers Cooperative" (SCGC) is located at Belle Glade. During the crop season the factory employs 550 people. [37]
As of Feb. 2013, the official unemployment rate was about 15%; however, the town's mayor suggested the actual unemployment rate was closer to 40%. The number of jobs available locally dropped as local agriculture shifted from vegetables to sugarcane, a more highly mechanized crop. [13]
The United States Postal Service operates the Belle Glade Post Office. [38]
The Florida Department of Corrections operated the Glades Correctional Institution in an unincorporated area in Palm Beach County near Belle Glade. [39] It was founded in 1932, employed about 350, had a capacity of 918 inmates [39] and was scheduled for closure in December 2011. [40]
The Lake Okeechobee Scenic Trail runs through Belle Glade.
School District of Palm Beach County operates public schools.
In CBS Reports' 1960 program Harvest of Shame , Belle Glade plays a prominent role as a source of migrant agricultural labor.
The final scenes of the crime novel Pretty Little Things by Jilliane Hoffman take place in a sugarcane plantation near Belle Glade.
The high school football culture of Belle Glade is the subject of the non-fiction book, Muck City: Winning and Losing in Football's Forgotten Town by author Bryan Mealer.
The psychedelic pop band of Montreal released a track titled, "Belle Glade Missionaries" on their 2013 album, Lousy with Sylvianbriar.
In Zora Neale Hurston's novel Their Eyes Were Watching God , characters Janie and Tea Cake join other African American migrant workers in picking beans in Belle Glade.
The refinery scenes from Empire of the Ants (1977) were shot in Belle Glade. [52]
Hendry County is a county in the Florida Heartland region of the U.S. state of Florida. As of the 2020 census, the population was 39,619, a 1.2% increase from 39,140 at the 2010 census. The county is majority-Hispanic or Latino. Its county seat is LaBelle.
Palm Beach County is a county in the southeastern part of Florida, located in the Miami metropolitan area. It is Florida's third-most populous county after Miami-Dade County and Broward County and the 26th-most populous in the United States, with 1,492,191 residents as of the 2020 census. Its county seat and largest city is West Palm Beach, which had a population of 117,415 as of 2020. Named after one of its oldest settlements, Palm Beach, the county was established in 1909, after being split from Miami-Dade County. The county's modern-day boundaries were established in 1963.
Canal Point is a census-designated place (CDP) and unincorporated community in Palm Beach County, Florida, United States. It is part of the Miami metropolitan area of South Florida despite its local culture and location being way more similar to the Florida Heartland. Canal Point has a population of 344 people counted in the 2020 US census.
Lake Harbor is a census-designated place (CDP) in Palm Beach County, Florida, United States. It is part of the Miami metropolitan area of South Florida despite being physically and culturally closer to the Florida Heartland. The population was 49 at the 2020 US census.
Pahokee is a city located on the shore of Lake Okeechobee in Palm Beach County, Florida, United States. It is part of the Miami metropolitan area of South Florida. The population was 5,524 in the 2020 census.
Belle Glade may refer to:
The Jaega were Native Americans living in a chiefdom of the same name, which included the coastal parts of present-day Martin County and northern Palm Beach County, Florida at the time of initial European contact, and until the 18th century. The name Jobé, or Jové, has been identified as a synonym of Jaega, a sub-group of the Jaega, or a town of the Jaega.
The Belle Glade culture, or Okeechobee culture, is an archaeological culture that existed from as early as 1000 BCE until about 1700 CE in the area surrounding Lake Okeechobee and in the Kissimmee River valley in the Florida Peninsula.
State Road 717 (SR 717) is a 1.7-mile-long (2.7 km) northwest-southeast road in Belle Glade, Palm Beach County, Florida, also known as Canal Street.
The Glades culture is an archaeological culture in southernmost Florida that lasted from about 500 BCE until shortly after European contact. Its area included the Everglades, the Florida Keys, the Atlantic coast of Florida north through present-day Martin County and the Gulf coast north to Marco Island in Collier County. It did not include the area around Lake Okeechobee, which was part of the Belle Glade culture.
Florida's 20th congressional district is a U.S. congressional district in Southeast Florida. It is currently held by Democrat Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick, who was elected in a January 2022 special election, following the death of Alcee Hastings on April 6, 2021. With a Cook Partisan Voting Index (CPVI) rating of D+25, it is one of the most Democratic districts in Florida.
Jessie Lee Hester is an American former professional football player who was a wide receiver for 11 years in the National Football League (NFL). Hester played for the Los Angeles Raiders, Atlanta Falcons, Indianapolis Colts, and the Los Angeles / St. Louis Rams from 1985 to 1995. He played college football at Florida State.
The Florida Heartland is a region of Florida located to the north and west of Lake Okeechobee, composed of six inland, predominantly rural counties—DeSoto, Glades, Hardee, Hendry, Highlands, and Okeechobee. In 2020, The US Census Bureau recorded the population of the Florida Heartland region at 251,927. The most populous county in the region is Highlands County. Highlands County also contains the region's two largest cities - Avon Park and Sebring. Unlike the coastal areas to the east and west, the rural nature of the Florida Heartland is culturally similar to that of the Florida panhandle and the Deep South in general rather than the rest of South Florida. The Florida Heartland region was originally settled and inhabited by Americans of predominantly English ancestry during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. While located in Palm Beach County, the nearby rural cities of South Bay, Belle Glade and Pahokee as well as the census-designated place of Lake Harbor, located on the southeastern shore of Lake Okeechobee, are more associated with the Florida Heartland than the remainder of South Florida. The same could also apply to the Collier County communities of Immokalee, Ave Maria and Harker as well as to the Martin County community of Port Mayaca. Occasionally included are the southern Polk County communities of Fort Meade, Frostproof and River Ranch as well as Yeehaw Junction in Osceola County.
Glades Central Community High School is a high school in Belle Glade, Florida. In the 2014–15 school year its enrollment numbered 992 students. The school was a football powerhouse. In 2001, the New York Times reported that Glades Central had produced more current National Football League players than any other high school in the country with 7 during the 2001 season. The school has a football rivalry with fellow powerhouse Pahokee High School.
Kreamer Island is a small island in the south-easternmost part of Lake Okeechobee, located in Palm Beach County, Florida just north of Torry Island.
Okeelanta is an unincorporated community in Palm Beach County, Florida, United States, located approximately 4 miles (7 km) south of South Bay on U.S. Route 27 at County Road 827. It was originally developed as a planned community in the 1910s, but had effectively disappeared by the end of the 1920s. The name is a portmanteau of Lake Okeechobee and Atlantic Ocean.
The Lawrence E. Will Museum, governed by the Glades Historical Society, is a museum of local history located in Belle Glade, Florida.
Kelvin Benjamin is an American former professional football player who was a wide receiver in the National Football League (NFL). He played college football for the Florida State Seminoles and was selected by the Carolina Panthers in the first round of the 2014 NFL draft. He also played for the Buffalo Bills and Kansas City Chiefs.
The effects of the 1928 Okeechobee hurricane in Florida included at least 2,500 fatalities in the state, making this the second deadliest tropical cyclone on record in the contiguous United States, behind only the 1900 Galveston hurricane, as well as the deadliest weather event on the East Coast of the United States. The storm originated from a tropical depression that developed near Senegal on September 6. Traversing westward across the Atlantic Ocean, the cyclone struck the Lesser Antilles, Puerto Rico, and the Bahamas as a powerful hurricane. Early on September 17, the storm made landfall near Palm Beach, Florida, as a Category 4 hurricane on the modern-day Saffir–Simpson scale. After initially moving northwestward across Florida, the cyclone curved north-northeastward near the Tampa Bay area. The hurricane briefly re-emerged into the Atlantic prior to striking South Carolina on September 18 and becoming extratropical over North Carolina on the next day, before the remnants lost their identity over Ontario on September 21.
Chosen is a ghost town in Palm Beach County, Florida near Belle Glade, Florida and Lake Okeechobee. The deadly 1928 Okeechobee hurricane devastated the area.
In Muck City, football is salvation, an escape from the likelihood of prison or early death.
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: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)High School: Glades Central (Belle Glade, FL)
High School: Glades Central (Belle Glade, FL)