Overtown in Miami in Miami-Dade County, Florida — The American South (South Atlantic)

Judge Lawson Edward Thomas Law Office

Photographed by Tim Fillmon, July 13, 2023

1. Judge Lawson Edward Thomas Law Office Marker

Inscription. Lawson Edward (L.E.) Thomas (1898-1989) was born in Ocala. He attended Florida A&M College, and later the University of Michigan Law School. He moved to Miami in 1935, and made his first appearance in municipal court in 1937. As the first black attorney in Miami to present a case at trial, the bailiffs forced him to sit at the rear of the courtroom when he arrived to represent his client. Thomas refused, and instead left the courtroom until the judge was at the bench before returning to present the case. During the 1940s, Thomas was involved in multiple groundbreaking civil rights lawsuits. He fought for salary equalization for black teachers in Marion and Lake counties. Thomas led a protest in 1945 over the barring of African Americans from area beaches, which led to the creation of an all-black park on Virginia Key Beach. He also represented black defendants on behalf of the NAACP. In 1950, Thomas was appointed the first judge of the newly-created Negro Municipal Court in Miami, becoming the city’s first black judge, and the first in the South since Reconstruction. After his term, Thomas began his law practice in this

Paid Advertisement

Click or scan to see
this page online

office in the late 1950s, and served the Overtown community for nearly 30 years.
A Florida Heritage Site

Erected 2020 by Mayor Tomas Regalado, The City of Miami in Coordination with Alexander Adams, and the Florida Department of State. (Marker Number F-1124.)

Topics. This historical marker is listed in these topic lists: African Americans • Civil Rights. A significant historical year for this entry is 1937.

Location. 25° 47.051′ N, 80° 11.882′ W. Marker is in Miami, Florida, in Miami-Dade County. It is in Overtown. It is on Northwest 2nd Avenue just south of Northwest 11th Street, on the right when traveling north. Touch for map. Marker is at or near this postal address: 1021 Northwest 2nd Avenue, Miami FL 33136, United States of America. Touch for directions.

Regionally, this marker is in South Florida

and on the Gold Coast.

It is also in the American South

and on the Eastern Seaboard. Globally, it is in the North Atlantic Region,

North America,

a Gulf of Mexico state,

the Western Hemisphere,

the Western World,

and the Anglosphere.

Historically, it finds itself in what was once New Spain,

the territory of the

Photographed by Tim Fillmon, July 13, 2023

2. Judge Lawson Edward Thomas Law Office Marker

Mississippian Culture,

one of the Confederate States of America,

and the Antebellum South.

Other nearby markers. At least 8 other markers are within walking distance of this marker: Overtown Lyric Theater (about 500 feet away, measured in a direct line); The Historic Negro Police Precinct & Courthouse Museum: The First Five (approx. 0.3 miles away); Lummus Park Historic District (approx. 0.6 miles away); The Art Deco Tower (approx. 0.6 miles away); Fort Dallas and the William F. English Plantation Slave Quarters (approx. 0.6 miles away); Wagner Homestead (approx. 0.6 miles away); The Tower of Snow (approx. 0.6 miles away); Port of Miami (approx. 0.7 miles away). Touch for a list and map of all markers in Miami.

Also see . . . Lawson Thomas. (Submitted on July 24, 2023, by Tim Fillmon of Webster, Florida.)

Credits. This page was last revised on July 24, 2023. It was originally submitted on July 24, 2023, by Tim Fillmon of Webster, Florida. This page has been viewed 723 times since then and 31 times this year. Photos: 1, 2. submitted on July 24, 2023, by Tim Fillmon of Webster, Florida.