Today the property located on 541 NW 5th avenue near Sistrunk Blvd in Fort Lauderdale may just be an empty field, but this empty field has a rich story and history behind it. That history has much to do with the Victory Theater that was located there. This theater was the first A/C ventilated movie theater in Black Broward County. Movies like “Gone With the Wind” and “Casablanca” lit up the movie screens there. The Victory Theater was the marquee movie theater in Broward for Black folks in the county. Even though Hallandale, Liberia, Danie, and Pompano had movie theaters of their own, the victory was the main place people would frequent. You could go catch a movie with your date, then after that a few doors down you could go to the Windsor club to see the likes of Billie Holiday, Louis Armstrong, Cab Calloway, BB King, and Count Basie performing in front of a packed crowd. Additionally, the Victory Theater also provided locals a place to meet up and hang out together for dance marathons, fashion shows, talent shows and concerts. The end of segregation marked the end of this cultural epicenter as more movie theaters were more accessible due to integration. In 1976, the building was converted into a church. Then in 1989, the city of Fort Lauderdale purchased the property through eminent domain and demolished it to make way for a new development project. There were plans to bring back The Victory Theater but to no avail. Now the land is just an empty field. Always remember the empty lots and fields in Black communities have a deeper story.
Emmanuel George, Hy-Lo News guest columnist, creator of the Black Broward Film Project and the Sistrunk A-Fair (a week-long Black art festival).
