TAMPA, Fla. — Over the next week, we’ll be highlighting the impact African Americans have had on the Tampa Bay area. You’ll hear about historical Black figures and places that helped to make Tampa Bay what it is today.
Fred Hearns, a historian with the Tampa History Center, highlights Central Avenue, a former African American community and business district.
“Central Avenue began developing in the 1890s as the Black business district in Tampa,” said Hearns. Hearns said Black people faced discrimination and weren’t welcomed in many of the stores downtown.
“Originally, there were about seven businesses that opened in the 1890s on Central Avenue, and as the cigar industry brought more and more people to Tampa and as the railroad brought more and more people, there were Blacks who came with these folks, and if they knew anything about Tampa, they knew where Central Avenue was,” Hearns explained.
Hearns said Central Avenue grew, and by the 1940s, it had more Black residents than any other section in the city of Tampa.
