In honor of Black History Month, here’s a photo from around 1960. Besides the cool vintage TPD squad car, think of the difficulties these officers must have faced when this photo was taken. Their beat was in the Central Avenue Business District, or The Scrub, Tampa’s first and largest African-American neighborhood. The 1960s was a time of great racial tension in Tampa, culminating in a riot in 1967 after a police officer shot and killed 19-year-old Martin Chambers, a black man who was suspected of robbing a camera warehouse.  The riots sealed the fate of the remaining business district. The 1960s was a tough time to be in law enforcement in the Central Avenue District. Here’s to these officers and others on the front lines who protected and served Tampa.

The Scrub derived its name when newly freed enslaved people developed the area in a thicket of scrub palmettos just north of town. It was a vibrant community with houses, businesses, theaters, and churches. In the 1950s, the city declared The Scrub a slum after years of neglect and disenfranchisement. In 1951, much of the area was demolished in the name of urban renewal with promises of replacing it with a housing project. Central Park Village, a 500-unit low-rent apartment project, was built as a replacement in the mid-1950s. It was demolished in 2008, and the Encore housing development construction is ongoing.

© Chip Weiner 2024. All rights reserved