Every month is Black History Month, and Tampa is an endless well of opportunity for anyone looking to get learned. Fred Hearns, curator of Black history at the Tampa Bay History Center and Tampa’s Black History Museum, is the ultimate resource and he invites the community to East Tampa for a walk though College Hill, one of the city’s most important neighborhoods.
“In the late 1800s, Black families began purchasing lots in the area after being promised that a college for Black students would be built nearby. The college never opened, but the community continued to grow. By the late 1920s, more than 5,000 Black residents called College Hill home,” organizers say.
The 90-minute tour covers eight city blocks and meets at C. Blythe Andrews Jr. Public Library and will visit Belmont Heights Estates, the little league fields that produced Dwight “Doc” Gooden and Gary Sheffield, plus the more than 100-year-old Memorial Park Cemetery which is the final resting place of many of Tampa’s Black leaders.
College Hill Black History Walking Tour
Time Sat., Sept. 12, 10-11:30 a.m. 2026
Location C. Blythe Andrews Jr. Public Library, 2607 E. Dr. MLK, Jr. Boulevard, Tampa
Description Explore the Black history of College Hill, one of East Tampa’s most significant historic neighborhoods. In the late 1800s, Black families began purchasing lots in anticipation of a college that was never built. Despite that unfulfilled promise, College Hill grew into a thriving community of more than 5,000 residents by the 1920s. Along the route, guests will visit Middleton High School, the Lee Davis Community Resource Center, the Florida Sentinel Bulletin, the Cyrus Greene Recreation Center and two historic African American cemeteries, College Hill and Memorial Park.
This article appears in Sept. 03 – 09, 2026.
