TAMPA — Central Avenue was once the hippest place in Tampa. It’s where Ray Charles made his first recording and where Hank Ballard discovered “The Twist,” the dance that inspired his song popularized by Chubby Checker. Duke Ellington and Ella Fitzgerald also regularly performed there. But nothing remains of Central Avenue today. “So much of the hardscape of the African American community has .
Fred Hearns, a historian with the Tampa History Center, highlights a former African American community in Tampa named after the Black businessman who started it.
Some residents in the Hyde Park area of Tampa want to expand local historic district designation and protection to include where a formerly thriving Black neighborhood once existed.