Recapturing Lost Images: Narratives of a Black Business Enclave

Abstract

When the material culture of a community is dislodged, displaced, or demolished, it is easy to forget the more abstract components of the defunct community that made it functional, active, and vital. This is especially true when a gradual but seemingly inevitable deterioration of the community's most formidable social symbols precedes its ultimate physical destruction. Moreover, it is easy to forget the history, overlook the purposes, and diminish the value of the community when larger political forces adamantly justify the community's demise in the name of change, modernization, and urban progress. Thus is the cultural and political history of Tampa's Central Avenue. Similar to other urban Black business districts (such as those established in Miami, Florida and Tulsa, Oklahoma), Central Avenue served the needs of Black consumers during the long, difficult years of social segregation accompanied by limited consumer and mercantile options. With the passage of time, the old buildings that housed a variety of businesses began to deteriorate. Yet more devastating than those remediable problems associated with dilapidated buildings, were the multiple social ills that accompany poverty, racial unrest, and opportunistic political decisions. By the early 1970s, Urban Renewal plans dictated the destruction of all buildings and the area was gradually leveled. The blues and jazz clubs were no longer alive with the music of performers like B.B. King, Dinah Washington, Ray Charles, and Bobby Blue Bland, and the Sunday fashion parades down Central became merely the subject of nostalgic conversations. As they packed up their memories, former business owners sadly marveled at what appeared to be the end of an era for Black Tampa.