Fred Hearns leads a College Hill Black History Walking Tour in Tampa, Florida. Credit: Tampa Bay History Center
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.
This article appears in September 03 – 09, 2026.
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