TAMPA, Fla. (WFLA) — The Hyde Park that many people in Tampa know and love today looked very different in the early 20th century. There was once a bustling neighborhood that housed 10% of the African Americans in the city called Dobyville.
“We were a family,” recalls 70-year-old former resident Michelle B. Patty. “It didn’t have to be by blood that we cared about one another.”
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The name Dobyville came about because of a Black civic leader named Richard C. Doby who lived in the area and donated real estate for the community. The neighborhood extended several blocks in each direction from his home located at 1405 Azeele Street in West Hyde Park.
Patty attended Dobyville School from first through sixth grade, and fondly remembers her educational experience, although it lacked the resources that other institutions had due to segregation.
“We learned Bible verses before class could start and we had to read and we did our math and we did everything,” she said. “It was a very secure atmosphere.”